Alden, John

al'den, John (1599-1687), one of the Pilgrim fathers. In England he was a cooper and resided at Southampton. He came to Plymouth in the Mayflower in 1620, and was a man of importance in Plymouth colony for fifty years. He is the suitor of "Priscilla" in Longfellow's The Courtship of Miles Standish. As a matter of history, John Alden was the confidential assistant of Captain Standish and lived in his family. His marriage with Priscilla was the third wedding in the colony. He held various positions of public trust. He served as a member of the council of war. He was for three years the treasurer of the colony and served more than once as its agent. John and Priscilla settled on a farm in Duxbury, where they reared a family of four sons and four daughters. John died in 1687, the last surviving signer of the Mayflower compact. The old Alden farmhouse now standing was built by a grandson of John and Priscilla. See Plymouth; Standish