Ahnentafel #1080 - William Bradford

Governor William Bradford

Born: ca. 1588, Yorkshire, England

Baptized: March 19, 1589/90 Austerfield, Yorkshire, England

Died: May 9, 1657 Plymouth Plantation, MA

Buried: May 1657 Burial Hill, Plymouth Plantation, MA 

Tombstone: 

HI - 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

God is my strength [in Hebrew]. Under this stone rest the ashes of Will'm Bradford a zealous puritan & sincere christian Gov. of Ply. Col. from April 1621 to 1657 (the year he died aged 69) except 5 yrs. which he declined. Oua patres difficillime adepti sunt nolite turpiter relinquere. [What our forefathers with so much difficulty secured, do not basely relinquish.]

Married:

1) December 10, 1613 Dorothy May in Amsterdam, Holland

2) August 14, 1623 Alice (Carpenter) Southworth, Plymouth Plantation

William Bradford became a key player in the story of the Plimoth colony and its most important chronicler. He was the third son of the elder William Bradford, the most prosperous yeoman farmer in Austerfield, Yorkshire, where he was baptized in 1590. His father died when he was one and he was taken to be raised by his grandfather following his mother's remarriage. But his grandfather died in 1596 and his mother in the following year. William was taken in by two of his uncles, one of whom, Robert Bradford, inherited his brother's status in Austerfield. William was raised to be a farmer, like his father and uncles. He learned how to read and write, but we don't know how. His uncle Robert was a parish churchwarden and likely one of those Protestants who valued the importance of reading as a means of accessing the Scriptures. William may have been taught by his uncles, or they might have sent him to a local school. There is no record of him proceeding to a grammar school (where he would have learned Latin and Greek). It is clear that he never attended a university. But throughout his life he demonstrated a thirst for knowledge and an aptitude for learning. Cotton Mather, who wrote the earliest biography of Bradford, indicated that he endured a "long sickness" as a youth, and he may have used the time this offered to read. Mather also indicated that Bradford achieved facility in the classical languages and also proficiency in Dutch and French. In his later life he sought to teach himself Hebrew . . . 

When he was around the age of twelve, he began to show an interest in religion. And he was soon walking to Bawtry, a village about a mile from Austerfield where the reformer Richard Clyfton preached without license after he was deprived of his living in Babworth. Bradford would remember Clyfton as "a grave and reverend preacher, who by his pains and diligence had done much good and under God had been a means of conversion of many." When the lay people who gathered at Scrooby formed a church, they chose Clyfton as their pastor. Bradford became a close friend and protégé of William Brewster, in whose manor house the group conducted worship. One of the first members of the congregation, he recorded the essence of the covenant when he wrote that they threw off the "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, or to be known unto them . . . whatsoever it should cost them, the Lord assisting them."

His life became entwined with that of the congregation, and much of it can be followed in Of Plimoth Plantation. He wrote of the decision to leave England, the frustration of initial attempts, the dangerous voyage he experienced crossing the North Sea to the Netherlands, the reasons of the congregation originally settling in Amsterdam, and their removal to Leiden in 1610.

In Leiden, Bradford found work as a serge weaver, and in 1612, having inherited family property in England, he bought a house large enough to fit a loom required for the trade. In that same year he was admitted to citizenship in the city. In November 1613, he was betrothed to the sixteen-year-old Dorothy May. This occurred in Amsterdam, where she was living with her parents. The betrothal was then recorded and the banns published in Leiden. Their marriage was a civil ceremony in accordance with Dutch practice, which was adopted by the Pilgrims and introduced into the New World. In Of Plimoth Plantation he described the difficulties these English refugees experienced in their new home, and the reasons that prompted them to consider moving yet again, this time to America. Bradford was still a young man during his years in Leiden, so it is not surprising that he did not play a significant role in the life of the congregation at that time. Unlike those such as John Carver, Samuel Fuller, and Robert Cushman who would later play an important role in the Pilgrim colony, Bradford neither held an office in the church, nor is there a record of him preaching in Leiden by way of prophesying. His account suggests that he played a role in the discussions about whether to move and where to go, but he was not entrusted with any of the negotiations. The decision having been made, in 1619 Bradford sold his house as a means of raising funds for his move to America. William and Dorothy made the difficult decision to leave their young son John, about two years old, with friends in Leiden rather than subject him to the difficulties they anticipated in crossing the Atlantic and planting a new colony. They were not alone in this; the Brewsters and others also left children behind in expectation of being reunited when the colony was established. 

Having determined to settle in the vicinity of Cape Cod, which was outside of the bounds of the patent they had received, William was one of those who signed the Mayflower Compact, an agreement or covenant whereby the colonists bound themselves to abide by the decisions reached by general approval. John Carver was then elected governor of the colony. Following this, Bradford was a member of the armed groups that explored the land in search of a promising site for their settlement. His own account offers little detail about his involvement in these efforts, but Edward Winslow related how, while the party was examining a Native deer trap, "William Bradford being in the rear, when he came looked also upon it, and as he went about, it gave a sudden jerk up, and he was immediately caught by the leg." Returning from one of these expeditions, Bradford learned that in his absence Dorothy had fallen overboard from the Mayflower, and drowned. He never wrote of the event, and the circumstances of her death remains unknown, though subject to much speculation long after the event.

The first winter was a difficult one, with close to half the colonists dying. Bradford himself was taken seriously ill, but survived. When, in the spring, John Carver fell down in the fields and soon died, Bradford was elected governor, a post he would hold for thirty-one of the next thirty-six years. His history Of Plimoth Plantation recounts those years and his role in the colony's history. That account ends in 1646 (his last year as governor), though he wrote the dates 1647 and 1648 as if he intended to add more to the story, appears to have corrected some of the narrative, and added an observation on the English Civil Wars and the evident triumph of the puritan cause. In 1650, he also prepared a list of the original Mayflower passengers, grouped by household, with information on the "increasing and decreasing of these persons" over the previous three decades. As noted above, the history does not reveal much of his personal feelings and beliefs. These are more evident in the dialogues and poems he wrote late in his life. During the years after he stopped writing Of Plimoth Plantation he sought to learn Hebrew so that he could read the scriptures in that language. He also served as a Plimoth representative to the 1647 Cambridge (Massachusetts) Assembly that sought to define the region's religious practices and principles. 

Bradford died in May 1657, leaving behind his second wife, Alice, whom he had married in Plimoth in 1623, their three children, and his son John from his first marriage. The inventory of his estate included listings of thirty-two published works, some containing multiple volumes. This likely underestimates his collection, since books he had lent to others would not have been included, and in his writings he quoted from works that are not found in the inventory. Equally of interest, his will mentioned "some small books written in my own hand." 

One of those books was likely the manuscript of Of Plimoth Plantation. A second volume, though it s hard to imagine it as "small," was the Letterbook in which he copied out correspondence relevant to the colony's affairs. . . . 

During the last decade of this life, he no longer served as governor and had ceased chronicling the history Of Plimoth Plantation, Bradford had engaged in a number of other pursuits resulting in other "small books."  He wrote three dialogues, framed as conversations between the "ancient" of the colony and the younger generation. In the first of these, composed in 1648, he went into great detail about the religious tradition from which Plimoth emerged. In England at the time, puritans were debating what course to pursue in reforming the Church of England. At the Westminster Assembly and in public forums, congregationalism was identified as the New England Way. Opponents of that polity sought to undermine it by arguing that the churches of New England derived from extreme separatism by way of Plimoth. Bradford claimed an identity with the churches of Massachusetts and sought to distance the churches of Plimoth from the separatism of "rigid Brownists and Separatists." He discussed the separatist martyrs such as Barrow and Greenwood, and discussed the views of more recent separatists such Henry Ainsworth, John Smyth, Richard Clyfton, and especially John Robinson. He emphasized that under Robinson the Leiden church had abandoned rigid separation and established communion with non-separatist English puritans, but also with other Protestant groups. 

The second dialogue does not survive, and we have no indication of what it discussed. In the third dialogue, written in 1652, the "ancients" identify completely as New England congregationalists. He analyzed for the "young men" the errors of Roman Catholicism, the Episcopal Church of England, and Presbyterianism (about which he had some good things to say), while explaining the benefits of Congregationalism such as practiced by the Plimoth colony churches and the majority of New England churches. In the process he also criticized some of the heresies that had sprung up at the time. In these dialogues Bradford gave far more information on his religious views than in his history Of Plimoth Plantation.  

While working on these dialogues Bradford also wrote several poems. Writing poetry was not unusual. Many puritan clergy and laity engaged in writing poetry . . . Bradford's poetry dealt with history and religion and was a venue for expressing feelings that he tempered in his other writings. The poems went further than his other writings in identifying Plymouth with New England as a whole, and it congregationalism with the views of John Cotton, Thomas Hooker, and John Winthrop. Most notably, his "Some Observations of God's Merciful Dealing with us in this Wilderness" contains harsh rhetoric about the Natives. He castigated the Natives as "a people without God or law," writing that "lust's their law, and will's their utmost end." He marveled that the colonists "have lived so long, Among these folk, so brutish and savage. Without tasting of their injurious rage."  . . . 

We know of at least one other "small book" composed by Bradford. In Thomas Prince's Chronological History of New England (1738), he includes excerpts from a volume he refers to as Bradford's "Registur." Some items are notes of deaths, but others are of legal offenses. [Minkema, Kenneth, et al, ed. Of Plimoth Plantation by William Bradford, Boston, MA: Colonial Society of Massachusetts & New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2020]

Immigration: 1620 aboard the Mayflower

Religion: Member of Scrooby congregation which migrated to Leiden, Holland and later to Plymouth, MA. 

Occupation: 

Governor of Plymouth Colony, 1621-1633, 1635, 1637, 1639-1643, 1645-1656

Assistant to the Governor of Plymouth 1634, 1636, 1638, 1644

Commissioner to United Colonies for Plymouth 1647-49, 1652

Author of Of Plimoth Plantation and of other works

A poem by William Bradford:

From my years young in days of youth,

God did make known to me His truth,

And call'd 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, past 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 chasitse 

And then all tears wipe 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.

Some Records:

1608 - Boston, Lincolnshire, England - Bradford imprisoned with others for attempting to escape to Holland. 

1609 - Bradford and other members of the congregation left England for Holland.  They settled in Amsterdam. 

1612 - March 30 - Leiden, Holland - registered as a citizen of the city - William Bradford, Englishman, admitted upon the proof and security of Roger Wilson and William Lysle.

1620 - November 21 - Mayflower - William Bradford and 40 other passengers wrote and signed the Mayflower Compact which was described by Bradford:

Act by them done (this their condition considered) might be as firme as any patent; and in some respects more sure. The forme was as followeth:

In ye name of God Amen. The whole names are underwriten the loyal subjects of our dread soveraigne Lord King James by ye grace of God, of great Britaine, franc, & Ireland king defender of ye faith, etc. 

Haveing undertaken, for ye glorie of God, and advancements of ye christian faith and honour of our king & countrie, a voyage to plant ye first colonie in ye Northerne parts of Virginia did by these presents solemnly & mutualy 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 shuch 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 whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names at capcodd ye 11 of November [old style] in ye year of ye raigne of our soveraigne Lord king James of England, France, & Ireland ye eighteenth and of Scotland ye fiftie fourth Ano: dom. 1620.

After this they chose, or rather confirmed Mr John Carver (a man godly & well approved amongst them) their governour for that year. And after they had provided a place for their goods, or comone store (which were long in unlading for want of boats, foulnes of ye winter weather, and sickness of diverse) and b[uilding] some small cottages fir their habitation; as time would admit they made and consulted of lawes & orders, both for their civill & military govermente, as ye necessitie of their condition did require, still adding therunto as urgent occasion in severall times, and as cases did require. 

In these hard & difficulte beginings they found sons discontents & murmurings are so amongst some, and mutinous speeches & carriages in other; but they were soone quelled, & overcome, by ye wisdome, patience, and just & equall carrage of things by ye gov'r: and better part with law faithfully togeather in ye maine. But that which was most sadd & lamentable, was that in 2 or 3 months time halfe of their company dyed, especialy in Jan: & february, being ye depth of winter, and wanting houses & other comforts, being infected with ye scurvie . . .  

Aerial view of Plimoth Plantation

1623 - Plymouth, MA - William Bradford received 3 acres as a passenger on the Mayflower.  His wife Alice received one acre as a passenger on the Anne. 

1627 - Plymouth, MA - Governor Mr. William Bradford was listed along with Alice, his son William and daughter Mercy were listed in the eleventh company of the cattle division. His son John arrived from Holland. 

1633 - Plymouth, MA - Mr. William Bradford (governor) on list of freemen

1633 - March 25 - Plymouth, MA - assessed £1 16s on tax list

1634 - March 27 - Plymouth, MA - Assessed £1, 7 s in taxes. 

1643 - Plymouth, MA - in the list of men able to bear arms. 

1657 - May 9 - Plymouth, MA - William stated his will:

The last will and testament, nuncupative, of Mr. William Bradford senr., deceased May the 9th, 1657 and exhibited in Court held at Plymouth June 3d, 1657. 

Mr. William Bradford Senr. being weake in body, but in ppct memory having deferred the forming of his will in hopes of having the healp of Mr. Thomas Prence therein, feeling himself very weake and drawing on to the conclusion of his mortal life spake as followeth. I could have desired abler men then myself in the disposing of that I have, how my estate (is), none knowes better than yourself said he to Leiftenant Southworth. I have desposed to John and William already theire proportions of land which they are possessed of. My will is that what I stand engaged to p,forme to my children and others bee made good out of my estate, that my name suffer not. Further my will is that my dear and loving wife Alice Bradford shall bee the sole Exequitrix of my estate, and for her future maintainance my will is that my Stocke in the Kennebecke trad[e] bee reserved for her comfortable subsistence as farr as it will extend, and soe further in any such way as may be judged best for her. I further request and appoint my wel beloved Christian ffriends Mr. Thomas Prence, Captain Thomas Willett and Lieftenant Thomas Southworth to be the supervisors of the desposing of my estate according to the p,mises confiding much in theire faithfullness. I comend to your wisdome some small bookes written by my owne hand to bee improved as you shall see meet. In speciall I comend to you a little book with a black cover, wherein there is a word to Plymouth and a word to Boston and a word to New England with sundry useful verses. These p'tculars were expressed by the said William Bradford Govr. the 9th day of May, 1657 in the p,sences of us, Thomas Cushman, Thomas Southworth, Nathaniel Morton

1657 - May 22 - Plymouth, MA - An inventory of William Bradford's estate was taken. 

A trew Inventory of the Estate of Mr. William Bradford Senir. lately deceased taken and appraised by us whose names are underwritten, the 22eond of May 1657, and exhibited to the court holden att Plymouth the 3d. of June 1657 on the oath of Mrs. Alice Bradford. 

Beding and other things in ye old parlor

• Impr. one feather bed and bolster £3.00.00
• It. a feather bed a feather bolster a feather pillow £3.00.00
• It. a canvas bed with feathers and a bolster and 2 pillows £1.15.00
• It. one green rugg. £1.00.00
• It. a paire of whit blanketts £1.00.00
• It. one whit blankett £0.12.00
• It. 2 pairs of old blanketts, £1.00.00
• It 2 old coverlidds £1.00.00
• It. 1 old white rugg and an old kid coverlidd, £1.00.00
• It. 1 paire of old curtaines darnickes & and an old paire of sach curtaines £0.15.00
• It. a court cubbard £1.5.00
• It. a winscot bedsteed and a settle £1.10.00
• It. 4 lether chaires £1.12.00
• It. 1 great lether chaire £0.10.00
• It. 2 great wooden chaires £0.8.00
• It. a table & forme and 2 stooles £1.5.00
• It. a winscott chist & cubburd £1.5.00
• It. a case with six knives £0.5.00
• It. 3 matchlock musketts £2.2.00
• It. a snaphance muskett £1.00.00
• It. a birding peece and an other smale peece £0.18.00
• It. a pistoll and cutlas £0.12.00
• It. a card and a platt £0.5.00

In he great Rome [room]

• It. 2 great carved chaires £1.4.00
• It. a smale carved chaire £0.6.00
• It. a table and forme £1.2.00
• It. 3 striped carpetts £1.5.00
• It. 10 cushens £1.1.00
• It. 3 old cushens £0.2.00
• It. a causlett and one head peece £1.10.00
• It. 1 fouling peece without a locke 3 old barrells of guns one paire of old bandeleers and a crest £0.16.0

Linnin [Linen]

• It. 2 paire of holland sheets £2.00.00
• It. 1 dowlis sheet £0.10.00
• It. 2 paire of cotton and linnen sheets £1.15.00
• It. 2 paire of hemp and cotten sheets £1.15.00
• It. 2 paire of canvas sheets £1.10.00
• Its. 2 paire of old sheets £0.15.00
• It. 4 fine shirts £2.00.00
• It. 4 other shirts £1.00.00
• It. a dozen of cotten and linnin napkins £0.12.00
• It. a dozen canvas napkins £0.6.00
• It. a diaper tablecloth and a dozen of diaper napkins £2.10.00
• It. 10 diaper napkins of another sort of a diaper tablecloth £3.00.00
• It. 2 holland tableclothes £1.00.00
• It. 2 short tableclothes £0.10.00
• It. 2 old tableclothes £0.5.00
• It. a dozen of old napkins £0.8.00
• It. halfe a dozen of napkins £0.8.00
• It. 3 old napkins £0.2.00
• It. a dozen of course napkins & a course tablecloth £0.6.00
• It. 2 fine holland cubburd clothes £0.12.00
• It. 3 paire of holland pillow beers £0.18.00
• It. 3 paire of dowlls pillow beers and an old one £0.14.00
• It. 4 holland towells and a lockorumone £0.5.00

Pewter

• It. 14 pewter dishes weying 47 pound att 15d p pound £2.18.09
• It. 6 pewter plates & 13 pewter platters weying thirty 2 pounds att 15d p pound £2.00.00
• It. 2 pewter plates 5 sawsers 4 basons and 5 dishes weying eighteen pounds att 15d p pound £1.2.06
• It. 2 ppeplates of pewter £0.3.04
• It. 3 chamber potts £0.9.00
• It. 7 porrengers £0.3.06
• It. 2 quart potts & a pint pott £0.7.00
• It. 2 old fflagons an a yore(?) £0.9.00
• It. a pewter candlesticks a salt and a little pewter bottle £0.3.00
• It. 4 venice glasses and seaven earthen dishes £0.10.00
• It. 2 ffrench kittles £1.10.00

In the kitchen brasse

• It. 1 brasse kittle £0.15.00
• It. 2 little ffrench kittles £0.6.00
• It. an old warming pan £0.5.00
• It. 2 old brasse kittles £0.2.00
• It. a dash pan £0.4.00
• It. 3 brasse skilletts £0.4.00
• It. 3 brasse candle sticks and a brasse morter and pestle £0.7.00
• It. an old brasse skimmer and a ladle £0.1.00
• It. a paire of andirons £0.6.00
• It. an old brasse stewpan £0.6.00
• It. 2 old brasse kittles £0.5.00
• It. 2 iron skilletts and an iron kittle £0.15.00 
• 2 old (?) iron pottes £1.00.00
• It. 2 iron potts lesser £0.7.00
• It. 2 paire of pot hangers 2 paire of pot hookes £0.6.00
• It. 2 paire of tongges and an old fier shouvel £0.3.04
• It. one paire of andirons and a gridiron 0.5.00
• It. a paire of iron rackes and an iron peele and another peec of old iron to lay before a driping pan £0.10.00
• It. 4 dozen of trenchers £0.2.06
• It. 2 juggs and 3 smale bottles £0.2.00

In the new chamber his clothes

• It. a stuffe suit with silver buttons & a coate £4.00.00
• It. a cloth cloake faced with taffety lineed threw with bales £3.10.00
• It. a sod coullered cloth suite £2.00.00
• It. a turkey Grogorum (Grogram) Suite and cloake £2.00.00
• It. a paire of blcke britches and a kid wastcoat £0.15.00
• It. a lead coullered cloth suit with silver buttons £2.00.00 
• It. a son coullered short coate and an old serge suite £1.10.00
• It. a blacke cloth coate £0.15.00
• It. a broad cloth coate £1.5.00
• It. a light coullered stuffe coate £0.16.00
• It. an old green goune £1.00.00
• It. an old violette coullered cloake £1.5.00
• It. a short coate of cloth £0.10.00
• It. 2 old dublett and a paire of britches a short coate and an old stuffe dublit and wastcoate £1.00.00
• It. 2 paire of stockens £0.7.00
• It. 2 hates a blacke one and a coullered one £1.10.00
• It. 2 old hatts £0.16.00
• It. 1 great chaire and 2 woought stooles £1.00.00
• It. a carved chist £1.00.00
• It. a table £0.15.00

the plate

• It. one great beer bowle £3.00.00
• It. another beer bowle £2.00.00
• It. 2 wine cupps £2.00.00
• It. a salt £3.00.00
• It. the trencher salt and a drame cup £0.15.00
• It. 4 silver spoones £1.4.00
• It. 9 silver spoones £2.5.00

In the studdie

• It. eight paire of shooes of the 12s £2.00.00
• It. 6 paire of shoes of the 10s £1.4.00
• It. one paire of the eights £0.3.04
• It. 3 paire of the 7s £0.9.00
• It. 2 pairs of the sixes £0.2.08
• It. 1 paire of the 5s 1 paire of the 4s 1 paire of the 3s £0.6.00
• It. 4 yards and an halfe of linnin woolcy £0.13.06
• It. 3 remnants of English cotton £0.16.03
• It. 3 yards and an halfe of bayes £0.7.00
• It. 17 yards of course English moheer £2.2.06
• It. 4 yards and 3 quarters of purpetuanna £1.00.00
• It. 18 yards of kid penistone £3.3.00
• 5 yards of broadcloth £3.15.00
• It. 2 yards of broadcloth £1.10.00
• It. 2 1/2 yards and an halfe of olive cullered carsye £0.15.00
• It. a yard and a halfe of whitish carsey £0.7.00
• It. 4 yards of Gray carsye £1.4.00
• It. 5 yards and an halfe of kid carsye £1.7.06
• It. 4 yards and a quarter of carsey olive coullered £1.10.00
• It. 7 yards of carsye sod cullered £2.6.08
• It. 10 yards of gray carsye £2.10.00
• It. 6 yards and an halfe of kid plaine £1.19.00
• It. 9 yards and an halfe of kash £3.16.00
• It. 6 yards of holland £1.8.00
• It. a remnent of cushening £0.9.00
• It. 7 smale moose skines £4.8.00
• It. in cash £151.9.06
• It. his deske £0.5.00
• It. 2 caskes with some emty bottles £0.10.00
• It. 3 or 4 old cases £0.3.00

his bookes in folio

• It. Perkines workes £1.10.00
• It. 3 of docter Willetts workes viz on genesis exedus and daniell £1.00.00
• It. the ffrench acaddamey £0.8.00
• It. the Guictardian (?) £0.10.00
• It. the history of the church £0.8.00
• It. bodins comons wealth £0.6.00
• It. B. Bablingtons workes £0.8.00
• It. Peter martine comon places £0.15.00
• It. Cartwright on the remish testament £0.10.00
• It. the history of the Netherlands £0.15.00
• It. Peter Martine on the Romans £0.3.00
• It. Mayors workes on the New testament £1.00.00
• It. Cottens concordance £0.8.00 
• Speeds general description of the world £1.10.00
• Weames christian sinnagogue and the portrature of the image of god in man £0.8.00
• It. Luther on the gallations £0.8.00
• It. the method of phissicke £0.2.00
• It. Cahins harmony and Cahins comentary on the actes £0.8.00
• It. dounhams 2 cond pte of Christian warfare, £0.3.00
• It. Mr Cottens answare to Mr. William £0.2.00
• It. Taylers libertie of phrophecye £0.1.06
• It. Gouges domesticall dutyes £0.2.06
• It. justification of speration or reasons descused & observations devine and morall the synode att dort the appollogys £0.6.00
• It. Mr Ainsworths workes the couterpoison the triang out of the truth £0.2.00
• It. Mr. Ainsworth on genisis, exedus and livitticus £0.4.00
• It. Calvin on genises £0.2.06
• It dike on the deceitfulness of mans hart £0.1.06
• It. Gifford refuted £0.0.06
• It. doe on the commandements & another of his £0.3.00
• It. three and fifty smale bookes £1.6.06
• It. Cahine on the epistles in duch with divers other duch bookes £0.15.00
• It. 2 bibles £1.00.00
• It. a paire of boots £0.5.00
• It. in lether £0.18.00
• It. 2 old chists £0.10.00
• It. 6 old barrells a bucking tubb a brewing tubb other old lumber £1.00.00
• It. a pcell of cotten woole & a pcell of sheepes woole £2.10.00
• It. a pcell of feathers £0.12.00
• It. 3 ewe sheep £4.10.00
• It. 3 middleing sheep and a poor one £4.00.00
• It. a rame lambe and an halfe & a half an ewe lamb £0.16.06
• It. the old mare £12.00.00
• It. a lame mare and an horse coult £14.00.00
• It. a horse of two yeare old and advantate £7.00.00
• It. another horse coult of yeare and advantage £5.10.00
• It. 4 bullockes £20.00.00
• It. 7 cowes £28.00.00
• It. a bull £4.00.00
• It. 2 young bulles of two year old £4.10.00
• It. a heifer of three yeare old not with calfe £3.5.00
• It. 2 heifers of two years old £5.00.00
• It. 4 yearlings £6.00.00
• It. five calves £3.00.00 
• It. a sow and 2 hoggs £2.15.00
• It. 2 shoats £1.4.00
• It. five smale shoates £1.10.00
• It. the house and orchyard and some smale pcells of land about the towne of Plymouth £45.00.00
• It. 2 spinning wheeles and a wether £0.16.00
• At the Westward in debs upon the duch account consisting in divers pcells £153.00.00

Item debs owing to the estate

• It. the Kenebeck stock consisting in goods and debts both English and Indians £256.00.00
• More debts owing in the bay
• It. in douce the shoomakers hands £5.00.00
• It. in Mannasah Kemptons hands £5.00.00
• It. more belonging to the estate in diverse pticulars £57.00.00

Debts owing from the estate

• It. to Mr. Davis and Mr. Sheffe £5.00.00
• It. to Samuell Stirtivant £2.3.00
• It. 2 the townes land £1.12.00
• It. John Jourdaine about £2.00.00
• It. to goodman Clarke about £3.10.00
• It. two goodman Nelson for killing of cattle & for veale £0.18.06
• It. to William Palmer £12.4.00
• It. to the church of Plymouth £5.10.00

Som pcells of land not mencioned above belonging to Mr. William Bradford Senr. 

• It. one pcell att Eastham and another att Bridgewater
• It. a smale pcell about Sautuckett and his purchase land att Coaksett with his right in the townes land att Punckatessett 

By us Thomas Cushman, John Dunham

• It. Sundry implements forgotten belonging to the teame.  

Child by Dorothy May: 

John b. ca. 1617, d. before 1676 md. by 1650 Martha Bourne, no children

Children by Alice Carpenter:

William

Mercy b. ca. 1627 md. 1648 Benjamin Vermayes no children

Joseph b. ca. 1630, d. 1715 md. 1664 Jael Hobart 

• Joseph b. 1665
• Elisha b. ca. 1669, d. 1745 md. 1) Hannah Cole 2) 1719 Bathsheba Brock  132a-153v
• (--?--) d. young
• (--?--) d. young
• (--?--) d. young
• (--?--) d. young
• (--?--) d. young
• (--?--) d. young
• Hannah b. 1719 md. Joshua Bradford
• Joseph b. 1721, never married
• Sylvanus b. 1723, d. 1725
• Nehemiah b. 1724, never married
• Laurana b. 1726 md. 1745 Elijah McFarlin
• Mary McFarlin b. 1746 md. 1768 James Murfree
• Sabra McFarlin
• Joseph McFarlin
• David McFarlin
• (--?--) McFarlin
• (--?--) McFarlin
• Elijah McFarlin b. ca. 1751, d. 1827 md. 1774 Sarah Marshall
• Hannah McFarlin md. 1768 Caleb Rider
• Laurana McFarlin b. 1755, d. 1834 md. 1776 David Churchill
• Abigail McFarlin d. before 1822 md. 1775 Stephen Martin
• Mary b. 1727, d. before 1730
• Elisha b. 1728, d. before 1730
• Joseph (2nd) b. 1729, never married
• Lois b. 1731
• Deborah b. 1732 md. 1751 Jonathan Sampson Jr. 
• Jonathan Sampson b. ca. 1753 md. 1780 Bethia (Edson) Barden
• Hannah Sampson md. 1785 Benjamin Bosworth
• Ephraim Sampson d. 1810 md. 1) 1783 Elizabeth (Edson) Barden, 2) 1808 Mary (Besse) Covill
• Deborah Sampson b. 1760, d. 1827, aka Robert Shurtleff served 3 years as a private soldier in the Continental Army during the American Revolution and drew an army pension. Deborah was wounded at the battle of Tarrytown and the bullet was never removed.  She md. 1784 Benjamin Gannett
• Nehemiah Sampson b. 1764, d. 1818 md. 1789 Bathsheba Baker
• Sylvia Sampson b. 1766, d. 1836 md. 1799 Jacob Cushman
• Elisha Sampson
• Alice b. 1734, d. 1795 md. 1756 Zebulon Waters 
• Nehemiah Waters b. 1758
• Asa Waters b. 1760, d. 1845 md. 1) 1785 Lydia Smith, 2) 1810 Mary (Lyon) Smith, 3) 1839 Susan Shepard
• Matilda Waters b. 1761 md. 1781 James Nash
• Rebecca Waters b. 1762, d. young
• Daniel Waters b. 1769, d. 1781, killed in action American Revolution age 16
• Hannah Waters b. 1767, d. 1817 md. 1788 David Drake
• Zebulon Waters b. 1768, d. 1831 md. 1) 1794 Zilpha (Drake) Lovel, 2) 1802 Lucy Belcher
• Samuel Waters b. 1770
• Mary/Molly Waters b. 1773, d. 1823 md. 1802 George Randall
• Chloe Waters b. 1775, d. 1816 md. 1794 Lemuel Monk
• Asenath b. 1736, d. 1818 md. 1) 1753 Nathan Estey, 2) 1755? Daniel Waters, 3) 1765 Benjamin Packard
• (--?--) Etsey
• Bethia Waters b. 1757, d. 1837 md. 1774 Samuel Packard
• Lusee Waters b. 1759
• Samuel Waters b. 1762
• John Packard b. 1765 md. 1789 Hannah Randall
• Lois Packard b. 1767
• Jedidiah Packard b. 1771, d. 1816 md. 1792 Anne Bretton
• Meletiah Packard b. 1773, d. 1852 md. 1) 1794 Elijah Bliss, 2) 1797 Eliphat / Eliphalet Worthington
• Carpenter b. 1739, d. 1823 md. 1761 Mary Gay
• Chloe b. 1762, d. 1770
• Azurbah b. 1765, d. 1823 md. 1791 Enoch Wentworth
• Hannah b. 1767, d. 1840 md. 1) Zenas Cooke, 2) 1791 William Jameson
• William b. 1770 md. Sarah Sweetland
• Mary b. 1772, d. 1845 md. 1792 Levi Morse
• Chloe (2nd) b. 1776, d. after 1860 md. ca. 1802 William Burton
• Emily b. 1781
• Abigail b. 1741, d. 1760
• Chloe b. 1743
• Content b. 1745, d. 1745 1 day old
• Peter b. 1676/7