John Alden and Priscilla Mullins were both unmarried passengers aboard the Mayflower. Providential destiny would see this Pilgrim young man and Pilgrim young woman build together one of the founding families of America.

At first, while in England, young John Alden was not a member of the Separatist congregation. He was hired because his trade, that of a cooper, was crucial to the success of the Pilgrims’ expedition to the New World. Coopers built and maintained barrels. Their highly skilled craft was essential for maintaining food supplies and transporting fresh water across the ocean. John Alden signed the Mayflower Compact and chose voluntarily to stay at Plymouth Plantation when the Mayflower returned to England in the spring of 1621.

Priscilla Mullins was only seventeen years old when her father, William, and stepmother, Alice, took her and her younger brother, Joseph, aboard the Mayflower to begin a new life in the New World. The Mullins family was also counted as strangers—those not part of the Separatist congregation—by the Pilgrims. Mr. Mullins was a shoemaker by trade, and shoes would be a necessity in the wilderness settlements.

During the first dreadful winter in America, fully half of the Pilgrims died of sickness, malnutrition, and exposure. The Mullins family was one of the hardest hit that winter. Over the course of several weeks, Priscilla lost her father, her stepmother, and her brother. She alone remained as the only surviving member of her family. Many young women would have despaired and returned home to familiar England. However, Priscilla Mullins chose to stay.

Today, in a quiet corner of Brewster Gardens, near the old Town Brook in Plymouth, Massachusetts, there is a monument dedicated to the “intrepid English women whose courage and devotion brought a new nation into being.” These maidens of the Mayflower are honored by “The Pilgrim Maiden,” a bronze statue of a young woman looking bravely toward the future, with a Bible in her hand and hope in her eyes.

The factual details of the courtship of John Alden and Priscilla Mullins are unknown, although a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (a descendant) offers some suggestions of how it might have happened. History records that the two young people were married in what was the fourth wedding in Plymouth history. The two Pilgrims, brought together by Providence, resolved to build a new life in the New World. By God’s grace, John and Priscilla built a family and a multigenerational legacy.

The Aldens built a family

Notwithstanding their non-Separatist backgrounds, John and Priscilla Alden became faithful members of the Pilgrim congregation. John served as a governor’s assistant for many years. He also served as treasurer for the colony and as a soldier in the militia. John Alden was granted 100 acres along the Bluefish River in what is now Duxbury, and the Aldens became founding members of the new settlement there. Together, John and Priscilla raised ten children, and their progeny today number more than one million living descendants.

The Aldens built a multigenerational legacy

It is one thing to have children. It is quite another to raise them to serve God in their own generation and in the generations yet to come. Descendants of John and Priscilla have become pastors, missionaries, teachers, writers, and at least three United States presidents. John Adams, John Quincy Adams, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt are all direct descendants of this cooper and a shoemaker’s daughter.

If you study your family history, you may find that the Aldens are your grandparents too! May God help us all to follow this Pilgrim couple’s faithful example. May we accept whatever trials that He brings and labor patiently to build a lasting legacy for generations yet unborn.