member of this church. Perhaps Priscilla varied her peaceful life by
visits to this affluent son in Boston. There is no evidence of the
date of Priscilla Alden's death or the place of her burial. She was
living and present, with her husband, at Josiah Winslow's funeral in
1680. She must have died before her husband, for in his Inventory,
1686, he makes no mention of her. He left a small estate of only a
little over forty pounds, although he had given to his sons land in
Duxbury, Taunton, Middleboro and Bridgewater. [Footnote: The
Mayflower Descendant, iii, 10. The Story of a Pilgrim Family;
Rev. John Alden; Boston, 1890.] Probably Priscilla also bestowed some
of her treasures upon her children before she died. Some of her
spoons, pewter and candle-sticks have been traced by inheritance. It
is not likely that she was "rich in this world's goods" through her
marriage, but she had a husband whose fidelity to state and religion
have ever been respected. To his memory Rev. John Cotton wrote some
elegiac verses; Justin Winsor has emphasized the honor which is still
paid to the name of John Alden in Duxbury and Plymouth: [Footnote:
History of Duxbury; Winsor.] "He was possessed of a sound judgment
and of talents which, though not brilliant, were by no means
ordinary--decided, ardent, resolute, and persevering, indifferent to
danger, a bold and hardy man, stern, austere and unyielding and of
incorruptible integrity." The name of Mary Chilton is pleasant to the
ear and imagination. Chilton Street and Chiltonville in Plymouth, and
the Chilton Club in Boston, keep alive memories of this girl who was,
by persistent tradition, the first woman who stepped upon the rock of
landing at Plymouth harbor. This tradition was given in writing, in
1773, by Ann Taylor, the grandchild of Mary Chilton and John Winslow.
[Footnote: History of Plymouth; James Thatcher.] Her father, James
Chilton, sometimes with the Dutch spelling, Tgiltron, was a man of
influence among the early leaders, but he died at Cape Cod, December