BRADFORD, William, American colonial governor and author: b. Austerfield, York shire, England, 1590; d. Plymouth, 9 May 1657. He joined the Separatists or Brownists in 1606; persecutions followed; an attempt to reach Holland was frustrated; he was imprisoned, but ultimately reached Zealand and became apprenticed to a French Protestant silk manu facturer. He sailed with the Mayflower from Southampton (5 Sept. 1620) and was one of the signers of the celebrated compact signed on board; and, in 1621, on the death of the first governor, John Carver, was elected to the same office, which he continued to fill (with the ex ception of a brief period when he declined re election) until his death. His administration was remarkably efficient and successful, espe cially in dealing with the Indians. One of his first acts was to adopt measures to confirm the league with the Indian sachem Massasoit. In the beginning of 1622, when the colony was subjected to a distressing famine, a threaten ing message was received from the sachem of Narragansett in the form of a bundle of ar rows boundwith the skin of a serpent. The governor sent back the skin filled with powder and ball. This decisive reply finished the cor respondence. The Narragansetts were so ter rified that they returned the skin without even inspecting its contents. In return for his kind ness and attentions to Massasoit in a dangerous illness, the sachem disclosed to the colony a dangerous conspiracy among the Indians and it was suppressed. He opposed the system of
communal holdings, the change to severalty being made in 1623; a council was appointed in 1624; he was given the title for the Plymouth Plantation in 1629 (relinquished 1635) ; and in 1634 saw representative Institutions established in the infant colony by the sending of dele gates from the towns. His 'Diary of Occur rences,' covering the first year of the colony, was published in 1622. He left a number of religious compositions in verse; and historical prose writings of great value which are the principal authorities for the early history of the colony, the most important being his 'History of the Plymouth Plantation' from the forma tion of the society in England, in 1602, down to 1647. This was for many years stored in Old South Church, Boston, disposed during the American Revolution, but was found in the library of Fulham Palace, England, in 1858, and in 1898 was returned to the United States and placed among the archives of Massachu setts. His works have been published in the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society. The shorter writings of Bradford will be found in Young's 'Chronicles of the Pilgrims' (Boston 1841). See Cotton Mather, 'Magna for life of Bradford; also Tyler, 'History of American Literature 1607-1765' (New York 1898); Walker, 'Ten New Eng land Leaders' (New York 1901).