William Bradford

Notes:

From Wikipedia:

He held the rank of major in the militia and was the commander of the military forces of Plymouth Colony during the King Philip's War. He commanded the Plymouth Regiment at the Great Swamp Fight on 19 December 1675. During the battle his eye was wounded.

He later served as the deputy governor of Plymouth Colony under Governor Thomas Hinckley from 1682 to 1686 and from 1689 to 1692 when the colony was merged with the Massachusetts Bay Colony to form the Province of Massachusetts Bay. Bradford was suspended from office during the governorship of Sir Edmund Andros from 1686 to 1689.

William married Alice Richards after 23 Apr 1650 in Plymouth, Plymouth Colony. Alice (daughter of Thomas Richards and Welthian) was born on 16 Jun 1627 in Pitminster, Somerset, England; was christened on 7 Apr 1629 in Pitminster, Somerset, England; died on 12 Dec 1671 in Plymouth, Plymouth Colony. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Thomas Bradford was born about 1658 in Plymouth Colony; died on 1 Oct 1731 in Windham, Windham, Connecticut.
2. Alice Bradford was born about 1659 in Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts; died on 15 Mar 1746 in Canterbury, Windham, Connecticut.
3. Samuel Bradford was born in 1668 in Plymouth, Plymouth Colony; died on 11 Apr 1714 in Duxbury, Plymouth, Massachusetts.

William married (Unknown second wife of William Bradford) about 1673. (Unknown died before 1676. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Joseph Bradford was born on 18 Apr 1675 in Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts; died on 16 Jan 1747 in New London, New London, Connecticut.

Notes:

Governor of Plymouth Colony 1621-33, 1635, 1637, 1639-43, and 1645-56.

From Wikipedia:

William Bradford was an English Separatist originally from the West Riding of Yorkshire. He moved to Leiden in Holland in order to escape persecution from King James I of England, and then emigrated to the Plymouth Colony on the Mayflower in 1620. He was a signatory to the Mayflower Compact and went on to serve as Governor of the Plymouth Colony intermittently for about 30 years between 1621 and 1657. His journal Of Plymouth Plantation covered the years from 1620 to 1657 in Plymouth. [...]

William Bradford's most well-known work by far is Of Plymouth Plantation. It is a detailed history in journal form about the founding of the Plymouth Colony and the lives of the colonists from 1621 to 1646. Bradford's journal is described as a retrospective account of his recollections and observations. The first work was written in 1630; the second was never finished, but "between 1646 and 1650, he brought the account of the colony's struggles and achievements through the year 1646." As Walter P. Wenska states, "Bradford writes most of his history out of his nostalgia, long after the decline of Pilgrim fervor and commitment had become apparent. Both the early annals which express his confidence in the Pilgrim mission and the later annals, some of which reveal his dismay and disappointment, were written at about the same time." In Of Plymouth Plantation, Bradford drew deep parallels between everyday life and the events of the Bible. As Philip Gould writes, "Bradford hoped to demonstrate the workings of divine providence for the edification of future generations."

In 1888, Charles F. Richardson referred to Bradford as a "forerunner of literature" and "a story-teller of considerable power." Moses Coit Tyler called him "the father of American history." Many American authors have cited his work in their writings; for example, Cotton Mather referred to it in Magnalia Christi Americana and Thomas Prince referred to it in A Chronological History of New-England in the Form of Annals. Even today it is considered a valuable piece of American literature, included in anthologies and studied in literature and history classes. It has been called an American classic and the pre-eminent work of art in seventeenth-century New England.

The Of Plymouth Plantation manuscript disappeared by 1780, "presumably stolen by a British soldier during the British occupation of Boston"; it reappeared in Fulham, London, England. Philip Gould states, "In 1855, scholars intrigued by references to Bradford in two books on the history of the Episcopal Church in America (both located in England) located the manuscript in the bishop of London's library at Lambeth Palace." A long debate ensued as to the rightful home for the manuscript. Multiple attempts by United States Senator George Frisbie Hoar and others to have it returned proved futile at first. According to Francis B. Dedmond, "after a stay of well over a century at Fulham and years of effort to [e]ffect its release, the manuscript was returned to Massachusetts" on May 26, 1897.

William married Alice Carpenter on 14 Aug 1623 in Plymouth, Plymouth Colony. Alice (daughter of Alexander Carpenter and (Unknown wife of Alexander Carpenter)) was born about 1590; was christened on 3 Aug 1590 in Wrington, Somerset, England; died on 26 Mar 1670 in Plymouth, Plymouth Colony; was buried in Burial Hill, Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachussets. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Bef 3 Aug 1590, Wrington, Somerset, England
• Alternate death: 27 Mar 1670, Plymouth, Plymouth Colony
• Alternate death: 26 Mar 1671, Plymouth, Plymouth Colony

Notes:

She was the widow of Edward Southworth, and is thus referred to in many sources as "Alice Southworth." She arrived in New England on the Anne on 14 Aug 1623.

William married Alice Hanson on 21 Jun 1584 in Austerfield, Yorkshire, England. Alice (daughter of John Hanson and Margaret Gressam) was born before 8 Dec 1562 in Austerfield, Yorkshire, England; was christened on 8 Dec 1562 in Austerfield, Yorkshire, England; died before 23 May 1597 in Austerfield, Yorkshire, England; was buried on 23 May 1597 in Austerfield, Yorkshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

"'Alexander Carpenter of Wrington' was on 16 December 1600 witness at the Amsterdam marriage of 'Antoine Fetcher' and 'Jenneken Richeman'. He was at Leiden by 1611. In a letter of 19 August 1644 or 1646 to Mary Carpenter of Wrington, sister of his wife Alice (Carpenter) (Southworth) Bradford, William Bradford noted that the mother of the Carpenter sisters had recently died, and invited Mary to join them in Plymouth, which she soon did." [Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins, citation details below, p. 314]

Note that Mary Lovering Holman's 1919 Scott Genealogy, which Anderson cites as the best treatment of Alexander Carpenter, misdates William Bradford's aforementioned letter to Mary Carpenter, and thus implicitly Mary Carpenter's emigration, saying that Bradford's letter was written and sent in 1664, which would be seven years after Bradford's death. This error probably came from a too-hasty reading of the original article in which Bradford's letter was published, Frederic Kidder's "Letter of Mary Carpenter", The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 14:195, July 1860. Kidder was working from a copy of Bradford's letter made "a long time previous", and transcribes the letter's date as "August 19, 1664", but in a footnote he says "This is so in the copy, but it must be an error; probably the original read 1644 or 1646, as there is internal evidence that the letter was written around that time."

Also note that William Bradford's letter of 1644 or 1646 says that, Mary Carpenter's mother having recently died, Mary is "in a solitary condition." From which it seems evident that Alexander Carpenter had died earlier.

Alexander married (Unknown wife of Alexander Carpenter). (Unknown died before 19 Aug 1644. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Bef 19 Aug 1646

Notes:

“He was apparently the first of the Bradfords to settle is Austerfield, was called 'Willm Bradfurthe of Austerfelde' as early as 12 Feb. 1557/8, in the will of his uncle, Peter Bradfurthe, and was one of the six executors who proved this will, 6 Apr. 1558. According to Hunter (The Founders of New Plymouth, p. 102) William Bradford and John Hanson (the two grandfathers of Governor Bradford) were about 1575 the only inhabitants of Austerfield who were assessable in the subsidy.” [William Bradford Browne, “Ancestry of the Bradfords of Austerfield, County York”]

William married (Unknown first wife of William Bradford) before 28 Nov 1552. (Unknown died before Oct 1567. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

John married Margaret Gressam on 23 Jul 1560 in Austerfield, Yorkshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]