Bradford, West Yorkshire

“ When I went abroad I determined to visit the locality, on the [xlvi] borders of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, from which Bradford and Brewster and Robinson, the three leaders of the Pilgrims, came, and where their first church was formed, and the places in Amsterdam and Leyden where the emigrants spent thirteen years. But I longed especially to see the manuscript of Bradford at Fulham, which then seemed to me, as it now seems to me, the most precious manuscript on earth, unless we could recover one of the four gospels as it came in the beginning from the pen of the Evangelist. ”

“ Next to Brewster, William Bradford was the most prominent of the lay preachers among the Scrooby fraternity. He became Governor Bradford of the Plymouth Colony—"the first American citizen of the English race who bore rule by the free choice of his brethren"—and the historian of the Plymouth Plantation. Bradford, a yeoman's son with comfortable home surroundings, lived at Austerfield, an ancient [Pg 12] agricultural village about three miles from Scrooby on the Yorkshire side. ”

“ It is of white marble on a granite base, and rises to a height of eight feet or more. On the south side are these words:—
H I William Bradford of Austerfield Yorkshire England. Was the son of William and Alice Bradford He was Governor of Plymouth Colony from 1621 to 1633 1635 1637 1639 to 1643 1645 to 1657
On the north side is a Hebrew sentence, said to signify “Jehovah is our help,” but by other Hebrew [Pg 17] scholars translated “In Jehovah’s name I die.” Then follows:—
GOV. BRADFORD’S MONUMENT.
Under this stone rest the ashes of William Bradford a zealous Puritan & sincere Christian Gov. ”

“ It may really have been neither, and life may have been as wild, and bad, and fascinating in those streets as in the streets of any American town of the same population as Bradford. There was everything in the charming old place to make life easy; good shops, of all kinds, abundant provisions, stores, and not too many licensed victuallers, mostly women, privileged to sell wine and spirits. Yet, as the twilight began to fall, Bradford seemed very lonely, and we thought with terror, what if we should miss our train back to Bath! ”

“ Be it knowne unto all men, therfore, by these presents, that the [445] said William Bradford, for him selfe, his heires, together with ye said purchasers, doe only reserve unto them selves, their heires, and assignes those 3. tractes of land mentioned in ye said resolution, order, and agreemente, bearing date ye first of Des: 1640. viz. first, from ye bounds of Yarmouth, 3. miles to ye eastward of Naemschatet, and from sea to sea, crose the neck of land. The 2. of a place called Acoughcouss, which lyeth in ye botome of ye bay adjoyning to ye west-side of Pointe Perill, and 2. ”

“ The single sentence by Bradford tells the story of their romance: "being a hop [e] full yong man was much desired, but left to his owne liking to go or stay when he came here; but he stayed, and maryed here." With him he brought a Bible, printed 1620, [Footnote: Now in Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth.] probably a farewell gift or purchase as he left England. When the grant of land and cattle was made in 1627, he was twenty-eight years old, and had in his family, Priscilla, his wife, a daughter, Elizabeth, aged three, and a son, John, aged one. [Footnote: Records of the Colony of New Plymouth.] ”

“ A strange, but positive, fact about New York is that one may at one time be in it but a few hours and run across half the people of one's acquaintance, gathered from all parts of the country, and at another, wander about for weeks without seeing a familiar face.
I liked Bradford from the moment I shook hands with him. There is so much in the mere touching of hands. His neither crushed as if to compel, nor flopped equivocally, but said, as it enclosed yours in its bigness, "I am here, command me." ”

“ On Sunday evening he reappeared in Bradford, and adopted the following extraordinary expedient to impress the congregation:—Unknown to the members, he caused two men to stand, one on each side of the archway leading into the second room of the meeting-house—the house being divided into three parallel apartments, which opened into each other by an archway in each partition, thus forming a sort of narthex, nave, and chancel. Each man held a sword, and the swords were united at the points, so that the Friends, to enter, had to pass under the swords. Wroe entered last of all. ”

“ When we got well away from the tithe-barn we felt the need of tea, and we walked back from the station where our large boy, or little man, had put us down, to the shop of a green-grocer, which is probably the most twentieth-century building in Bradford. It is altogether of wood, and behind the shop, where the vegetables vaunted themselves in all the variety of cabbage, there is a clean little room, with the walls and roof sheathed in matched and painted pine. ”

“ As a commercial centre Bradford is advantageously placed with regard to both railway communication and connexion with the Humber and with Liverpool by canal, and through the presence in its immediate vicinity of valuable deposits of coal and iron. The principal textile manufactures in order of importance are worsted, employing some 36,000 hands, females considerably outnumbering males ”

“ If we of to-day, whether American or British, fail to appreciate the almost unearthly value of Bradford’s History, it is because we ourselves are still too close to the opening of that era in modern civilization,—yet in its early stages of development,—with which it is concerned. ”

“ Though early Plymouth events and the career of Bradford are inseparably connected, the colonial history is here limited and made subservient to the personal consideration, with regret that there do not appear more obtainable data of this nature. Undoubtedly the Governor's modest reticence largely accounts for this. We can only be thankful that we have what we have. ”

“ Early this year they sent a boat to trade with the Dutch colony, where they met with a Captain Stone who had lived in Christophers, one of the West Indian Islands, and had now been some time in Virginia, and had come up from there. He kept company with the Dutch Governor, and in some drunken fit got his leave to seize their boat, just as they were ready to leave and had finished trading, [260] having £500 worth of goods aboard. ”

“ The Council for New England, over the signature of its president the Earl of Warwick, made out a patent to William Bradford, granting territory thirteen miles on the River, and extending fifteen miles on either side. Business there did so well at first, that the American debtors gained headway, until a disappointing agent abroad occasioned trouble by private competition. ”

“ Records of the Colony of New Plymouth In New England, edited by David Pulslfer, 1861.] Elder Brewster was granted "one of the four Heifers came in The Jacob called the Blind Heifer."
Among interesting sidelights upon the economic and social results of this extension of land and cattle is the remark of Bradford: [Footnote: Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation, Bk. 2.] "Some looked for building great houses, and such pleasant situations for them as themselves had fancied, as if they would be great men and rich all of a suddaine; but they proved castles in air." ”

“ Bradford obtained his release, and he was eventually permitted to return to England. He is said to have died at Bristol during the civil war.
[Little, if anything, is known of Weston beyond what is told by Bradford in his History of Plymouth Plantation (collections of the Mass. Hist. Soc., 4th ser. vol. iii.) . All other relations—Young's Chronicles of the Pilgrims, Prince's Chronological Hist. of New England, Hubbard's General History of New England—are merely repetitions of Bradford's story, and necessarily tinged by Bradford's bitterness towards the man.] ”

“ So I was introduced into the lift, and away we were hoisted up to the fifth or sixth story, when I was first led to the gazebo on the roof, that I might enjoy the prospect of the town and neighbourhood. What a prospect! a great mass of houses, and rounded heights beyond, dimly seen through a rolling canopy of smoke. The sky of London is brilliant in comparison. May it never be my doom to live in Bradford, or Leeds, or Sheffield, or Manchester!
We soon exchanged the dismal outlook for the topmost floor, where I saw heaps of ‘tabs,’ stacks of boards, boxes, and paper for packing. ”

“ Lord Bradford died at Twickenham in his eighty-ninth year, and was buried at Wroxeter, near his country house of Eyton, in Shropshire, where a marble monument on the south 185wall of the chancel bears a long inscription to his memory. It was written of him that ‘at the time of his death, he was the most venerable character of any nobleman in England, on account of his virtues, and the unblemished honour with which he had filled every station of life. ”

“ So even among friends men need to be careful whom they trust, and not let things of this nature lie long unrecalled.
James Sherley in England to Governor Bradford at New Plymouth:
Sir,
I have received your letter through our friends Mr. Allerton and Mr. Hatherley, who, blessed be God, have arrived safely at Bristol. [229] Mr. Hatherley has come to London, but Mr. Allerton I have not yet seen. We thank you, and are very glad you dissuaded him from the Spanish voyage, and that he did not fulfill his intentions; for we all utterly disliked the project, as well as the fishing of the Friendship. ”

“ He was buried in Eyam Church, 25th June, 1646. His widow lived on at Eyam until she and her only unmarried daughter were driven away by the plague, which was raging in that village during the years 1665 and 1666. Francis, the eldest son, who inherited all the Bradshaw estates, had married in 1652 Elizabeth Vesey, a Yorkshire heiress, and he elected to live in his wife’s ancestral home at Brampton, co. York, and there did all the future Bradshawes, of Bradshaw, live, forsaking the old home and county. Francis Bradshawe died at Brampton, 21st December, 1659, leaving two sons. ”

“ He also began to sell to others outside the settlement, which, considering their agreement, they disliked. But love thinks no evil, nor is suspicious; so they took his fair words for excuse, and decided to send [200] him to England again this year, considering how well he had done formerly and how well he stood with their friends there; and particularly as some of their friends from Leyden were to be sent for, the arrangements for which he could, or might, assist in. ”

“ However, he spoke with some of the honoured Council, who promised all possible help to the colony. Several of the friendly adventurers were so reduced by their losses last year, and now by the ship taken by the Turks, and the decreased profits on their fish, and such multitudes in London were dying weekly of the plague, that all trade was dead and little money was available; so that with great difficulty he raised £150 (and spent a good deal of it in expenses) at 50 per cent, which he expended on trading goods and such other commodities as he knew they needed. ”

“ Commenting on this final extra burden from abroad, Bradford thus expresses his wonder "that these poor people here in a wilderness should, notwithstanding, be inabled in time to repay all these ingagments, and many more unjustly brought upon them through the unfaithfulness of some, and many other great losses which they sustained, which will be made manifest, if ye Lord be pleased to give life and time. ”

“ There are not above a hundred of us here all told; and we counted on five times that number. The Leeds men will meet us, or should meet us, nigher Rawfolds. But Bradford and Dewsbury have sent a mere handful of those that should have come. George is putting a brave face on, but he’s sore vexed all the same.”
“We’ve enough for th’ job,” I said. “If a hundred men cannot force Rawfolds a thousand cannot. ”

“ His Complaint of Verity is of extraordinary rarity. The only copy I am aware of is possessed {450}by the Rev. T. Corser, of Stand, Manchester; and was purchased (I believe) at Mr. Bright's sale for 17l.
I should be obliged to any one who would supply me with any information about early editions of Bradford's writings.
Every one is familiar with the story that Bradford, on seeing a criminal pass to execution, said, "There goes John Bradford but for the grace of God." ”

“ Among these volumes were Governor Bradford's letter-book and the manuscript of his "History of the Plantation of Plymouth." During the siege of Boston, the British turned the Old South into a riding-school, and the troopers had free scope to do what mischief they pleased. After the evacuation of the town the library was found in a disordered condition, and the valued manuscripts of Bradford were missing. Some time after, a person observed that the article he had bought from a grocer in Halifax was wrapped in paper written over in a peculiar hand. ”

“ After resting on an estate as a garden stone, it was given to a lady from Austerfield, who loaned it indefinitely to the church mentioned. It is a large Norman bowl, rough-hewn and of ancient aspect, which when in use was for convenience set upon a wooden block.
When the tolling bells above the small stone chapel summoned the Bradford family and friends to the solemn service, little did they discern, with all their natural affection, any unusual significance in that [14] consecration of a life to be expended far from the quiet hamlet of old England in a growing community of New England. ”

“ The extended New Plymouth patent having been taken out in the name of William Bradford, as in trust, ran in these terms: “To him, his heirs, associates, and assigns.” [302] But the number of freemen having now greatly increased, and several townships being established and settled in several quarters such as New Plymouth, Duxbury, Scituate, Taunton, Sandwich, Yarmouth, Barnstable, Marshfield, and not long after Seekonk,—afterwards called at the wish of the inhabitants Rehoboth,—and Nauset, it was desired by the Court that William Bradford should make surrender of the same into their hands. ”