Yet another John Alden (or two).

Question

Dear WikiTree(ers) and Mayflower Project Members,

While researching my direct ancestors in 16th and 17th century Antwerp, I came across a completely unknown but surprising well-documented man named John Alden, Grocer of London and his family. His wife, the Antwerp-born Barbara du Prieur was naturalized in England along with their two daughters in 1576, the year that Antwerp was sacked in the "Spanish Fury".

The couple had a son also named John Alden, who appears to be the child of that name baptized 1 June 1578 at St. Margaret Lothbury, London.  While the parents were deceased in 1609, the younger John recorded legal documents in the Dutch city of Breda that year, indicating that he was 30 years old, and that he had London Lord Mayor Leonard Halliday confirm and seal the documents before they were taken to Breda.  I have not located other records for the younger John in London, but I'm looking.

This family had a remarkable connection to Sir Walter Raleigh and barrel making.  Wife Barbara du Prieur was the aunt of Catherine Charles Pyne, wife of Henry Pyne who was Raleigh's business associate in Ireland.  Pyne in 1592 secured the lease of tracts of timber in Mogeely, County Cork, and proceeded to manufacture staves for making barels that were exported to Canary Islands for use as wine casks.  Henry Pyne likely continued the stave making business until his death around 1625.

If you'd like to take a look at this family, a good place to start is with John Alden I.

Best regards,

Joel

Comments

This John Alden may be from Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. John and his wife Barbara owned several properties in and around Bury St. Edmunds for which they received a license to "alienate" in 1599.  I've added the reference to his page.

Joel

Answer 1

John Alden update:

Grocer John Alden appears to be the father of John Alden of Middle Temple who received the right to bear a coat-of-arms in 1607.  Middle Temple John Alden is the same John Alden of Curborough, Staffordshire whose 1656 will is found at the Prerogative Court of Canterbury here and a partial transcription is here.  So, this line of John Aldens is unlikely to be the direct paternal line of Plymouth John Alden.

However, I stumbled across a man who seems to be an ancestor of the maritime trader John Aldens (like the Aldens of the Plymouth Colony).  A medieval London John WALDEN, grocer and merchant of London, alderman, sheriff, and merchant of the Staple of Calais was active from at least the 1440s.  There is quite a bit of information on him (try googling "John Walden" "grocer").  In 1443 he was granted a house (dormus) located at Botolph Wharf, south of the Church of St. Botolph in Billingsgate London here.  Grocer John Alden who was married to Barbara du Prieur (my relative) lived on Botolph Lane, Billingsgate in 1591, and his son, Middle Temple John Alden, included property in Botolph, Billingsgate in his 1656 will.

Thanks for reading!

Joel