Bradford

“ His ideal of duty captivates the doer more than his own agency therein. The noblest men are made by the contemplation of their models. Like the great Apostle, they are not disobedient unto the [12] heavenly vision. Among earth's worthies, modest and unconscious of greatness, there stands the figure of William Bradford.
We find him first as a native of Austerfield, England, on the south border of Yorkshire. ”

“ 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. ”

“ All is mystery—chaos. Bradford’s an impenetrable sphinx, but she—she’s an inexplicable riddle. She’s no ignorant savage; she’s an intelligent, educated white woman. What then? She’s not Tenskwatawa’s daughter—that’s plain. But who is she? What does she among the Indians? Bradford, even, bends to her will. She regards the savages as her people; she’s hand and glove with the English. Evidently she hates all Americans. ”

“ It is no less than sacrilege for a man who can write after this fashion to sit down at the Lord’s table with us, professing to be of us.”
“You are right, Elder,” replied Bradford sternly, “and I leave the spiritual matter to you; but it is my duty, and one not to be slighted, to drive this traitor out of our body politic. He must leave Plymouth at once. Say you not so, Captain Standish?” ”

“ And as the captain’s astonished gaze fixed itself upon his friend’s face, Bradford colored deeply, yet made reply in a voice both resolute and self-respecting,—
“I feel as you do, Standish, and as any honorable man must; but this is a matter involving more than mine own honor or pleasure. If these men are persuading our associates in England to withdraw from their agreement, and refuse to send us further supplies, or to find a market for our commodities, and so help out our own struggles for subsistence, we and all these weaklings dependent upon us are lost. ”

“ A strong liberal, he was for meeting the chartists halfway, and his efforts in Bradford are believed to have had no little effect in preventing the extreme men among the chartists of that town from resorting to violence. He even attended a great meeting of chartists at Bradford, and, in his own words, 'roared from the top of a wagon to six or eight thousand people for nearly three quarters of an hour, and pushed a strong moral force resolution down their throats, at the cost of much physical force exertion' on his own part. ”

“ Go now, and I will send for thee in a day or two. But see thou keep a quiet tongue. Say not one word so much as to the rushes, or thou shalt have no husband at all. Mind that!"
"Oh, I'll not speak, I'll not forget, trust me to do all your honor's bidding," cried the girl joyfully, and Bradford gazing at her in compassionate wonder rejoined,—
"Well, go now, and remember. Stay, send me one of the lads, no matter which. The first one thou seest." ”

“ 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.] ”

“ Bradford frankly declared to his fellow magistrates, he shrank both before God and man from pronouncing the words that should deprive a fellow mortal of life, and before doing so he desired the counsel and concurrence of the other New England authorities.
“Who killeth man, by man shall his blood be shed,” quoted Endicott in the silence which followed Bradford’s solemn appeal. “It is the law of God.” ”

“ Bradford thrust the journal into his pocket, took up his fishing-rod and basket, and sauntered towards the village. He thought he remembered the name of Elizabeth Purcill on a head-stone in the church-yard. He opened the little wicket and went in. The setting sun threw the long shadows of the head-stones across the thick, rank grass. The sounds of the village children at play on the green came to his ear softened and mellowed by the distance. ”

“ Bradford, when in America later, had friendly correspondence with her father in Holland.
While in Leyden now, he had the joy of perceiving the rapid growth of the Puritan fellowship there, numbering finally almost three hundred. Purchasing considerable land, they settled in a community by themselves. Robinson, their spiritual head, was held in much esteem throughout the city, for his noble character and fine abilities. Bradford in written [25] eulogy ascribes to him "ye tender love & godly care of a true pastor." ”

“ After 1624, at Bradford’s suggestion, a board of five and later seven assistants was chosen annually to share the executive responsibility. Bradford’s rule was firm and judicious, and to his guidance more than to that of any other man the prosperity of the Plymouth Colony was due. His tact and kindness in dealing with the Indians helped to relieve the colony from the conflicts with which almost every other settlement was afflicted. ”

“ Governor Bradford’s History closed with the year 1646, and the letters which he had preserved to illustrate that part of the narrative, from 1630 to its conclusion, may have been included in his Letter-book, as well as those used in the earlier portion. The fragment recovered may have been one volume of a series continuously paged. The fortunate recovery of Governor Bradford’s History, some sixty years after Mr. James Clarke rescued this fragment from a grocer’s shop in Halifax, happily supplies to a certain extent the place of the Letter-book ”

“ You remember our arrangements?” asked Bradford, his fine face a little more pallid, a little more nervous than its wont, as he stopped on his way up the hill with the Elder and Doctor Fuller, who was vehemently saying,—
“Oh, he’ll clear himself, Elder, he’ll clear himself; an unsuspicious man like Brother Lyford may be led into unadvised action from the very best and soundest of motives.” ”

“ 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. ”

“ White immigrants to the Old Colony found them especially weak there; and in Patuxet, or Plymouth, they were extinct, except for friendly Squanto.
At this time the people revealed their trust in Bradford's judgment by leaving him to decide what measures should be taken in a crisis so acute, of which he informed them on the annual court day. Captain Standish was sent to Wessagusset, with only [54] eight men, as more would excite suspicion; and they equipped the shallop for trading. ”

“ 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.] ”

“ In 1633 Bradford also sustained the British claim in the Connecticut valley above the Hollanders' holdings, sending a vessel up the river to the navigable limits, past the threatening Dutch fort at Hartford, and establishing a trading post at present Windsor. Both New Amsterdam and Massachusetts had repeatedly [85] encouraged them to do this, but repented. This mercantile base was embarrassed by a wide-spread plague among the Indians, most of whom were unfriendly. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Bradford had suggested a loophole. No man of refinement would want to be present during the investigation of his own brother's ill conduct. No, he would go out, home, for a walk—somewhere, anywhere. He had left Charles's note with Bradford. That was sufficient in all reason to absolve William from any suspicion whatever. Yes, he would go. There were situations under which a man's leaving such a scene would suggest complicity, but this would imply naught else than broken-hearted innocence burdened beyond physical endurance. Taking his hat, he went out into the street. ”

“ 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." ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ HE was the eldest son of the first Earl of Bradford, by Lady Diana Russell. During his father’s lifetime he represented Shropshire in Parliament for many years, and gained great popularity in his county by his strenuous support of the Bill of Exclusion, which obtained for him a complimentary address signed by every member of the grand jury, consisting of all the principal landholders of the neighbourhood. ”

“ Thus generous and patient was the Governor and his Pilgrim comrades. They were ready to let a man make amends for his misdeeds. But very soon Bradford had opportunity to show that he had discretion as well as mercy.
Lyford saw no prospect of his becoming the "spiritual" head at Plymouth, although by his encouragement some of the Merchant Adventurers in England succeeded in still keeping the Pilgrims' true pastor from coming to his own, as he desired to do, writing to them concerning his unwilling absence. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Bradford felt keenly the numerical loss of Plymouth [93] colonists who went out to form new communities. Everywhere the pioneer mood was for expansion. In this way he was also deprived of a group of able men. Yet they remained mostly in the Old Colony, except Edward Winslow, who finally returned to England. ”

“ Though we who speak of William Bradford as our Forefather should not be moved by pride, as no man is responsible for his own birth, it causes in us profound gratitude that we can affirm our relationship to one who has been called the first great American. ”

“ Adam Bradford, prominent Cleveland lawyer and his wife. Mr. Bradford was the son of the late Judge Bradford and a well-known man about town." Of what little avail is "prominence" when calamity stretches out her cruel hands! "Well known" and obscure gave up their lives together and found a grave side by side.
"You look like a ghost, Miss Kent," said one of the teachers. "Any friends of yours on board?"
"Dorothy Bradford's mother and father," answered Nyoda, "one of the pupils here at school."
Leaving her work unfinished, she hastened to Hinpoha's house. The news had just been learned there. ”