John Alden

John Alden (c. 1599 – 1687) was a passenger on the ship Mayflower. He was hired in England to be the cooper (barrel-maker) aboard the ship during her 1620 voyage. It is not known when or where he was born.

The Mayflower left Plymouth, England on 16 September 1620. There were 102 passengers and 30–40 crew. On 19 November 1620, the Mayflower reached land at Cape Cod hook. They landed on November 21. They wrote the Mayflower Compact, which made rules on how they would live and treat each other.George Ernest Bowman,  The Mayflower Compact and its signers,  (Boston: Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1920). Photocopies of the 1622, 1646 and 1669 versions of the document pp. 7–19. The Mayflower was supposed to land in the Virginia Colony, but the ship was too damaged and they were forced to land at Cape Cod now called Provincetown Harbor.Stratton, 20.

Alden was one of the signers of the Mayflower Compact in November 1620.Eugene Aubrey Stratton. Plymouth Colony: Its History and People, 1620-1691, (Salt Lake City: Ancestry Publishing, 1986), pp. 411-413George Ernest Bowman,  The Mayflower Compact and its signers (Boston: Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1920). Photocopies of the 1622, 1646 and 1669 versions of the document pp. 7-19. In Plymouth Colony, he became an assistant to the Governor.

Alden married Priscilla Mullins on 12 May 1622. They had ten children. He died on 12 September 1687.  John and Priscilla were buried in the Myles Standish Burial Ground in Duxbury, Massachusetts.Memorial for John Alden 

 References 

Category:1599 births
Category:Mayflower passengers
Category:1689 deaths
Category:People buried in the Myles Standish Burial Ground, Duxbury, Massachusetts