Descendants of William Bradford
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Descendants of William Bradford First Generation 1. William Bradford. William married Alice Hanson. The child from this marriage was: +2 M i. Gov. William Bradford was born on 19 Mar 1589 in Austerfield York, England and died on 9 May 1657 in Plymouth MA. Of The Mayflower at age 68. Second Generation (Children) 2. Gov. William Bradford (William 1) was born on 19 Mar 1589 in Austerfield York, England and died on 9 May 1657 in Plymouth MA. Of The Mayflower at age 68. General Notes: William Bradford came onto the Mayflower with his wife Dorothy (May),leaving son John behind in Holland. Dorothy fell off the Mayflower and drowned when it was anchored in Provincetown Harbor. William Bradford BAPTIZED: 19 March 1589/90, Austerfield, York, England, son of William and Alice (Hanson) Bradford DIED: 9 May 1657, Plymouth MARRIED: 1) Dorothy May, 10 December 1613, Amsterdam, Holland, probably daughter of Henry May 2) Alice (Carpenter) Southworth, 14 August 1623, Plymouth, daughter of Alexander Carpenter, widow of Edward Southworth. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CHILDREN by DOROTHY: NAME BIRTH DEATH MARRIAGE John c1618, Leyden, Holland bef. 21 Sept. 1676, Norwich, CT Martha Bourne, bef 1650 CHILDREN by ALICE: NAME BIRTH DEATH MARRIAGE William 17 June 1624, Plymouth 20 February 1703/4, Plymouth 1: Alice Richards, aft. 23 April 1650 2:Mary Fitch 1655/75 3: Mary (Wood) Holmes, c1676 Mercy bef 22 May 1627, Plymouth bef 9 May 1657 Benjamin Vermayes, 21 December 1648, Plymouth Joseph c1630, Plymouth 10 July 1715, Plymouth Jael Hobart, 25 May 1664, Hingham ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ANCESTRAL SUMMARY: (6) Robert? Bradfourth, b. c1435, taxed 1522, d. prob. 1523. (5) Peter Bradfourth, of Bentley, Arksey, York, England; b. c1460, d. 1542/3; married at least twice, names unknown. (4) Robert Bradfourth, of Wellingley, Tickhill, York, England; b. c1487; d. 1552 or 1553; m1. (---)(---); m2. Elizabeth (---) (3) William Bradford, bur. Austerfield, York, England 10 January 1595/6; m. bef. 1552, (---)(----); m2. Margaret Fox, 19 October 1567, Harworth, Nottingham, England. (2) William Bradford, b. c1560, bur. 15 July 1591, m. Alice Hanson on 21 July 1584, Austerfield, York, 1 Produced by Legacy on 2 Mar 2009 Descendants of William Bradford England. Alice Hanson, bp. 8 December 1562, m2. Robert Briggs, 23 February 1593. She the daughter of John Hanson and Margaret Gressam. (1) William Bradford, Mayflower passenger. Will of William Bradford ---------------------------------------------------------------------- BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY: The early years of Bradford's life are described by Cotton Mather in his book Magnalia Christi Americana first published in 1702: Among those Devout People was our William Bradford, who was Born Anno 1588. in an obscure Village call'd Austerfield, where the People were as unacquainted with the Bible, as the Jews do seem to have been with part of it in the Days of Josiah; a most Ignorant and Licentious People, and like unto their Priest. Here, and in some other Places, he had a Comfortable Inheritance left him of his Honest Parents, who died while he was yet a Child, and cast him on the Education, first of his Grand Parents, and then of his Uncles, who devoted him, like his Ancestors, unto the Affairs of Husbandry. Soon and long Sickness kept him, as he would afterwards thankfully say, from the Vanities of Youth, and made him the fitter for what he was afterwards to undergo. When he was about a Dozen Years Old, the Reading of the Scriptures began to cause great Impressions upon him; and those Impressions were much assisted and improved, when he came to enjoy Mr. Richard Clifton's Illuminating Ministry, not far from his Abode; he was then also further befriended, by being brought into the Company and Fellowship of such as were then called Professors; though the Young Man that brought him into it, did after become a Prophane and Wicked Apostate. Nor could the Wrath of his Uncles, nor the Scoff of his Neighbours now turn'd upon him, as one of the Puritans, divert him from his Pious Inclinations. Having with a great Company of Christians Hired a Ship to Transport them for Holland, the Master perfidiously betrayed them into the Hands of those Persecutors; who Rifled and Ransack'd their Goods, and clapp'd their Persons into Prison at Boston, where they lay for a Month together. But Mr. Bradford being a Young Man of about Eighteen, was dismissed sooner than the rest, so that within a while he had Opportunity with some others to get over to Zealand, through Perils both by Land and Sea not inconsiderable; where he was not long Ashore ere a Viper seized on his Hand, that is, an Officer, who carried him Unto the Magistrates, unto whom an envious Passenger had accused him as having fled out of England. When the Magistrates understood the True Cause of his coming thither, they were well satisfied with him; and so he repaired joyfully unto his Brethren at Amsterdam, where the Difficulties to which he afterwards stooped in Learning and Serving of a Frenchman at the Working of Silks, were abundantly Compensated by the Delight wherewith he sat under the Shadow of our Lord in his purely dispensed Ordinances. At the end of Two Years, he did, being of Age to do it, convert his Estate in England into Money; but Setting up for himself, he found some of his Designs by the Providence of God frowned upon, which he judged a Correction bestowed by God upon him for certain Decays of Internal Piety, whereinto he had fallen; the Consumption of his Estate he thought came to prevent a Consumption in his Virtue. But after he had resided in Holland about half a Score Years, he was one of those who bore a part in that Hazardous and Generous Enterprize of removing into New England, with part of the English Church at Leyden, where at their first Landing, his dearest Consort accidentally falling Overboard, was drowned in the Harbour; and the rest of his Days were spent in the Services, and the Temptations, of that American Wilderness. William Bradford died in 1657, having been governor of the Plymouth Colony for almost the entire period since 1621. Cotton Mather in his Magnalia Christi Americana wrote that William Bradford: . was a Person for Study as well as Action; and hence, notwithstanding the Difficulties through which he passed in his Youth, he attained unto a notable Skill in Languages; the Dutch Tongue was become almost as Vernacular to him as the English; the French Tongue he could also manage; the Latin and the Greek he had Mastered; but the Hebrew he most of all studied, Because, he said, he would see with his own Eyes the Ancient Oracles of God in their Native Beauty. He was also well skill'd in History, in Antiquity, and in Philosophy; and for Theology he became so versed in it, that he was an Irrefragable Disputant against the Errors, especially those of Anabaptism, which with Trouble he saw rising in his Colony; wherefore he wrote some Significant things for the Confutation of those Errors. But the Crown of all was his Holy, Prayerful, Watchful and Fruitful Walk with God, wherein he was very Exemplary. At length he fell into an Indisposition of Body, which rendred him unhealthy for a whole 2 Produced by Legacy on 2 Mar 2009 Descendants of William Bradford Winter; and as the Spring advanced, his Health yet more declined; yet he felt himself not what he counted Sick, till one Day; in the Night after which, the God of Heaven so fill'd his Mind with Ineffable Consolations, that he seemed little short of Paul, rapt up unto the Unutterable Entertainments of Paradise. The next Morning he told his Friends, That the good Spirit of God had given him a Pledge of his Happiness in another World, and the First-fruits of his Eternal Glory: And on the Day following he died, May 9, 1657 in the 68th Year of his Age. Lamented by all the Colonies of New England, as a Common Blessing and Father to them all. William Bradford wrote Of Plymouth Plantation, chronicling the history of the Plymouth Colony, and the events that led up to their leaving England for Holland, and later to New England. William Bradford also wrote part of Mourt's Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, and he recorded some of the important letters he wrote and received in a letterbook which still partially exists. Nathaniel Morton's 1669 book, New England's Memorial also records a poem written by William Bradfordon his deathbed. There are also two elegy poems written in 1657 after Bradford's death--the first elegy poem is anonymous, and the second elegy poem was written by Josias Winslow. The Pilgrim Hall Museum has in its collection William Bradford's armchair, and his Bible. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Pilgrim leader, born in Yorkshire, England. He came from a yeoman family. Although he was not formally educated, he began to read the Bible at age 12, and he joined a separatist congregation (which met at William Brewster's house). He emigrated to Holland (1609--20) before coming to America on the Mayflower. He signed the Mayflower Compact, helped to select the location of the Plymouth colony, and was the first elected governor in 1621. He was re-elected thirty times in the next thirty-five years. It was largely because of his honesty, diligence, and administrative ability that the colony survived its difficult early years. He wrote the History of Plimoth Plantation, 1620--1647, which gave ample evidence of the moral steadfastness and resolve of the early Pilgrims and ensured their place in American history and folklore.