July 14th, 2011
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/14/2011
Historic Autograph Letter Signed by a Mr. Bradford, 3pp. quarto, January 12, 1818, with integral leaf addressed to Samuel Frazar of Duxbury, Massachusetts, with great content pertaining to the Pilgrims, it reads in part: “...In looking over Timothy Alden’s curious publication of Epitaphs, Inscriptions &c. I find the following note which will satisfy your enquiry about the Lady, the first female born in N. England Vol. III Article 623 Note ‘The following paragraph is from the Boston News Letter 17 June 1717 - Little Compton May 31 this morning died here Mrs. Elizabeth Paybody late wife of Mr. William Paybody in 93 year of her age. She was a daughter of John Alden Esqr. & Priscilla his wife daughter of Mr. William Mullens. This John Alden & Priscilla Mullens were married at Plymouth where their daughter was born. She was exemplarily virtuous & pious...she has left numerous posterity. Her granddaughter Bradford is a grandmother.’ What may be recorded on her grave stone I know not, but this account you see does not say she was the first female born in N. England, though it may be the case. It is well known that our venerable ancestor was married soon after the pilgrims settled at Plymouth, probably early in the year 1621, and they might have issue before the close of that year & although there were several families with women when they landed in December 1620 yet as we read that more than half the whole colony died before spring, it is not unlikely there might be no more than one female child born in course of the year. In this book of ‘Inscriptions & c.” there is a long note (620) on John Alden...I here transcribe some extracts from this note ‘The Honorable John Alden was one of the pilgrims of Leyden who came in the Mayflower to Plymouth in 1620, he was about twenty two years old, and was one of those who signed the original civil contract. He was a single man & was the ‘vigirous youth who first leaped upon the rock as mentioned by President Adams (who professes to be a descendent from him) For a few years the subject of this article lived in Plymoth and then settled in Duxborough on a farm still remaining in the family, he built a house on a rise of land near Eagle Tree Pond where the ruins of the well are still to be seen...Through a long protracted life John Alden was almost continually occupied in public employments...In 1653 he was one of the council of war - in 1650 he was again elected one of the assistants to the governor and every year after till 1686...Of our grandfather of blessed memory, this publication says ‘he was second son of David [Alden] before mentioned. He was remarkable for his strength of mind, soundness of judgment and examplary deportment through life &c....He had only three children, Samuel our grandfather, Benjmain the father of Wresting, Bezalul, Abiatha &c. and of the late Dr. Wadsworth’s wife, and Alice who married a Paddock Yarmouth C. Cod. She lived to a great age as tis said she and her brother Samuel were both living in time of our Revolutionary War, and it is mentioned as a remarkable circumstance that two of the grandchildren of the Pilgrims should have lived to see their posterity so encreased & flourishing as to contend successfully against the Mother country...” Near fine condition. Elizabeth Pabodie (1623–1717), also known as Elizabeth Alden Pabodie or Elizabeth Peabody, was allegedly the first white woman born in New England. Elizabeth Pabodie was born Elizabeth Alden in 1623, the first born child of the Plymouth Colony settlers John Alden and Priscilla Mullins, who were both passengers on the Mayflower in 1620. She married William Pabodie (Peabody), a leader of Duxbury, Massachusetts, on December 26, 1644. All thirteen of their children were born in Duxbury before Elizabeth eventually moved to Little Compton, Rhode Island in the 1680s. She died on the 31st of May in 1717 in Little Compton and was buried in the cemetery on Little Compton Common. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was a descendant of Elizabeth Pabodie and made her parents John Alden and Priscilla Mullins famous through his poem "The Courtship of Miles Standish."
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