“The LORD is the
help of my life.”
____________________
“What our fathers
with so much
difficulty secured,
do not basely
relinquish.”
Grave of William Bradford on Burial
Hill in Plymouth, Massachusetts
Willaerts’ Departure of the Pilgrims from Delfshaven
(a contemporaneous painting)
“...to keep a good conscience, and walk in such a way as God has prescribed in his Word, is a thing which I must prefer before you all, and above life itself. ...yea, I am not only willing to part with every thing that is dear to me in this world for this cause, but I am also thankful that God has given me an heart to do [so], and will accept me so to suffer for him.”
– William Bradford
“...all great and honourable actions are accompanied with great difficulties, and must be both enterprised and overcome with answerable courages. ...the dangers were great, but not desperate; the difficulties were many, but not invincible. ...all of them, through the help of God, by fortitude and patience, might either be borne or overcome.”
– William Bradford
“Thus out of small beginnings greater things have been produced by His hand that made all things of nothing, and gives being to all things that are; and, as one small candle may light a thousand, so the light here kindled hath shown unto many, yea in some sort to our whole nation; let the glorious name of Jehovah have all the praise.”
– William Bradford
WILLIAM BRADFORD AND HIS FAMILY IN THE PILGRIM HALL WEBSITE:
William Bradford in 17th Century Documents
William Bradford’s Will and Inventory
Life of William Bradford
(from Cotton Mather’s Magnalia Christi Americana)
The Visit of Father Gabriel Druillettes, 1650
Of Plymouth Plantation:
The Journal of William Bradford
Alice Carpenter Southworth Bradford
Alice Bradford in 17th Century Documents
Alice Bradford’s Will and Inventory
WILLIAM BRADFORD AND HIS FAMILY IN THE MAYFLOWER HISTORY WEBSITE:
WILLIAM BRADFORD IN THE SAIL 1620 WEBSITE:
Purloined, Found and Recovered:
The History of Bradford’s History
Pilgrims and Wampanoag:
The Prudence of Bradford and Massasoit
WILLIAM BRADFORD AND HIS FAMILY IN THE PLIMOTH-PATUXET WEBSITE:
A Genealogical Profile of William Bradford
A Genealogical Profile of Constant Southworth
A Genealogical Profile of Thomas Southworth
WILLIAM BRADFORD IN THE PLYMOUTH COLONY ARCHIVE PROJECT WEBSITE:
A New Insight into the
Early Settlement of Plymouth Plantation
(J. Jason Boroughs)
Bradford’s 1620 Sketch of Plymouth
WILLIAM BRADFORD’S ORIGINS IN THE PILGRIM FATHERS WEBSITE:
The Saviour of Austerfield Manor House
The Restoration of Austerfield’s St. Helena Church
TOPICAL STUDIES ON THE CAREER AND INFLUENCE OF WILLIAM BRADFORD:
Beyond Bradford’s Journal:
The Scrooby Puritans in Context
(Sandra Goodall)
Bradford and Winthrop:
Different Approaches to Colonial New England
(Jeremy George)
Bradford’s Two Histories:
Pattern and Paradigm in Of Plymouth Plantation
(Walter P. Wenska)
Of Plimmoth Plantation as a Literary Work
(Perry D. Westbrook)
Governor William Bradford’s Relationship with Antiquity
(Eva L. Rietveld)
The “Log of The Mayflower”: Memory and Desire
in the Winter of William Bradford
(Mark Sargent)
Governor William Bradford’s Relationship with Antiquity
(Eva L. Rietveld)
The Ancient Estate of Governor William Bradford
(Thomas Bradford Drew)
WILLIAM BRADFORD AND THE PILGRIMS ON VIDEO:
Excerpt from Desperate Crossing:
The Untold Story of the Mayflower
Excerpt from Desperate Crossing:
The Untold Story of the Mayflower
The Pilgrims (PBS) [second site]
The Story of the Pilgrims and the Mayflower
Journey into the Unknown:
William Bradford and the Pilgrim Fathers
Journey into the Unknown:
William Bradford and the Pilgrim Fathers
[second site]
In Search of Governor William Bradford
(Sue Allan)
Rebel Separatist Drama:
Scrooby, England
(Sue Allan)
Talk of the Town: William Bradford,
Governor of Plymouth Colony
Writings of William Bradford (C-SPAN)
William Bradford and Plymouth:
The View from 400 Years
(Francis J. Bremer)
The Mayflower: 400th Anniversary Special
(History Hit Live)
Pilgrim 400
(Discerning History)
The Mayflower Pilgrims
(Peter Conner)
William Bradford
(Suzanne Shaut)
In Search of William Bradford
(Catherine Warr)
English Separatists, Exile, and the Plymouth Colony
(Melinda Cole Klein)
The Mayflower: A London-Leiden Adventure
(Graham Taylor)
Virtual tour of St Helena’s Church, Austerfield
(Jonathan Strickland)
The Thanksgiving Lectures
(Jonathan Barth)
Dispossession:
Indigenous Land Loss in Plymouth Colony
(Jeremy D. Bangs)
“He was indeed a person of a well-tempered spirit, or else it had been scarce possible for him to have kept the affairs of Plymouth in so good a temper for thirty-seven years together... The leader of a people in a wilderness had need be a Moses; and if a Moses had not led the people of Plymouth Colony, when this worthy person was their governour, the people had never with so much unanimity and importunity still called him to lead them. ... He was a person for study as well as action; and hence...he attained unto a notable skill in languages...; but the Hebrew he most of all studied, ‘Because,’ he said, ‘he would see with his own eyes the ancient oracles of God in their native beauty.’ He was also well skilled in History, in Antiquity, and in Philosophy; and for Theology he became so versed in it, that he was an irrefragable disputant against the errors...which with trouble he saw rising in his colony... But the crown of all was his holy, prayerful, watchful, and fruitful walk with God, wherein he was very exemplary.”
– Cotton Mather
“Talented and indefatigable, passionately devoted to the welfare of New Plimoth, Bradford was unquestionably the greatest of the Pilgrims, [and] one of the greatest figures of seventeenth-century New England – indeed of our whole colonial period.”
– George F. Willison
A
WILLIAM BRADFORD
WEB PAGE
Honoring the Life and Legacy of
William Bradford (1590-1657):
A Passenger on the Mayflower in 1620
Governor and Historian of Plymouth Colony
William Bradford
(courtesy of Catherine E. Inglis Fine Art)
William Bradford
(stained glass window, St. Helena’s Church, Austerfield)
William Bradford
(on the grounds of the Mayflower Society House, Plymouth)
William Bradford’s 1592 Geneva Bible
(owned by the Pilgrim Hall Museum)
William Bradford’s Birthplace in Austerfield, Yorkshire, England
(nineteenth century exterior and basement views)
William Bradford’s Birthplace in Austerfield, Yorkshire, England
(twentieth century interior view)
William Bradford’s Birthplace in Austerfield, Yorkshire, England
(twentieth century interior view)
Saint Helena’s Church in Austerfield, Where
William Bradford was Baptized on March 19, 1589/90
(nineteenth century)
Marriage Record for William Bradford and Dorothy May,
Amsterdam, Holland, November 9, 1613
William Bradford’s Silver Drinking Cup
(jointly owned by the Pilgrim Hall Museum and the Smithsonian Institution)
William Bradford’s Chair
(owned by the Pilgrim Hall Museum)
First Page of William Bradford’s Manuscript History Of Plymouth Plantation
(owned by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts)
Title Page of William Bradford’s Copy of a Dutch Translation of
John Calvin’s Commentary on All the Epistles of Paul the Apostle
(owned by private collector Brent F. Ashworth)
___________________________________________________________________________
THREE GENERATIONS OF BRADFORD DESCENDANTS "VISITING" THIS BOOK IN 2017
Title Page of William Bradford’s Copy of A Justification of
Separation from the Church of England by John Robinson
(later owned by the First Parish Church of Plymouth, Massachusetts;
now in the library of the Pilgrim Society at the Pilgrim Hall Museum)
“...he died, May 9,
1657, in the 69th
year of his age –
lamented by all
the colonies of
New-England, as
a common
blessing and
father to them all.”
William Bradford Statue in
Plymouth, Massachusetts
Haywood’s A Prosperous Wind
(courtesy of Marine Art from Mike Haywood)
“So they left that goodly and pleasant city which had been their resting place near twelve years; but they knew they were pilgrims, and looked not much on those things, but lift[ed] up their eyes to the heavens, their dearest country, and quieted their spirits.”
– William Bradford
“May not, and ought not the children of these fathers rightly say, ‘Our fathers were Englishmen which came over this great ocean, and were ready to perish in this wilderness, but they cried unto the Lord, and He heard their voice, and looked on their adversity,’ etc. Let them therefore praise the Lord, because He is good; and His mercies endure forever.”
– William Bradford
WILLIAM BRADFORD’S WRITINGS:
Transcription of the Mayflower Compact
The Names of Those Which Came Over First,
In the Year 1620
(an appendix to Of Plymouth Plantation)
Bradford’s Manuscript “Of Plimoth Plantation”
History of the Plimoth Plantation
(Doyle facsimile edition)
History “of Plimoth Plantation”
(Commonwealth of Massachusetts edition)
History of Plymouth Plantation
(Davis edition)
History of the Plymouth Settlement
(Paget edition)
History of the Plymouth Settlement
(audio recording of the Paget edition)
History of Plymouth Plantation, Volume 1
(Massachusetts Historical Society edition)
History of Plymouth Plantation, Volume 2
(Massachusetts Historical Society edition)
First Dialogue
(in Young’s Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers)
Mourt’s Relation
(coauthored by Bradford)
WILLIAM BRADFORD BIOGRAPHY
AND FAMILY HISTORY:
William Bradford
(The Pilgrim Migration - NEHGS)
William Bradford
(Williston Walker, from Ten New England Leaders)
William Bradford of Plymouth
(Albert H. Plumb)
Governor William Bradford and his Son
Major William Bradford
(James Shepard)
Descendants of Governor William Bradford
(Ruth Gardiner Hall)
William Bradford
(Dictionary of American Biography)
The Life and Legacy of William Bradford
(Paul Jehle)
Occupants in Governor Bradford’s Household
The Story of William Bradford
(Mayflower 400)
Tragic Story of the Woman who Fell from the Mayflower
(Mayflower 400)
Major William Bradford’s Second Wife:
Was She the Widow of Francis Griswold?
Governor William Bradford Compact
ADDITIONAL LINKS:
William Bradford Gravestone -
Inscription on Back
William Bradford Statue -
Inscriptions on Base
Grave of Governor William Bradford
(Patrick Browne)
William Bradford (Encyclopædia Britannica)
William Bradford (Encyclopedia)
1623: Governor William Bradford woos
his love to join him at Plymouth Colony,
plus her amazing 1670 inventory
____________________
The Pilgrim Fathers: Their Church and Colony
(Winnifred Cockshott)
The Pilgrim Fathers of New England
and their Puritan Successors
(John Brown)
The Mayflower Pilgrims
(Edmund Janes Carpenter)
The England and Holland of the Pilgrims
(Henry Martyn Dexter & Morton Dexter)
The Pilgrim Republic
(John Abbot Goodwin)
The Story of the Pilgrim Fathers, 1606-1623
(edited by Edward Arber)
____________________
The Seven Articles of the Church of Leyden
Works of John Robinson, Vol. I
Works of John Robinson, Vol. II
Works of John Robinson, Vol. III
John Robinson, Pastor of the Pilgrim Fathers
(Walter H. Burgess)
____________________
Plymouth Colony Archive Project
Leiden American Pilgrim Museum
From my years young in days of youth,
God did make known to me his truth.
And called me from my native place
For to enjoy the means of grace.
In wilderness he did me guide,
And in strange lands for me provide.
In fears and wants, through weal and woe,
A pilgrim, passed I to and fro:
Oft left of them whom I did trust;
How vain it is to rest on dust!
A man of sorrows I have been,
And many changes I have seen.
Wars, wants, peace, plenty, have I known;
And some advanced, others thrown down.
The humble poor, cheerful and glad;
Rich, discontent, sower and sad:
When fears and sorrows have been mixt,
Consolations came betwixt.
Faint not, poor soul, in God still trust,
Fear not the things thou suffer must;
For, whom he loves he doth chastise,
And then all tears wipes from their eyes.
Farewell, dear children, whom I love,
Your better Father is above:
When I am gone, he can supply;
To him I leave you when I die.
Fear him in truth, walk in his ways,
And he will bless you all your days.
My days are spent, old age is come,
My strength it fails, my glass near run.
Now I will wait, when work is done,
Until my happy change shall come,
When from my labors I shall rest,
With Christ above for to be blest.
– William Bradford
