Thomas Delano, married a daughter of John Alden, as is shown bysignatures on Alden's estate settlement dated 13 June 1688 (MD3:11), but which daughter has been controversial. DaughterMary had been accepted, but in 1947 the Society of MayflowerDescendants decided that it had to be daughter Rebecca instead.The matter had been thoroughtly aired in 1932-33 by letters fromvarious genealogists to the Boston Transcript genealogy column.Daughter Mary had signed the 1688 Alden settlement as MaryAlden, with her signature immediately above Thomas Delano's.This in itself would show that in 1688 she was still an Alden,not a Delano. Thomas Delano was married before 30 October 1667when the court fined him for copulation with his unnamed wifebefore marriage. (PCR 4:168). On 5 Feb. 1929 at an auction atthe American Art Galleries of New York there was sold for $800an unrecorded deed of 2 July 1685 in which William Clarke soldland to John Thomas, Jr. and the sale was acknowledged by JohnAlden, Assistant. The deed was witnessed by Thomas DeLano andRebecca DeLano (Boston Transcript, 30 Dec. 1632). John Aldenhad a daughter Rebecca and there was no record or death ormarriage by that name. The evidence is indirect, but thepreponderance is that Thomas Delano's wife was Rebecca.Thomas Delano was fined for "haveing carnall coppulation" withhis wife before marriage, his wife being Rebecca, the daughterof Mayflower passenger John Alden. The Delano Genealogy has thechild of that relationship born on the same day his father wasbeing sentenced (official records show that this son died on 5April 1738 in his seventy-first year, and so would have beenborn circa 1667). The parents obviously felt the shame of theirsituation, for they named him Benoni, a Hebrew name meaning"child of sorrow," more commonly used by New England colonistsfor a son whose mother died at his birth.