BRADFORD, WILIAAnt ( e.1590-1657 ) . One of the leaders and the historian of the Massaelm setts Pilgrims„ and the second Governor of Ply mouth Colony. Ile was born in Auste•field• York shire, England; joined the Separatist Church of John Robinson (q.v.) at the age of 17, and, after an unsuccessful attempt, to leave England in 1607 ( for which he was for a time impris oned). joined the Pilgrims in Rolland, where he became a silk-dyer. and afterwards a merchant. He advocated the removal to America, and was one of the Pilgrims who in 1620 came over in the Mayllowr r and founded Plymouth Colony. In April, 1621, he was chosen Governor to succeed Carver, and by repeated reelections continued to hold this position until his death, except for five years, when "by importunity he got oir." During all this period the story of his life is inseparably connected with that of the colony, and by his wisdom, his tact, and his great ad minist•ative ability, he did perhaps more than any other one man to make the experiment a suc cess. In particular he quickly saw the pernicious effects of the communal system and in 1623 in sisted that it be abolished. The second patent of Plymouth was issued (in 1629) to "William Bradford, his heirs, associates, and assigns." Bradford rendered an inestimable service to students of American history by preparing a careful History of Plimouth Plantation '(from 1602 to 1647 ), upon which, directly or indirectly, all subsequent accounts of the Pilgrims have been based. This history. says Tyler (History of American Literature, i.. 118). "is an orderly, and most instructive work; it contains many tokens of its author's appreciation of the nature and requirements of historical writing, and though so recently published in a. perfect form, it must henceforward take its true place at. the head of American historical literature" and will for its author "the dignity of being called 'tile father of American history.'" The manu script of this work was used by Morton in the preparation of his Nciii England's Memorial (1669) ; by Prince in the preparation of his Chronological History of New England (1736), and by Hutchinson in the preparation of his History of Massachusetts Bay (1767). It was
stored for many years in the tower of the Old South Church, but disappeared during the Revo lutionary 1Var; was found in the Fulham Library, England, in 1855; and in 1898 was re turned to the United States and deposited among the Massachusetts archives. The history was first published, with notes by Charles Deane, in 1856, and since then has been twice reprinted: in facsimile, with an introduction by John A. Doyle (London and Boston, 1896), and under the title, Bradford's History of Plimouth Planta tion from the original Manuscript, with a Re port of Proceedings Incident to the Return of the Manuscript to Mossachusetts (Boston. 1893). In addition to the history. Bradford wrote Some Ob servations of God's Merciful Dealings with Us in the Wilderness; .1 Word to Plymouth; A Word to New England: and Epitaphium Meum—all of which were left in manuscript and have been published in the Collections of the Massachu sctts Historical Society. A Diary of Occurrences Covering the First Year of the Colony, written in conjunction with Edward Winslow. was pub lished in 1622 and was long known as Mou•t's Relation: and Dialogue, or the Sum of a. Conference Some Young Men Born in New England and Sundry Anti•nt Men that Came Out of Holland and. Old England was pub lished in 1648, and has been republished in Vol. II. of the Old South Leaflets (Boston). Most of Bradford's shorter writings may be found in Young's Chronicles of the Pilgrims (Boston, IS t1). Consult : The New England Genealogical Register for 1850; Walker. Ten New England Leaders (New York, 1901) : Tyler, .1 //istory of merican Literature, 1607-1765 (New York. 1S9S) : and Justin Winsor, Governor Bradford's ilvinuscript History and Its Transmission to Our Times (Cambridge, 1381). For an interesting Life of Bradford, consult Cotton Mather, Mag nolia (London, 1702).