Mayflower Ancestors - Prelude

John Alden

Born: About 1599, England

Died: Sep. 12, 1687, Duxbury, Massachusetts

Relation to Author: 10th Great Grandfather in Law

Priscilla Mullins (married name Alden) 

Born: c. 1603, England (maybe Dorking or Guildford)

Died: After 1650 (maybe as late as 1685), Duxbury, Massachusetts 

Relation to Author: 10th Great Grandmother in Law

William Mullins

Born: Unknown, England

Died: Winter 1621, Plymouth, Massachusetts

Relation to Author: 11th Great Grandfather in Law

Alice (married name Mullins) 

Born: Unknown, England

Died: Winter 1621, Plymouth, Massachusetts

Relation to Author: 11th Great Grandmother in Law? (researchers do not actually know whether she was the biological mother for some, all or none of William’s children)

My wife, and therefore our children, are descended from four people who came over on the Mayflower. In the next series of posts, I am going to explore this connection and what we know about them. I’ll start with some context - basic info about the ancestors and the lineage. Then in subsequent posts I’ll look at what we know about their time on the Mayflower and in America, mostly using Nathaniel Philbrick's book Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War, but also Caleb Johnson's Mayflower History. 

My wife is descended from John Alden and Priscilla Mullins (married name Alden), through the Blake line. You can see the path at the bottom of this post. Priscilla and John are my wife’s 10th great grandparents. And so Priscilla’s parents, William and Alice, are her 11th Great Grandparents (though again researchers are not sure if she is Priscilla’s biological mother). John Alden’s family history is unknown. 

John Alden and four of the Mullins family came to America on the Mayflower in 1620. We think of the Mayflower as the boat that brought the pilgrims - or puritans - but in fact your ancestors and more than half of the people on the boat were not puritans. John Alden was part of the crew. He’s mentioned early in Philbrick's book: 

“Another important position was that of the cooper, who was in charge of maintaining all barreled supplies and provisions, In Southampton, [Mayflower commanding officer Christopher] Jones secured the twenty-one year old cooper John Alden, who because of his youth and skills was already being encouraged by the Pilgrims to remain in America at the completion of the crossing.” 

The Mayflower settlers did convince Alden to stay in America when the Mayflower sailed back to England in the spring of 1621. He would later marry Priscilla Mullins. And in a transparent attempt to hook you early, dear reader, I'll give you a preview and say that they would go on to have ten children and have a famous poem written of their relationship. 

The Mullins family was connected to the financiers supporting the puritans' trip. The Leiden Puritans were separatists; they believed that the Church of England was corrupt and they wanted to be apart from the Church and worship their own way. They originally fled to Leiden, Holland to find freedom but then wanted to go to America. But they needed financial help to charter the trip. The financiers - the Merchant Adventurers - found other families from London to join the trip, and this included the Mullins family, who were investors in the project. 

Since the Mullins family were not Puritans, we know they didn't come to America for religious freedom and instead guess they came with a plan to make more money. Mullins was a shoemaker, seemingly relatively wealthy (and brought with him 250 shoes and 13 pairs of boots). They traveled with their two younger children, Priscila (~17), Joseph (~15) and a servant or apprentice - Robert Carter - but their two older adult children stayed in England. 

They must have realized that there was danger in going to America - traveling to a new place without any of the infrastructure they were used to and only inhabited by people that were rightfully hostile to them. Though they must not have realized just how risky and dangerous it was going to be. 

Lineage

John Alden & Priscilla Mullins (13)

Ruth Alden and John Bass (12)

Samuel Bass and Mary Adams (11)

Jonathan Bass and Sussanah Byram (10)

Susanna Bass and Zechariah Cary (9)

Luther Cary and Abigail King (8)

Sophia Cary and Silas Blake (7)

Rev. Joseph Blake and Hannah Little Clark (6)

Francis Clark Blake and Winifred Pamelia Ballard (5)

Francis Gilman Blake and Dorothy Palmer Dewey (4)

John Ballard Blake and Jean Place Adams (3)