The Women Who Came in the MayflowerMarble, Annie Russell
History
The Women Who Came in the Mayflower
Marble, Annie Russell
Massachusetts -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775; Mayflower (Ship); Women -- Massachusetts
Eleven children had been born to John and Priscilla Alden, five sons and
six daughters. Sarah married Alexander Standish and so cemented the two
families in blood as well as in friendship. Ruth, who married John Bass,
became the ancestress of John Adams and John Quincy Adams. Elizabeth,
who married William Pabodie, had thirteen children, eleven of them
girls, and lived to be ninety-three years; at her death the _Boston News
Letter_[71] extolled her as “exemplary, virtuous and pious and her
memory is blessed.” Possibly with all her piety she had a good share of
the independence of spirit which was accredited to her mother; in her
husband’s will[72] she is given her “third at Little Compton” and an
abundance of household stuff, but with this reservation,—“If she will
not be contented with her thirds at Little Compton, but shall claim her
thirds in both Compton and Duxbury or marry again, I do hereby make
voyde all my bequest unto her and she shall share only the parte as if
her husband died intestate.” A portrait of her shows dress of rich
materials.
Captain John Alden seems to have been more adventuresome than the other
boys in Priscilla’s family. He was master of a merchantman in Boston and
commander of armed vessels which supplied marine posts with provisions.
Like his sister, Elizabeth, he had thirteen children. He was once
accused of witchcraft, when he was present at a trial, and was
imprisoned fifteen weeks without being allowed bail.[73] He escaped and
hurried to Duxbury, where he must have astonished his mother by the
recital of his adventures. He left an estate of £2059, in his will, two
houses, one of wood worth four hundred pounds, and another of brick
worth two hundred and seventy pounds, besides much plate, brass and
money and debts amounting to £1259, “the most of which are desperite.” A
tablet in the wall of the Old South Church at Copley Square, Boston,
records his death at the age of seventy-five, March, 1701. He was an
original member of this church. Perhaps Priscilla varied her peaceful
life by visits to this affluent son in Boston.
There is no evidence of the date of Priscilla Alden’s death or the place
of her burial. She was living and present, with her husband, at Josiah
Winslow’s funeral in 1680. She must have died before her husband, for in
his inventory, 1686, he makes no mention of her. He left a small estate
of only a little over forty pounds, although he had given to his sons
land in Duxbury, Taunton, Middleboro and Bridgewater.[74]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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