Monday, March 23, 2015

John Alden, Cooper

The story of John Alden, 

by Susan Page Davis


        My husband and I both had ancestors on the Mayflower, and the two men from whom we are descended seem to have been opposites in character. Today I’ll tell you about the good guy.


        John Alden was about 21 years old when he sailed on the Mayflower. He was not one of the company of Separatists who had been living in Holland. He was working as a cooper in Southhampton, where the Mayflower stopped for provisions before heading across the Atlantic. When he signed on with the ship, he was given the choice to stay in America or return to England, as he pleased. He chose to stay.
 

        Little is known of his life before he came to America. An Alden family residing in Harwich, Essex County, England, was related by marriage to Christopher Jones, the master, or captain, of the Mayflower. It’s possible that John Alden made the connection to the voyage through family.
 

Sculpture by John Rogers, Smithsonian American Art Museum

       John was probably apprenticed to a cooper as a boy to learn his trade. A cooper was a maker of barrels and other containers made of staves and bound by hoops. These included casks, buckets, tubs, butter churns, and many other vessels of special sizes or uses. Some were called tuns, butts, firkins, and hogsheads.

       Many commodities were shipped and stored in barrels. Some of the items on the Mayflower that may have been in barrels include fresh water, gunpowder, and various food supplies. A cooper was a valuable craftsman for the new colony.
 

        In 1622 or 1623, John married fellow Mayflower passenger Priscilla Mullins. She had sailed with her parents and brother, but they had all died during the first winter at Plymouth. Any romance between Priscilla Mullins and Miles Standish was probably a figment of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s imagination. 



Postcard by illustrator Ellen Clapsaddle
       John became a prominent member of the community. He and Priscilla had ten children. I am descended from their son Joseph.
 

        John became an assistant to the governor and was one of the leaders of the Plymouth Colony’s fur trade venture on the Kennebec River in what is now Maine.
       
       A dispute with a trapper outside their company, John Hocking, resulted in Hocking shooting one of Plymouth’s men, Moses Talbot. Hocking was shot by Talbot’s companions, and under Alden’s leadership they continued loading furs. Word of the shootings preceded them, and when they reached Boston with their boat full of furs, John Alden was arrested. He was the captain of the expedition and was perceived as a witness and possible suspect in the Hocking affair.
George H. Boughton's Priscilla and John Alden

       Alden’s arrest outraged his friends at Plymouth, and they sent Miles Standish to speak to Governor Dudley in Boston. Alden was released—and Standish was jailed. No one knows why, really. Maybe it was something Standish said to the governor.

       It took some doing to straighten everything out, but after more witnesses were heard, Standish was released and none of the Plymouth contingent was held responsible.
 

       John Alden was also one of the founders of the town of Duxbury, Mass., north of Plymouth. He and Standish built houses there, perhaps as early as 1629. In 1653, he built the Alden House, which still stands today.

John Alden House in Duxbury, Mass.; photo by Christopher Setterlund

       Alden held many positions in the Plymouth Colony, including the post of treasurer, and was well respected. He died in 1687, at the age of 89, one of the last surviving passengers of the Mayflower.




To enter a drawing for a copy of Susan Page Davis’s book Maine Brides, leave a
comment below, including your contact information.
            Susan Page Davis is the author of more than fifty published novels. A history major, she’s always interested in the unusual happenings of the past. She’s a two-time winner of the Inspirational Readers’ Choice Award, and also a winner of the Carol Award and the Will Rogers Medallion, and a finalist in the WILLA Awards and the More Than Magic Contest. Visit her website at: www.susanpagedavis.com .

23 comments:

  1. Very interesting. It's great how you have that direct connection to the hardy souls on the Mayflower.

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    1. Thank you, Connie! I loved reading about the Mayflower families.

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  2. How cool to be a descendant! He lived so long too, amazing. I love your writing and would love to read Maine Brides. Thanks for the giveaway. Blessings.

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    1. Chris, thanks for your kind words. I didn't know I was an Alden descendant for a long time, but discovered the connection while researching my mother's family history. You never know what fascinating things you'll find if you can get your family tree back beyond the Civil War and the westward migration periods.

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  3. oops chris_davebures@bellsouth.net forgot the contact info. THANKS!!!

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  4. Thank you for sharing your interesting post. I love that his house still stands.

    mauback55 at gmail dot com

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    1. That was a surprise to me. I wish I had known when I lived in New England! Maybe next trip ...

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  5. I enjoyed reading your post today. I'm learning to enjoy History more & this was interesting to me... thank you.
    dkstevensneAToutlookD OtCoM

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  6. That's amazing that you're related to Priscilla and John Alden, Susan! They are so famous! My ancestors didn't come to America until the 1870s (from Switzerland, Germany, France). One of my great-great grandfathers kept a journal about his journey to America (in French!). My cousin had it translated into English. Maybe we should keep journals for our descendants!

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    1. How wonderful that your ancestor kept a journal! What a blessing to have that. I do encourage journaling. Your kids might not be interested, but two or three generations down, someone will be.

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  7. That's so cool that you have ties going back so far in American history. I bet John Alden's life was an interesting one.

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    1. Thanks, Vickie! It helps that my ancestors were about 90 percent British, and that they stayed in New England for a long time. Makes it a lot easier to trace them when they don't move around much!

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  8. There is family lore that not only were we on the Mayflower, but we met ourselves as I am part Narragansett Indian. I get stopped about 4 generations back...but onward. als@foxgull.com

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    1. My husband has documented Indian heritage from the Colonial era, and he has a different Mayflower ancestor than I do. Maybe you are related to him!

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  9. It is so very interesting to read about family history and the Mayflower. My parents both were born in Russia and were of German and Swedish background I'm told. I have never tried to trace back - perhaps it is time!
    bettimace at gmail dot com

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    1. I'm sure you'll find some interesting things, Betti. I wasn't planning to write about my hubby's ancestor next month, but maybe I should and give you all the "black sheep" side of the Mayflower heritage.

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  10. Oh, by the way, I am also supposedly descended from Governor Dudley, who threw John Alden in jail, on a different line (my dad's side). But I can't conclusively prove that one, as there's an illegitimate child in the line. Maybe someday something will turn up that proves it. I guess they do DNA testing for that now. Anyone out there know for sure they're a Dudley descendent?

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  11. I think it's great how you found a relative from "back in the day". How exciting that you can trace him. sm wileygreen1(at)yahoo(dot)com

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    1. Thanks, Sharon! It's a fun hobby, and it turns up some wonderful lore.

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  12. I loved reading about your ancestor John Alden. Most of us know about him and the Mayflower but it is nice to actually know (or know of) a living relative. Thank you for sharing!
    Connie
    cps1950@gmail.com

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    1. You're welcome, Connie. I especially love the Thanksgiving card. So sweet!

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  13. The winner of Maine Brides is Andrea Stoeckel! Congratulations, Andrea, and thank you to all who came by.

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