William Bradford (Plymouth governor)

Infobox Governor
name =William Bradford


caption =Bradford's statue in Plymouth Rock State Park, Plymouth, Massachusetts
order =2nd, 5th, 7th, 9th & 11th Governor of Plymouth Colony
office =
term_start =1621
term_end =1633
1635 – 1636
1637 – 1638
1639 – 1644
1645 – 1657
lieutenant =
predecessor =John Carver (1621)
Thomas Prence (1635)
Edward Winslow (1637)
Thomas Prence (1639)
Edward Winslow (1645)
successor =Edward Winslow (1633)
Edward Winslow (1636)
Thomas Prence (1638)
Edward Winslow (1644)
Thomas Prence (1645)
birth_date =March 19, 1590
birth_place =Austerfield, Yorkshire, England
death_date =May 9, 1657
death_place =Plymouth, Massachusetts
restingplace =
restingplacecoordinates =
nationality =English
party =
otherparty =
spouse =Dorothy Bradford
Alice Carpenter
relations =
children =
residence =
alma_mater =
occupation =
profession =
net worth =
cabinet =
committees =
portfolio =
religion =Puritan


website =
footnotes =

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."'

Biography

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.

Shifting alignments of the European powers (due to religious differences, struggles over the monarchies and intrigues within the ruling Hapsburg 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". On December 7, 1620, before the colony was established, Bradford's wife died. [cite web
url=http://etext.virginia.edu/users/deetz/Plymouth/Maydeaths.html
title=Mayflower Passenger Deaths, 1620-1621
author=Patricia Scott Deetz
coauthors=James Deetz
work=The Plymouth Colony Archive Project
accessdate=2006-05-21] 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. [cite web
url=http://www.pilgrimhall.org/bradfordwilliamrecords.htm
title=William Bradford in 17 Century Records
publisher=Pilgrim Hall Museum
accessdate=2006-05-21] 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. [cite journal
url=http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/pageviewer?frames=1&cite=&coll=&view=50&root=%2Fmoa%2Fharp%2Fharp0039%2F&tif=00145.TIF&pagenum=135
title=William Bradford's Love Life
author=Austin, Jane Goodwin
journal=Harper's New Monthly Magazine
volume=39
issue=229
year=1777
pages=135–140]

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.cite book | title=Plymouth Colony: Its History & People 1620-1691| url=http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0916489183/ref=sib_dp_pt/002-2814230-1648055#reader-link| last=Stratton| first=Eugene Aubrey| date=1986| pages=365-366| publisher=Ancestry Incorporated| location=USA| doi=0-916489-13-2] 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. [ [http://www.pilgrimhall.org/bradfordalice.htm Alice Bradford ] ]

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.”

The lineage of William Bradford can be found through Dorthy Bradford Kemp-Wood, who lives in Virginia, along with two sons and and four grandchildren.

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.

Notable descendants

*Serena Armstrong-Jones, Viscountess Linley, [cite web
url=http://www.newenglandancestors.org/education/articles/research/special_guests/gary_boyd_roberts/14_659_414.asp
author=Roberts, Gary Boyd
title=Genealogical Thoughts by Gary Boyd Roberts #14
work=New England Historic Genealogical Society
accessdate2007-06-24] wife of David Armstrong-Jones, Viscount Linley
*The Baldwin brothers; (Alec, Daniel, William, and Stephen) [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.] American actors
*Ambrose Bierce [Morris, Roy (1996). " [http://books.google.com/books?id=CVtO3Ff6BpoC&pg=PP1&ots=AxSWeUjIeG&dq=ambrose+bierce&sig=dWazqgyNeSFTOUMgzL3Gak55RWw Ambrose Bierce: Alone In Bad Company] ". New York: Crown, p. 10. Retrieved on 2007-05-05.] American dystopian novelist and satirist
*Gamaliel Bradford (1768-1824), [Bradford, Gamaliel. " [http://oasis.harvard.edu:10080/oasis/deliver/~hou00478 Correspondence: Guide] ". Houghton Library, Harvard College University. Retrieved on 2007-05-04.] American Revolutionary War officer, and his descendants, including Gamaliel Bradford (1863-1932), American biographer and journalist
*Robert F. Bradford, [ [http://www.masshist.org/findingaids/doc.cfm?fa=fa0104 Robert Fiske Bradford Papers, 1909-1971] , Massachusetts Historical Society; accessed 4 June 2007.] [ [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,931700,00.html?iid=chix-sphere "Blue Bloods,"] "Time"; 19 Sept. 1938. On-line source: Time On-line; accessed 4 June 2007.] American lawyer, Republican Party strategist, and Governor of Massachusetts from 1947 to 1949
*William Bradford (1624-1703), military commander of the Plymouth forces during King Philip's WarFact|date=August 2008
*William Bradford (1729-1808), American physician, lawyer, and U.S. Senator from Rhode IslandFact|date=August 2008
*William Bradford (painter), [ [http://208.112.91.216/articles/article.cfm?request=436 William Bradford: Sailing Ships and Arctic Seas] ] American painter, photographer, and explorer
*James G. Carter, ["The Mayflower Quarterly", Vol. 51, General Society of Mayflower Descendants: 1985 (quarterly journal).] American congregational minister, Massachusetts State Representative, and pioneer of Normal schools and public education
*Julia Child, [Fitch, Noel Riley. "Appetite for Life: The Biography of Julia Child"; New York: Doubleday, 1999; pp. 10.] American entrepreneur and chef of French and French-influenced cuisine
*Frederic Edwin Church, [ [http://www.newenglandancestors.org/education/articles/research/special_guests/gary_boyd_roberts/36_659_436.asp Roberts, Gary Boyd. "Genealogical Thoughts by Gary Boyd Roberts #36"] , "New England Historic Genealogical Society". On-line source (NewEnglandAncestors.org); accessed 5 May 2007.] American landscape painter
*Frank Nelson Doubleday, [Doubleday, Frank Nelson. "The Memoirs of a Publisher"; New York: Doubleday, 1972; appendices.] American publisher, and his descendants, including Nelson Doubleday, Nelson Doubleday, Jr., and Russell Doubleday
*George Eastman, [See ref for Frederic Edwin Church.] American inventor and the founder of the Eastman Kodak Company
*Clint Eastwood, [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=w6i25jxBIwcC McGilligan, Patrick. "Clint: The Life And Legend"] ; New York: St. Martin's Press, 2002; pp. 13.] American film actor, director, and producer
*Charles Dana Gibson, [Roberts, Gary Boyd. "Notable Kin: Volume Two"; Santa Clara, CA: Carl Boyer, 1999.] illustrator, best known for his "Gibson girl" drawings
*Edward "Ned" Lamont, [ [http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/10/15/opinion/nyregionopinions/15CT_Sleeper.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss Sleeper, Jim. "The American Lamonts,"] "The New York Times," "Opinions and Editorials;" on-line publication: 15 October 2006; accessed 5 May 2007.] [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.] American businessman and Democratic Party politician
*John Lithgow, ["The Mayflower Quarterly", Vol. 64, General Society of Mayflower Descendants: 1998 (quarterly journal).] American actor and philanthropist
*Jan Masaryk, [ [http://www.newenglandancestors.org/education/articles/NEXUS/notable_kin_foreign_prime_ministers_or_presidents_659_90521.asp 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.] Czechoslovak diplomat and politician
*George B. McClellan, [ [http://www.wargs.com/political/romney.html 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.)] Civil War general, Governor of New Jersey, Democratic opponent of Abraham Lincoln in the 1864 United States presidential election
*Thomas Pynchon, [ [http://www.newenglandancestors.org/education/articles/research/special_guests/gary_boyd_roberts/48_659_448.asp 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.] American short story writer and novelist
*Christopher Reeve, [ [http://www.newenglandancestors.org/education/articles/research/special_guests/gary_boyd_roberts/GBR_77.asp 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.] American film actor and political activist
*William Rehnquist, [ [http://www.wargs.com/other/rehnquist.html Ancestry of William Rehnquist] (William Bradford, #1702 in Rehnquist's ahnentafel, was the son of Governor William Bradford.)] Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1972 to 1986 and Chief Justice of the United States from 1986 until his death in 2005
*Deborah Sampson, [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=zsYY4RDnAGcC&pg Scott, Fred. "Clifton William Scott and Mildred Evelyn Bradford Scott of Ashfield, Mass.: Volume 1" (Genealogical record)] ; iUniverse, 2004; pp. 423.] [Young, Alfred. "Masquerade: The Life and Times of Deborah Sampson, Continental Soldier"; New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004; pp. 4-5.] female member of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War
*Benjamin Spock, [See ref for George B. McClellan.] child care specialist and author
*Adlai Stevenson III, [See first ref for Deborah Sampson.] United States Democratic Senator representing Illinois from 1970 to 1981, two-time candidate for Governor of Illinois
*Alfred Sturtevant, [ [http://www.sturtevant.com/sturtevant/ahs_ancestry.html Ancestry of Alfred Henry Sturtevant III] (Alfred Sturtevant is the father of the author of this article.)] American geneticist
*Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr., [ [http://www.newenglandancestors.org/education/articles/research/special_guests/gary_boyd_roberts/42_659_442.asp Roberts, Gary Boyd. "Genealogical Thoughts by Gary Boyd Roberts #42"] , "New England Historic Genealogical Society". On-line source (NewEnglandAncestors.org); accessed 10 June 2007.] publisher of the "New York Times" since 1992
*Charles Sumner, [ [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus:text:2001.05.0206 Pierce, Edward L. "Memoir and letters of Charles Sumner: volume 1"] , Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University; on-line source, accessed 15 June 2007.] American statesman and Republican Party politician
*Noah Webster, [ [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Noah_Webster "Noah Webster"] ; "Encyclopedia Britannica", 11th ed. (1911). On-line source: "Classic Encyclopedia;" accessed 4 May 2007] American educator, journalist, and lexicographer noted for his Webster's Dictionary
*William Collins Whitney, [Biddle, Flora Miller. [http://books.google.com/books?id=-EZeRPNlaxkC&pg=PA424&lpg=PA424&dq=the+whitney+women+and+the+museum+they+made+a+family+memoir&source=web&ots=3a-aeRI_j_&sig=O_CT0QhJ0dyf6ZpkRcg48e2Bdw4#PPA1,M1 "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.] [ [http://www.whitneygen.org/archives/biography/williamc.html "William Collins Whitney (1841 - 1904)"] . "The Whitney Research Group", 1999; accessed 4 May 2007.] American financier and politician, and his descendants, the Whitney family

"NOTE:" Hugh Hefner, media and pornography executive, is a claimant of descent from William Bradford [ [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1112823,00.html "Mr. Playboy"] ; Isenberg, Barbara. "Time", on-line: 2 October 2005; accessed 4 May 2007.] , but his claims have been disproved by The Mayflower Society. ["The Mayflower Quarterly", "Letters," Vol. 72, No. 2 (June 2006), publication of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants.]

References

External links

* [http://www.pilgrimhall.org/bradfordwilliam.htm Bradford's History] at the Pilgrim Hall Museum
* [http://www.mayflowerhistory.com/Passengers/WilliamBradford.php William Bradford] on MayflowerHistory.com
* * [http://books.google.com/books?id=tYecOAN1cwwC&printsec=titlepage Full Text Bradford's book: "Of Plymouth Plantation" (provided by Google Book Search)]