Priscilla Mullins Alden

From a broken travelling household to a home in Duxbury

Priscilla Mullins's father made provision for her while dying in Plymouth Colony, on the coast of present-day Massachusetts. His will directed that she receive ten pounds from money owed to him in England. He also allotted her a portion of his interests in the colonial venture if its financial settlement produced a return. Whether she received the money due under these claims is unknown.

Priscilla had crossed the Atlantic with William Mullins, Alice Mullins, her brother Joseph and the household's servant Robert Carter. All four died during the colony's first year. Her older siblings William and Sarah had remained in England. Thus the catastrophe destroyed the household that had travelled with her without making her the only surviving member of the wider family.

Her marriage to John Alden established a new household. Its precise date is not recorded, but by the 1627 division of cattle John and Priscilla appear together with their children Elizabeth and John. Ten children eventually belonged to the family. The familiar courtship story involving Myles Standish comes from later literary tradition.

The Aldens subsequently made their home in Duxbury, north of Plymouth. Archaeology at their first house site has recovered a stone-lined cellar and the foundations of a long rectangular building, along with ceramics, glass, nails and metal household objects. These finds give physical substance to the place where the family lived. Native American artifacts at the site also record occupation before the Aldens.

The surviving Alden House museum building dates from a later generation. Priscilla's own last years are less precisely documented than her husband's public career. Bradford still counted her among the living around 1650; the accepted death range extends from that time to 1687. Her exact death date is unknown.

The account places the marriage probably by 1623 and names the children Elizabeth, John, Joseph, Sarah, Jonathan, Ruth, Rebecca, Mary, Priscilla and David. Her death is placed probably at Plymouth or Duxbury within the broad 1650–1687 interval. Alice’s relationship to Priscilla is uncertain.