- Jul 14
- 5 min read
Recently, a colleague and I were talking history and the topic of the Mayflower came up. I know a lot about the Mayflower. She said “Oh! Did you know that John Alden is buried with an unknown woman? They know it’s him because his skull still had red hair.”
I’m a descendent of John and Priscilla Alden. My mother used to be very involved with the family association. I had never heard that:
A. John Alden had red hair or
B. John Alden had been exhumed or
C. John Alden was buried next to anybody except the former Priscilla Mullins.
So I was skeptical.
I ordinarily would have asked my mom for insight, but she was travelling, so I started poking around the internet and let me tell you, there is no info out there corroborating this tale. Even Google’s irritating AI assistant couldn’t spin it into anything.
I came away from my search sure that Alden’s grave has never been exhumed.
But Myles Standish’s has…..3 times.
Standish, John Alden’s purported rival for the hand of Priscilla Mullins, was the military leader of the Plymouth colony. He has an impressive 174 ft tall stone memorial atop Captain’s Hill but is actually buried in the Myles Standish Burial Ground. Both are in Duxbury, MA. (Duxbury was incorporated in 1637, 17 years after the Mayflower landed.)
Why was Standish’s grave exhumed? The first time was in 1889, after the Rural Society, a local beautification group in Duxbury, set about to locate Standish’s last resting place, rumored to be in a few different locations in town. The Longfellow poem The Courtship of Miles Standish had brought the lives of the Pilgrims into the Victorian imagination in 1858 and long-forgotten ancestors were being reclaimed and celebrated. According to many Duxbury townspeople, including the Prior family (Standish descendants), Captain Standish was buried in the old cemetery, (at the time in much disrepair) under two particular three-cornered fieldstones. Two such stones were located and digging began. There were bodies there, a man and a woman, but according to the interlopers there was no evidence that the two skeletons had any connection to the Standish family.
This result was not satisfying to the interested parties. In 1890, Eugene Joseph Vincent Huiginn, the new rector of St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church arrived in Duxbury. There he caught Standish fever and extensively researched potential gravesites. Using local lore and legend, written accounts, primary sources such as deeds and Standish’s own will, Huiginn determined that they ought to exhume the graves near the three cornered stones a second time. His research was later published as The Graves of Myles Standish and Other Pilgrims.
1 my will is that out of my whole estate my funerall charges be taken out & my body to bee buried in Decent manor and if I Die att Duxburrow my body to bee layed as neare as Conveniently may bee to my two Daughters Lora Standish my daughter and Mary Standish my Daughterinlaw
Last Will and Testament of Myles Standish
On April 25, 1891, Huiginn, now head of the Rural Society, and a veritable who’s who of Duxbury citizenry met at the stones and dug again. This time, a second woman’s skeleton was discovered. Huiginn was quite impressed. He writes:
She had a great coil of shimmering brown hair which seemed to be full of the healthy gloss of life, and a perfect set of beautiful teeth…
Dr. W. G. Brown was on hand to declare these the remains of a young woman at least 18 years old, likely that of Mary Dingley Standish, the Captain’s above named daughter in law, who was married to Capt. Josiah Standish for just 6 months before her death. Convinced that the remains exhumed in 1889 were that of Standish and his daughter Lora, Huiginn decided to ask the Duxbury selectmen for permission to re-exhume the graves.
On May 12, 1891 another small crowd gathered to observe. First, they opened the graves of two small boys, one about 9 and one between 3-6 years old. Then they turned to the graves of the man and woman that had been opened before. The man’s skeleton was declared by Dr. Brown to indicate “a man of tremendous physique and strength.” (Standish was described by contemporaries as being quite short and was nicknamed “Captain Shrimpe” by Thomas Morton, a colonist who set up shop in what is now Quincy, MA, and who sounds like a fun guy.) Brown also declared him an old man at the time of death, due to the lack of teeth. Hair was sparse but there was enough to see that it was reddish-brown (a clue!) mixed with gray.
Huiginn measured the skull (and photographed it) and noted its resemblance to living Standish descendants, including some at the graveside. Standish was re-interred in a new pine coffin with the words of the burial service from the Book of Common Prayer, something a good Pilgrim probably would have objected to!
The grave of the woman was opened next. She too, appeared to be around 18 years old at time of death and also had abundant hair and perfect teeth. She also had the distinctive skull shape of the man. Huiginn and his companions were convinced this was the body of Lora Standish.
Further research in the town records showed that while Capt. Standish’s sons Charles and John appear in Plymouth records in 1627, they never appeared on the lists of freemen capable of bearing arms in Duxbury. Had they lived past 16 they would have appeared on these lists. Huiginn deducted that these were the boys found in the graves on May 12.
In 1892 Huiginn led the charge to further memorialize Standish with a monument. A small group, including Standish descendants, donated $364.30 towards the cause. (About $12831.69 in 2025) Remarkably, the treasurer’s report shows that the committee spent exactly that! The largest expense was $225.00 paid to an H. B. Chandler for “working on wall” and placing the guns and empty shells that were donated by the Navy.
Priest, history buff, poet? Never let is be said that E. J. V. Huiginn was not a man of many talents. He closes his book with 2 poems celebrating both the discovery of the graves and his part in it. In the second, Standish’s ghost appears and thanks Huiginn for his efforts:
That the graves of little Standish
And his loved ones, Alden’s too,
Sweet Priscilla’s – were forgotten,
Where we rested no one knew,
Till you came and dug me up, Sir,
And I couldn’t stay to sup, Sir.
And that is where we leave our intrepid rector.
But as I said Captain Standish was exhumed thrice – why? There isn’t much information, but apparently his descendants objected to the indignity of being buried in a simple pine box, so in 1931 the grave was opened again and the remains were encased in a copper casket and sealed in a concrete tomb. A time capsule is said to have been buried alongside Standish, leaving the question open: is this poor man ever going to get some rest?
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