John Alden - Biography

Biography

John Alden was among the original settlers of the Plymouth Colony. Although not himself a Pilgrim he had been hired to repair Mayflower while she lay off Southampton, England and decided to journey when she set sail, perhaps with the hope of being prosperous in the New World, or because he wished to follow Priscilla Mullins. John was not the only man who would fall for Priscilla. His friend, military Captain Miles Standish came to love the maiden throughout the long voyage of 1620. A love triangle ensued with the result of John ultimately winning Priscilla's hand. They married on May 12, 1622. That denouement plus Alden's engagement with rivaling Indians who plotted to kill newcomers is told elaborately in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, The Courtship of Miles Standish.

From 1633 until 1675, he was assistant to the governor of the Plymouth Colony, frequently serving as acting governor and also on many juries, including one witch trial.

In 1634, Alden was jailed, in Boston, for a fight at Kenebeck in Maine between members of the Plymouth Colony and the Massachusetts Bay Colony. While Alden did not participate in the fight (which left one person dead) he was the highest-ranking member from Plymouth that the Massachusetts Bay colonists found to arrest. It was only through the intervention of Bradford that he was eventually released.

In later years, Alden became known for his intense dislike of Quakers and Baptists, who were settling on Cape Cod. A letter survives complaining that Alden was too harsh in his dealings with them.