He was a well-known public figure in his time; however, he is currently chiefly remembered as a survivor of the Salem witch trials, of which he wrote a much quoted and studied account.

[2] The family later moved across the harbor to form Duxbury when John was very small, as the terms of settlement set by the financial backers of Plymouth Colony in London had changed and the settlers were free to spread out as they wished.

The stone is preserved at the portico of the present Old South Church in Boston after having been discovered during excavations where it had been dumped after the removal of the graves.

The only one to bring much modern attention, however, occurred in Salem when he stopped there on his return home from Quebec, where he had gone in February 1692 to ransom New England settlers captured in the Candlemas attack on York, Maine.

According to the Massachusetts state archives, he had been involved in several exchanges of this type over the years; this fed mightily into controversies about the man as another piece of gossip that surrounded him was that he sold weapons to the enemy for personal profit, including Native American tribes like the Wabanaki, allies of the French in 1692.

This was a time period in which colonization of Northern New England was a battlefield between Puritans, the French, and their Native American allies with high casualties, violent skirmishes, and several raids on each other.

Alden's second wife, Elizabeth, had ties to Maine as her father was a wealthy lumber merchant, a business he inherited through marriage.

In the coming weeks of incarceration, he had been inclined not to make much of the matter, but was prevailed upon by some friends and broke out of jail, fleeing in the night on horseback.

It was mid-September and his decision to run away proved wise, as evidenced by the fact that Giles Corey was crushed to death within a few days of his departure.

The authorities do not seem to have searched for him with any diligence; one of the judges, Samuel Sewall, an old friend, is known to have expressed doubts about his guilt, and attended a prayer service at Alden's house in the hope of receiving guidance.

The overall tone of the text suggests Alden's thoughts on the matter were that the town had gone stark raving mad: two of the three judges on the court were completely convinced by the girls' antics.