"special eye to my man Robert wch hath not so approved himself as I
would he should have done." [Footnote: Pilgrim Alden, by Augustus
E. Alden, Boston, 1902.] Before this will was probated, July 23, 1621,
John Carver, Mistress Alice Mullins, the son, Joseph, and the man,
Robert Carter (or Cartier) were all dead, leaving Priscilla to carry
on the work to which they had pledged their lives. Perhaps, the
brother and sister in England were children of an earlier marriage,
[Footnote: Gen. Hist. Register, 40; 62-3.] as Alice Mullins has been
spoken of as a second wife.

Priscilla was about twenty years old when she came to Plymouth. By
tradition she was handsome, witty, deft and skilful as spinner and
cook. Into her life came John Alden, a cooper of unknown family, who
joined the Pilgrims at Southampton, under promise to stay a
year. Probably he was not the first suitor for Priscilla's hand, for
tradition affirmed that she had been sought in Leyden. The single
sentence by Bradford tells the story of their romance: "being a
hop[e]full yong man was much desired, but left to his owne liking to
go or stay when he came here; but he stayed, and maryed here." With
him he brought a Bible, printed 1620, [Footnote: Now in Pilgrim Hall,
Plymouth.] probably a farewell gift or purchase as he left
England. When the grant of land and cattle was made in 1627, he was
twenty-eight years old, and had in his family, Priscilla, his wife, a
daughter, Elizabeth, aged three, and a son, John, aged one. [Footnote:
Records of the Colony of New Plymouth.]

The poet, Longfellow, was a descendant of Priscilla Alden, and he had
often heard the story of the courtship of Priscilla by Miles Standish,
through John Alden as his proxy. It was said to date back to a poem,
"Courtship," by Moses Mullins, 1672. In detail it was given by Timothy