John Bradford

“ In the year of colonial union Elder Brewster passed away, who had been not only a most worthy and acceptable preacher and virtual pastor at Plymouth, but a close adviser to the Governor, even as he had been the counsellor of his youth. The efficient military head, Myles Standish, was released by death from further responsibilities in 1656; and Bradford survived him only into the next year, having still the company of the public-spirited and helpful John Howland, of the remaining Mayflower Pilgrims.
Many of the best people of England were leaving for America. ”

“ Robert Cushman in London to John Carver at Southampton:
Loving Friend,
I have received some letters from you, full of affection and complaints; but what it is you want me to do I know not. You cry out, Negligence, negligence, negligence: I marvel why so negligent [47] a man as myself was employed to undertake the business. Yet you know that as far as my power permits, nothing shall be one hour behind, I warrant you. You call upon Mr. Weston to help us with more money than his share in the adventure ”

“ So, unmindful of the rain, as men who live close to Nature will still become, the three went down the hill, and found Bradford in his study reading the Georgics, until such time as the weather would permit him to plough his own fields; for now that “oxen strong to labor” had immigrated, their fellow-colonists were able to improve upon the earlier methods of agriculture, and the plough had superseded the hoe whose rude labors had slain John Carver. ”

“ He married as his first wife, in 1818, Georgina, only daughter of Sir Thomas Moncreiffe, Bart., of Moncreiffe, by whom he had Orlando George, his successor, the present Earl; the Hon. and Rev. George Bridgeman, rector of Wigan; the Hon. and Rev. John Bridgeman, rector of Weston; and four daughters. Lady Bradford died in 1842, and the Earl married, secondly, Helen, widow of Sir David Moncreiffe, Bart., and daughter of Æneas Mackay, Esq. of Scotston, Peebles. She died in 1869.
Without taking an active part in politics, his principles were those of a staunch Conservative. ”

“ The closely allied civil and religious interests of the time were further promoted between north and south, under Governor John Winthrop, in his third year at Boston, the new and growing colonial seat. This excellent man wished to visit his gubernatorial brother, Bradford, and associates. There had been great sickness at Boston in its beginning, as in Plymouth at first, though proportionately not so severe in the colony which started with much better numbers. These Bostonians in their crisis bought every available commodity from Plymouth, and for cattle they exchanged horses. ”

“ JOHN CARVER; Katherine, his wife; DESIRE MINTER; two men-servants, JOHN HOWLAND and ROGER WILDER; a boy, WILLIAM LATHAM; a maid-servant; a child who was put under his charge, called JASPER MORE.
Mr. and Mrs. Carver, Wilder, and Jasper More all died here during the first general sickness. Desire Minter returned to England; Latham stayed twenty years and then returned; the maid-servant married here, and died a year or two after. Howland married Elizabeth Tillie. Both are living. They had ten children.
WILLIAM BREWSTER; Mary, his wife; two sons, Love and Wrestling ”

“ Whereas there was a partnership for a period of years agreed upon between James Sherley, John Beauchamp, and Richard Andrews, of London, merchants, and William Bradford, Edward Winslow, Thomas Prince, Myles Standish, William Brewster, John Alden, John Howland, and Isaac Allerton, in a trade of beaver skins and other furs from New England ”

“ Peter Brown married twice, leaving four children; he died about sixteen years since. Gilbert Winslow, after several years here returned to England and died there.
JOHN ALDEN.
Mr. Alden was hired at Southampton as a cooper. Being a likely young man, he was desirable as a settler; but it was left to his own choice to stay here or return to England; he stayed, and married Priscilla Mullins (see above) .
JOHN ALLERTON; THOMAS ENGLISH; WILLIAM TREVOR; and one, ELY. The first two were hired as sailors, the one to stay here with the shallop, the other to go back and help over those left behind ”

“ He married Mary, daughter and heir of George Cradock of Carsewell Castle, in Staffordshire, whose widow married Sir Orlando as his second wife. By this alliance John Bridgeman’s mother-in-law became his step-mother, a singular relationship. He had four sons, three of whom died unmarried; the two who survived him were John, his namesake and successor, and Orlando, married to Catherine, daughter of William Bridgeman of Comb, County Suffolk, Esq. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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." ”

“ Should not God and our dear Elder have required his blood at your hand?”
A great silence was the only answer, and presently Bradford spoke again, and now in the tone of assured conviction and well-grounded authority that in some [Pg 338] moods the human soul yearns to hear, especially an ardent, impetuous, and loving soul like that of Standish; a nature that, while the impulse lasts, will dare heaven and hell and earth to achieve its purposes, and when the revulsion comes distrusts all that is within, and turns like a drowning man to some external authority. ”

“ 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?” ”

“ I answer, seeing all men have this corruption in them, God in his wisdome saw another course fiter for them.
But to returne. After this course setled, and by that their cor̅e was planted, all ther victails were spente, and they were only to rest on Gods providence; at night not many times knowing wher to have a bitt of any thing ye next day. And so, as one well observed, had need to pray that God would give them their dayly brade, above all people in ye world. Yet they bore these wants with great patience & allacritie of spirite, and that for so long a time as for ye most parte of 2. years ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ A self-made man, a scholar of repute, a writer of renown, an upright and fearless magistrate, a model citizen, a courageous leader, gentle, just and generous, practical and wise, William Bradford stands in history as the essence and exponent of what was best in the Puritanism of his day, the architect and builder of a God-fearing, independent, and progressive community that, throughout the (p. 177) ages, remains the most notable because the most typical of the foundation-stones that underlie the mighty structure of the Republic of the United States of America. ”

“ 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! ”

“ 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. ”

“ Bradford and La Violette did all they could to cheer and encourage him—but in vain. Like a water-logged vessel, he drifted this way and that in the eddy of conflicting emotions—and made little progress toward the haven of health.
Out of patience, at last, Bradford said to him:
“Look here, young man! Do you want to get well? If you do, you’ve got to rouse yourself. Shake off your lethargy and be a man. You’re acting the baby. I’m ashamed of you.”
Ross proudly straightened his thin form. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ When those far-seeing reformers awoke to the fact that an English-speaking community in Holland must, in time, become Dutch in manners, speech, and life, and looked across the western ocean with the dream of founding a religious republic of English-speaking folk in the New World, Bradford was one of the most earnest in adopting and carrying out their views, and was one of that famous company which, on September 16, 1620, sailed from Plymouth in England, to cast anchor, three months later, in the harbor of the new Plymouth in New England. ”

“ 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. ”

“ He says we take a heady course; and he is offended that our provisions are being made so far off, and that he was not made acquainted with our quantity of things. He says that working thus, in three places, so far distant, we shall, with going hither and thither, wrangling and expostulating, let the summer slip by before we start. And to tell the truth, there is already a flat schism among us. We are readier to dispute than to undertake a voyage. I have received from Leyden, since you went, three or four letters directed to you ”

“ 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 ”