Priscilla (Mullins or Mullens) Alden (ca. 1602 – ca. 1685) was a passenger on the Mayflower in 1620 when it sailed from England to North America. She married John Alden in Plymouth Colony in 1623, and bore him ten or eleven children.
The couple founded Duxbury, north of Plymouth. She died in 1685 and is buried in the Myles Standish Burial Ground. She is the heroine of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1858 poem, The Courtship of Miles Standish.
Early life
Her birthplace and parents are not known with certainty. She may have been born in Surrey to Col. William Mullins, Sr. and Alice Mullins. She sailed to the New World with her parents and brother Joseph. These three died the winter of 1620-1621.
Marriage
Priscilla married John Alden in 1623 in Plymouth Colony. They had ten or eleven children. John and Priscilla Alden lived in Plymouth until the late 1630s. They then moved north to found the town of Duxbury, Massachusetts.
Death
Priscilla Alden died about 1685, and is buried in the Myles Standish Burial Ground in Duxbury. The exact location of her grave within the burial ground has not been found.
Legacy
She is a main character in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1858 poem, The Courtship of Miles Standish. Longfellow was a descendant of the Aldens. He romanticized a family legend for the poem.