Son of John Alden and Hannah Briggs and Mayflower descendant of John Alden and Priscilla Mullins. Col. John Alden dies in 1739, his wife Hannah Briggs Alden dies soon after. Their oldest son Samuel, living in England, becomes the owner of the Alden family home, while another son, Briggs Alden, continues to live in the house with his family. Samuel Alden dies in England in 1757 (age 44), leaving the house to his brother, Briggs. Briggs marries Mercy Wadsworth 18 Nov 1741, daughter of Ichabod Wadsworth (1686-1745) and Margaret Marshall (1702-1773). They live in the house and raise a family of 8 children until his death in 1796. Children of Briggs and Mercy Wadsworth Alden are Hannah (1743-1790) John (1744-1766) Son (1746-1746) Deborah (1748-1793) Major Judah (1750-1845) Nathaniel (1752-1833) Edith (1754-1815) Abigail (1755-1800) Samuel (1757-1779) Amherst (1759-1804). The John and Priscilla Alden Sites property consists of the c. 1700 Alden house and the c. 1632 original Alden Homestead site. The property owes it significance to the cultural impact of The Courtship of Miles Standish, a poem about the courtship of John Alden and Priscilla Mullins, written by Alden descendant Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and published in 1858. The public embraced the poem. It became one of the most popular national origin stories in American folklore. The property also is the location of important archeological fieldwork and analysis by Roland Wells Robbins (1908-1987), a pioneer in the field of historical archeology, making the site of national significance in the development in this field. Robbins located and excavated a foundation of the original Alden home in 1960, which yielded nationally significant data that shed light on the lifeways of the first English settlers in North America.