6/21/2012 2:00:43 PM
Myles Standish Burying Ground
Priscilla Alden was one of the original pilgrims to sail on the Mayflower in 1620. Her parents and brother also accompanied her, but they died during the harsh first winter in Plymouth Colony. She and John Alden were one of the first couples to be married in Plymouth Colony by Governor William Bradford.
She has gained further notoriety in a poem written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow entitled The Courtship of Myles Standish. The poem purports that Myles Standish asked John Alden to ask Priscilla to marry him and Priscilla responded “Why don’t you speak for yourself, John?”
Priscilla Alden (née Mullins or Mullens), (c. 1602–c. 1685), noted member of Massachusetts's Plymouth Colony of Pilgrims, was the wife of fellow colonist John Alden (c. 1599–1687). They married in 1623 in Plymouth.