William Bradford (Plymouth governor)

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William Bradford
William Bradford (Plymouth governor)
In office
1621 – 1633
1635 – 1636
1637 – 1638
1639 – 1644
1645 – 1657
Preceded by John Carver (1621)
Thomas Prence (1635 & 1639)
Edward Winslow (1637 & 1645)
Succeeded by Edward Winslow (1633, 1636 & 1644)
Thomas Prence (1638 & 1657)
Born March 19, 1590
Austerfield, Yorkshire, England
Died May 9, 1657
Plymouth, Massachusetts
Political party None
Spouse Dorthy Bradford
Religion Christianity

William Bradford (March 19, 1590 – May 9, 1657) was a leader of the separatist settlers of the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts, and was elected thirty times to be the Governor after John Carver died. He was the second signer and primary architect of the Mayflower Compact in Provincetown Harbor. His journal (1620–47), published as Of Plymouth Plantation. Bradford is credited as the first to proclaim what popular American culture now views as the first Thanksgiving.

Contents

[edit] Biography

The Manor House, Austerfield, Yorkshire - birthplace of William Bradford
The Manor House, Austerfield, Yorkshire - birthplace of William Bradford

He was the son of William Bradford and was born on March 19, 1590 A.D. near Doncaster, in Austerfield, Yorkshire. At an early age, he was attracted to the "primitive" congregational church, in nearby Scrooby, and became a committed member of what was termed a "Separatist" church, since the church-members had wanted to separate from the Church of England. By contrast, the Puritans wanted to purify the Church of England. The Separatists instead felt the Church was beyond redemption due to unbiblical doctrines and teachings.

When James I began to persecute Separatists in 1609, Bradford fled to the Netherlands, along with many members of the congregation. These Separatists went first to Amsterdam before settling at Leiden. Bradford married his first wife, Dorothy May (d. December 7, 1620), on December 10, 1613 in Amsterdam. While at Leiden, he supported himself as a fustian weaver.

Signing of the Mayflower Compact, a painting by Edward Percy Moran, which hangs at the Pilgrim Hall Museum
Signing of the Mayflower Compact, a painting by Edward Percy Moran, which hangs at the Pilgrim Hall Museum

Shifting alignments of the European powers (due to religious differences, struggles over the monarchies and intrigues within the ruling Habsburg clan) caused the Dutch government to fear war with Catholic Spain, and to become allied with James I of England. Social pressure (and even attacks) on the separatists increased in the Netherlands. Their congregation's leader, John Robinson, supported the emerging idea of starting a colony. Bradford was in the midst of this venture from the beginning. The separatists wanted to remain Englishmen (although living in the Netherlands), yet wanted to get far enough away from the Church of England and the government to have some chance of living in peace. Arrangements were made, and William with his wife sailed for America in 1620 from Leiden aboard the Mayflower.

Bas-relief on Bradford Street in Provincetown depicting the signing of the Mayflower Compact
Bas-relief on Bradford Street in Provincetown depicting the signing of the Mayflower Compact

On December 7, 1620, before the colony was established, Bradford's wife died. [1] Dorothy Bradford died while the Mayflower was at anchor in Provincetown Harbor. However, there are no contemporary accounts of the circumstances of her death, only a later mention of drowning by Cotton Mather in Magnalia Christi Americana. [2] Bradford included only brief mention of her passing in his own writing. There is a widely circulated story that she committed suicide because the Mayflower was a moored ship, but this is derived from a work of historical fiction published in the June, 1869 issue of Harper's New Monthly Magazine. This claims that they had decided to leave their young son in the Netherlands, and his wife was so stricken with sadness that she took her own life. Regardless of this fictional treatment, there is no proof of suicide. [3]

The first winter in the new colony was a terrible experience. Half the colonists perished, including the colony's leader, John Carver. Bradford was selected as his replacement on the spring of 1621. From this point, his story is inextricably linked with the history of the Plymouth Colony.

William Bradford's second wife, Alice Carpenter Southworth, came to Plymouth aboard the Anne in July 1623 following the death of her first husband, Edward Southworth.[4] Governor Bradford married Carpenter on August 14, 1623 at Plymouth. Bradford and Carpenter had three children, William, Mercy, and Joseph. Alice also helped to raise John, the son of his first marriage; Alice's sons from her first marriage, Constant and Thomas, arrived in Plymouth sometime after 1627 and presumably lived with their mother and stepfather.[5]

William Bradford died at Plymouth, and was interred at Plymouth Burial Hill. On his Grave is etched: "qua patres difficillime adepti sunt nolite turpiter relinquere" “What our forefathers with so much difficulty secured, do not basely relinquish.”

Plymouth Burial Hill
Plymouth Burial Hill

[edit] Journal

Bradford kept a handwritten journal detailing the history of the first 30 years of Plymouth Colony. Large parts of this journal were published as Of Plymouth Plantation, and have been republished a number of times. (It is currently in print as ISBN 0-07-554281-1.) Bradford, along with Edward Winslow and others, contributed material to George Morton, who merged everything into a book, published in London in 1622, nicknamed Mourt's Relation, which was primarily a journal of the colonists' first years at Plymouth.

[edit] Notable descendants


NOTE: Hugh Hefner, media and pornography executive, is a claimant of descent from William Bradford[41], but his claims have been disproved by The Mayflower Society.[42]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Patricia Scott Deetz; James Deetz. Mayflower Passenger Deaths, 1620-1621. The Plymouth Colony Archive Project. Retrieved on 2006-05-21.
  2. ^ William Bradford in 17 Century Records. Pilgrim Hall Museum. Retrieved on 2006-05-21.
  3. ^ Austin, Jane Goodwin (1777). "William Bradford's Love Life". Harper's New Monthly Magazine 39 (229): 135-140. 
  4. ^ Stratton, Eugene Aubrey (1986). Plymouth Colony: Its History & People 1620-1691. USA: Ancestry Incorporated, 365-366. DOI:0-916489-13-2. 
  5. ^ Alice Bradford
  6. ^ Roberts, Gary Boyd. Genealogical Thoughts by Gary Boyd Roberts #14. New England Historic Genealogical Society.
  7. ^ Newcomb, Bethuel Merritt (1923). Andrew Newcomb and his Descendants: A Revised Edition of "Genealogical Memoir of the Newcomb Family" by John Bearse Newcomb. New Haven, CT: The Tuttle, Morhouse, and Taylor Co.
    Daniel LeRoy Martineau, mentioned in the book, is the grandfather of the Baldwin brothers.
  8. ^ Morris, Roy (1996). Ambrose Bierce: Alone In Bad Company. New York: Crown, p. 10. Retrieved on 2007-05-05.
  9. ^ Bradford, Gamaliel. Correspondence: Guide. Houghton Library, Harvard College University. Retrieved on 2007-05-04.
  10. ^ Robert Fiske Bradford Papers, 1909-1971, Massachusetts Historical Society; accessed 4 June 2007.
  11. ^ "Blue Bloods," Time; 19 Sept. 1938. On-line source: Time On-line; accessed 4 June 2007.
  12. ^ William Bradford: Sailing Ships and Arctic Seas
  13. ^ The Mayflower Quarterly, Vol. 51, General Society of Mayflower Descendants: 1985 (quarterly journal).
  14. ^ Fitch, Noel Riley. Appetite for Life: The Biography of Julia Child; New York: Doubleday, 1999; pp. 10.
  15. ^ Roberts, Gary Boyd. "Genealogical Thoughts by Gary Boyd Roberts #36", New England Historic Genealogical Society. On-line source (NewEnglandAncestors.org); accessed 5 May 2007.
  16. ^ Doubleday, Frank Nelson. The Memoirs of a Publisher; New York: Doubleday, 1972; appendices.
  17. ^ See ref for Frederic Edwin Church.
  18. ^ McGilligan, Patrick. Clint: The Life And Legend; New York: St. Martin's Press, 2002; pp. 13.
  19. ^ Roberts, Gary Boyd. Notable Kin: Volume Two; Santa Clara, CA: Carl Boyer, 1999.
  20. ^ Ancestry of William DeWolf Hopper
  21. ^ Sleeper, Jim. "The American Lamonts," The New York Times, "Opinions and Editorials;" on-line publication: 15 October 2006; accessed 5 May 2007.
  22. ^ Lamont, Corliss, ed. The Thomas Lamonts In America; New York: A. S. Barnes, 1971. The family-published history of the Lamont family in America details how the socialist Lamonts arrived in America in the 1750s and married into New England Pilgrim and Puritan families, including descendants of William Bradford.
  23. ^ The Mayflower Quarterly, Vol. 64, General Society of Mayflower Descendants: 1998 (quarterly journal).
  24. ^ Roberts, Gary Boyd and Wood, Michael J. "Notable Kin: Foreign Prime Ministers or Presidents with New England-Derived Forebears or Wives: Part II - Europe", New England Historic Genealogical Society. On-line source (NewEnglandAncestors.org); accessed 10 June 2007.
  25. ^ Ancestry of Mitt Romney (This link shows McClellan's (and Benjamin Spock's) descent from the Joshua Ripley who married Mary Backus, also ancestors of Christopher Reeve. Look at the source for Reeve to see that Joshua Ripley was the son of Joshua Ripley and Hannah Bradford, the grandson of William Bradford and Alice Richards, and the great-grandson of Governor William Bradford.)
  26. ^ Ancestry of David Hyde Pierce
  27. ^ Roberts, Gary Boyd. "Royal Descents, Notable Kin, and Printed Sources #48", New England Historic Genealogical Society. On-line source (NewEnglandAncestors.org); accessed 1 June 2007.
  28. ^ Roberts, Gary Boyd. "Royal Descents, Notable Kin, and Printed Sources #77", New England Historic Genealogical Society. On-line source (NewEnglandAncestors.org); accessed 4 May 2007.
  29. ^ Ancestry of William Rehnquist (William Bradford, #1702 in Rehnquist's ahnentafel, was the son of Governor William Bradford.)
  30. ^ Scott, Fred. Clifton William Scott and Mildred Evelyn Bradford Scott of Ashfield, Mass.: Volume 1 (Genealogical record); iUniverse, 2004; pp. 423.
  31. ^ Young, Alfred. Masquerade: The Life and Times of Deborah Sampson, Continental Soldier; New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004; pp. 4-5.
  32. ^ See ref for George B. McClellan.
  33. ^ See first ref for Deborah Sampson.
  34. ^ Ancestry of Alfred Henry Sturtevant III (Alfred Sturtevant is the father of the author of this article.)
  35. ^ Roberts, Gary Boyd. "Genealogical Thoughts by Gary Boyd Roberts #42", New England Historic Genealogical Society. On-line source (NewEnglandAncestors.org); accessed 10 June 2007.
  36. ^ Pierce, Edward L. Memoir and letters of Charles Sumner: volume 1, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University; on-line source, accessed 15 June 2007.
  37. ^ "Noah Webster"; Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th ed. (1911). On-line source: "Classic Encyclopedia;" accessed 4 May 2007
  38. ^ Ancestry of Sheldon Whitehouse
  39. ^ Biddle, Flora Miller. The Whitney Women and the Museum They Made New York: Arcade Publishing, 1999; pp. 26. Account of F. M. Biddle, president emeritus of the Whitney Museum, describes the descent of W. C. Whitney's mother Laurinda Collins (Whitney) from Bradford.
  40. ^ "William Collins Whitney (1841 - 1904)". The Whitney Research Group, 1999; accessed 4 May 2007.
  41. ^ "Mr. Playboy"; Isenberg, Barbara. Time, on-line: 2 October 2005; accessed 4 May 2007.
  42. ^ The Mayflower Quarterly, "Letters," Vol. 72, No. 2 (June 2006), publication of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants.


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