A passenger on the Mayflower. A cooper barrel maker from Southampton. Married Priscilla Mullin, William Mullins's daughter their match was the subject matter for Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem The Courtship of Myles Standish, which has little factual basis.

John and Priscilla were among the founders of the town of Duxbury. John was Deputy Governor of the Plymouth colony for two years, and an assistant for many more. John Alden was closely involved with the dispute over John Hocking's activities on the Kennebec River in 1634, in which John Hocking shot Moses Talbot and was then shot himself. The Massachusetts Bay Colony arrested John Alden for killing John Hocking, even though he had not fired the shot and Myles Standish, acting as an agent for Governor Bradford obtained his release.

In later years, John Alden was on the jury of a witch trial: the accuser was found guilty of libel and the alleged witch was allowed to go free.

John and Priscilla Alden are ancestors to Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams, poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Vice President Dan Quayle.

source: http://members.aol.com/calebj/