(March 1590–May 9, 1657), was a Pilgrim leader who helped establish the Plymouth Colony. Sailing in the Mayflower, he was chosen as governor of the colony in 1621, and was reelected 30 times until his death. In 1650, William Bradford wrote a history Of Plymouth Plantation, which is comparable to Shakespeare’s works in literary and historical significance. In it, he traced the events which led to the Pilgrims’ departure from England:
It is well knowne unto ye godly and judicious how since ye first breaking out of ye lighte of ye gospell in our Honourable Nation of England, (which was ye first of nations whom ye Lord adorned ther with, after the grosse darkness … which had covered and overspread ye Christian world), what warrs and opposissions ever since, Satan, hath raised, maintained, and continued against the Saints, from time to time, in one sort or other.
Some times by bloody death and cruell torments; other whiles imprisonments, banishments, and other hard usages; as being loath his kingdom should goe downe, and trueth prevaile, and ye churches of God reverte to their anciente puritie and recover their primative order, libertie, and bewtie.
But when he could not prevaile by these means againste the maine trueths of ye gospell, but that they began to take rootting in many places, being watered by ye blooud of ye martires, and blessed from heaven with a gracious encrease; he then begane to take him to his anciente strategeme used of old against the first Christians.
That when by ye bloody and barbarous persecutions of ye heathen Emperours, he could not stop and subvert the course of ye gospell, but that it speedily overspred with a wonderfull celeritie the then best known parts … ye professours themselves, (working upon their pride and ambition, with other corrupte passions incident to all mortall men, yea to ye saints themselves in some measure), by which woefull effects followed; as not only bitter contentions, and hartburnings, schismes, with other horrible confusions, but Satan tooke occasion and advantage therby to foyst in a number of vile … cannons and decrees, which have since been as snares to many poore and peacable souls even to this day.
So as in ye anciente times, the persecutions by ye heathen and their Emperours, was not greater than of the Christians one against another.194
In 1607, as a result of religious persecution upon their persons, reputations, families, and livelihood, the “Separatists,” or Pilgrims, departed from England for Holland. Governor Bradford recorded:
Being thus constrained to leave their native soyle and countrie, their lands and livings, and all their friends and famillier acquantance. … to goe into a countrie they knew not (but by hearsay) where they must learne a new language, and get their livings they knew not how, it being a dear place, and subject to the miseries of war, it was by many thought an adventure almost desperate, a case intolerable, and a miserie worse than death. …
But these things did not dismay them (though they did sometimes trouble them) for their desires were sett on ye ways of God and to enjoye His ordinances; but they rested in His providence, and knew whom they had believed.195
Governor William Bradford stated:
They shook off this yoke of antichristian bondage, and as the Lord’s free people, joined themselves by a covenant of the Lord into a church estate in the fellowship of the gospel, to walk in all His ways, made known unto them, according to their best endeavours, whatsoever it should cost them, the Lord assisting them.196
On December 15, 1617, in their letter to Sir Edwin Sandys in London, John Robinson and William Brewster explained that the Pilgrims were:
Knit together as a body in a most strict and sacred bond and covenant of the Lord, of the violation whereof we make great conscience, and by virtue whereof we do hold ourselves straitly tied to all care of each other’s good, and of the whole by every one and so mutually.197
In 1618, the Pilgrims’ Church of Leyden, Holland, sent seven Articles to the Counsel of England in order to receive approval to settle in Virginia:
Article III. The King’s Majesty we acknowledge for Supreme Governor in his Dominion … but in all things obedience is due unto him if the thing commanded be not against God’s Word. …
Article VII. And lastly, we desire to give unto all Superiors due honor to preserve the unity of the Spirit, with all who fear God, to have peace with all men what in us lieth, and wherein we err to be instructed by any.
Subscribed by John Robinson and William Brewster.198
In July 1620, after having lived in Holland for 12 years, Governor William Bradford described the Pilgrims’ departure from Leyden, Holland, to Delfes-Haven, Holland, and from there to Southampton, England, where they would board the ship bound for America. Little did they realize that out of the 103 Pilgrims who departed, 51 would die in the first winter in the New World:
So being ready to departe, they had a day of solleme humiliation, their pastor taking his texte from Ezra 8:21: “And ther at ye river, by Ahava, I proclaimed a fast, that we might humble ourselves before our God and seeke of Him a right way for us, and for our Children, and for our substance.”
… The rest of the time was spent in powering out prairs to ye Lord with greate fervencie, mixed with abundance of tears. And ye time being come that they must departe, they were accompanied with most of their brethren out of ye citie, unto a towne sundrie miles off called Delfes-Haven, wher the ship lay ready to receive them. So they left ye goodly and pleasant citie, which had been ther resting place for near 12 years; but they knew they were pilgrimes (Hebrews 12), but lift their eyes to ye heavens, their dearest cuntrie, and quieted their spirits.199
On September 6, 1620, after two attempts which were canceled due to the ship, the Speedwell, developing a leak, the Pilgrims finally set out for America in the Mayflower, just as the stormy season began in the North Atlantic. On November 11, 1620, having been blown off course by violent winds from their intended destination of Virginia, the Pilgrims landed at Cape Cod, Massachusetts. They found the area deserted, as the Patuxet tribe which lived there, one of the fiercest Indian tribes on the New England coast, had been destroyed by a great plague just two years prior. Had the Pilgrims landed there earlier, they would most likely have been massacred as the survivors of a French vessel were in 1617, as recounted by Governor William Bradford:
About three years before, a French ship was wrecked at Cape Cod, but the men got ashore and saved their lives and a large part of their provisions. When the Indians heard of it, they surrounded them and never left watching and dogging them till they got the advantage and killed them, all but three or four, whom they kept, and sent from one Sachem to another, making sport with them and using them worse than slaves.200
On November 11, 1620, before setting foot on dry land, Governor William Bradford and the leaders on the Mayflower signed the Mayflower Compact, the first constitutional document of America:
In ye name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwriten, the loyall subjects of our dread soveraigne Lord, King James, by ye grace of God, of Great Britaine, France, & Ireland king, defender of ye faith, etc., having undertaken, for ye glorie of God, and advancemente of ye Christian faith, and honour of our king & countrie, a voyage to plant ye first colonie in ye Northerne parts of Virginia,
doe by these presents solemnly & mutually in ye presence of God, and one of another, covenant & combine our selves togeather into a civill body politick, for our better ordering & preservation & furtherance of ye ends aforesaid;
and by vertue hearof to enacte, constitute, and frame such just & equall lawes, ordinances, acts, constitutions & offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meete & convenient for ye generall good of ye Colonie, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.
In witnes wherof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cap-Codd ye 11. of November, in ye year of ye raigne of our soveraigne lord, King James, of England, France, & Ireland ye eighteenth, and by Scotland ye fiftie fourth. Ano:Dom. 1620.201
On November 12, 1620, the first full day in the New World, Governor William Bradford described the Pilgrims’ thankfulness:
Being thus arrived in a good harbor, and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of Heaven who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from all the perils and miseries thereof, again to set their feet on the firm and stable earth, their proper element.202
Governor William Bradford stated:
What could now sustaine them but ye spirite of God and His grace? 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; (Deuteronomy 26:5, 7) but they cried unto ye Lord, and He heard their voyce, and looked on their adversitie, etc.
Let them therefore praise ye Lord, because He is good, and His mercies endure for ever. (107 Psalm: v. 1, 2, 4, 5, 8) Yea let them which have been redeemed of ye Lord, show how He hath delivered them from ye hand of ye oppressour.
When they wandered in ye deserte wilderness out of ye way, and found no citie to dwell in, both hungrie, and thirstie, their sowle was overwhelmed in them. Let them confess before ye Lord His loving kindness, and His wonderful works before ye sons of men.203
In March of 1621, as recorded in Governor Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation, Squanto joined the Pilgrims:
About the 16th of March, a certain Indian came boldly amongst them and spoke to them in broken English … His name was Samoset. He told them also of another Indian whose name was Squanto, a native of this place, who had been in England and could speak better English than himself. …
Massasoyt, who about four or five days after, came with the chief of his friends and other attendants, and with Squanto. With him, after friendly entertainment and some gifts, they made a peace which has now continued for twenty-four years. …
Squanto stayed with them and was their interpreter and was a special instrument sent of God for their good beyond their expectation. He showed them how to plant corn, where to take fish and other commodities, and guided them to unknown places, and never left them till he died.
He was a native of these parts, and had been one of the few survivors of the plague hereabouts. He was carried away with others by one Hunt, a captain of a ship, who intended to sell them for slaves in Spain; but he got away for England, and was received by a merchant in London, and employed in Newfoundland and other parts, and lastly brought into these parts by a Captain Dermer, a gentleman employed by Sir Ferdinand Gorges. …
Captain Dermer had been here the same year that the people of the Mayflower arrived, as appears in an account written by him, and given to me by a friend, bearing date, June 30th, 1620 … “I will first begin,” says he, “with the place from which Squanto (or Tisquantem) was taken away, which in Captain Smith’s map is called ‘Plymouth’; and I would that Plymouth (England) had the same commodities. I could wish that the first plantation might be situated here, if there came to the number of fifty persons or upward; otherwise at Charlton, because there the savages are less to be feared. … The Pokanokets, who live to the west of Plymouth, bear an inveterate hatred to the English. … For this reason Squanto cannot deny but they would have killed me when I was at Namasket, had he not interceded hard for me.”204
Governor William Bradford stated concerning Squanto:
The settlers, as many as were able, then began to plant their corn, in which service Squanto stood them in good stead, showing them how to plant it and cultivate it. He also told them that unless they got fish to manure this exhausted old soil, it would come to nothing, and he showed them that in the middle of April plenty of fish would come up the brook by which they had begun to build, and taught them how to catch it, and where to get other necessary provisions; all of which they found true by experience. …
Another Indian, called Hobbamok came to live with them, a fine strong man, of some account amongst the Indians for his valor and qualities. He remained very faithful to the English till he died. He and Squanto having gone upon business among the Indians, a Sachem called Corbitant … began to quarrel with them, and threatened to stab Hobbamok; but he being a strong man, cleared himself of him, and came running away, all sweating, and told the Governor what had befallen him, and that he feared they had killed Squanto. … So it was resolved to send the Captain and fourteen men, well armed. … The Captain, giving orders to let none escape, entered to search for him. But [Corbitant] had gone away that day; so they missed him, but learned that Squanto was alive, and that Corbitant had only threatened to kill him, and made as if to stab him, but did not. …
After this, on the 18th of September, they sent out their shallop with ten men and Squanto as guide and interpreter to the Massachusetts, to explore the bay and trade with the natives, which they accomplished, and were kindly received. …
Nor was there a man among them who had ever seen a beaver skin till they came out, and were instructed by Squanto.205
In 1621, in his Thanksgiving Proclamation, Governor William Bradford stated:
Therefore, I, William Bradford (by the Grace of God today, and the franchise of this good people), governor of Plymouth, say—through virtue of vested power—ye shall gather with one accord, and hold in the month of November, thanksgiving unto the Lord.206
In September of 1622, Governor William Bradford wrote the account of Squanto’s death:
Captain Standish was appointed to go with them, and Squanto as a guide and interpreter, about the latter end of September; but the winds drove them in; and putting out again, Captain Standish fell ill with fever, so the Governor (Bradford) went himself. But they could not get round the shoals of Cape Cod, for flats and breakers, and Squanto could not direct them better. The Captain of the boat dare not venture any further, so they put into Manamoick Bay, and got what they could there. Here Squanto fell ill of Indian fever, bleeding much at the nose,—which the Indians take for a symptom of death,—and within a few days he died. He begged the Governor to pray for him, that he might go to the Englishmen’s God in Heaven, and bequeathed several of his things to some of his English friends, as remembrances. His death was a great loss.207
On November 29, 1623, three years after the Pilgrims’ arrival and two years after the first Thanksgiving, Governor William Bradford made an official proclamation for a Day of Thanksgiving:
To all ye Pilgrims:
In as much as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, peas, beans, squashes, and garden vegetable, and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as he has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience;
now I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and ye little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the day time, on Thursday, November ye 29th, of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-three, and the third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to ye pastor and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings. William Bradford, Ye Governor of Ye Colony.208
In 1644, Governor William Bradford wrote of the death of Mr. William Brewster (1567–1644), who was one of the founders of the Separatist movement in England, 1606. Brewster had allowed the nonconformists to meet for worship at his home in Scrooby, England. He had escaped with the Separatists to Holland, 1608, to be free from religious persecution and taught at the University of Leyden, Holland. William Brewster, who had published religious books which were banned in England, signed of the Mayflower Compact, 1620, and was one of the founders of the Plymouth Colony:
About the 18th of April died their reverend elder, my dear and loving friend, Mr. William Brewster, a man who had done and suffered much for the Lord Jesus and the gospel’s sake, and had borne his part in the weal or woe with this poor persecuted church for over thirty-five years in England, Holland, and this wilderness, and had done the Lord and them faithful service in his calling. Notwithstanding the many troubles and sorrows he passed through, the Lord upheld him to a great age.209
In 1650, Governor William Bradford stated in Of Plymouth Plantation210:
Last and not least, they cherished a great hope and inward zeal of laying good foundations, or at least making some ways toward it, for the propagation and advance of the gospel of the kingdom of Christ in the remote parts of the world, even though they should be but stepping stones to others in the performance of so great a work.211
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 shone unto many, yea in some sort to our whole nation; let the glorious name of Jehovah have all the praise.212
It was answered that all great and honourable actions are accompanied with great difficulties, and must be enterprised and overcome with answerable courages. It was granted that the dangers were great, but not desperate, and the difficulties were many but not invincible. … and all of them, through the help of God, by fortitude and patience, might either be borne or overcome. …
Their ends were good and honorable, their calling lawful and urgent, and therefore they might expect the blessing of God in their proceeding; yea, though they should lose their lives in this action, yet they might have comfort in the same, and there endeavors would be honorable.213
Though I am growne aged, yet I have had a longing desire, to see with my own eyes, something of the most ancient language, and holy tongue, in which the Law, and oracles of God were writ; and in which God, and angels, spoke to the holy patriarchs, of old time; and what names were given to things, from the creation.
And though I cannot attaine to much herein, yet I am refreshed, to have seen some glimpse hereof; (as Moses say the Land of Canaan afarr off) my aime and desire is, to see how the words, and phrases lye in the holy texte; and to dicerne somewhat of the same for my owne contente.214
At Burial Hill, Plymouth, Massachusetts, Governor William Bradford’s grave is inscribed:
Under this stone rests the ashes of William Bradford, a zealous Puritan, and sincere Christian Governor of Plymouth Colony from 1621 to 1657, aged 69, except 5 years, which he declined. “Let the right hand of the Lord awake.” [Hebrew] “What our fathers with so much difficulty attained do not basely relinquish.”[Latin]215