Bradford's writings in the records of the first church, Plymouth, by secretary Morton. In the same place is a fragment of Bradford's "History of the Plymouth Plantation." All these prose writings were reprinted in Alexander Young's "Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers of the Colony of Plymouth from 1002 to 1636 " (Boston, 1841-'6), which contains also the fragments still extant of Bradford's letter-book, comprising letters addressed to him. These letters were rescued in a grocer's shop in Halifax, but only after the earlier and more valuable portion had been destroyed. Bradford wrote two dialogues besides the one mentioned above. One of these, "Concerning the Church and the Government thereof," dated 1652, was discovered in 1826, and published in the "Proceedings " of the historical society for 1869-70 ; the other is lost. Copies of several of his letters were printed in the third volume of the 1st series of the society's "Collections," and his letters to John Winthrop in the sixth volume of the fourth series. The most valuable of Bradford's writings was a "History of the Plymouth Plantation," including the history of the society from its inception in 1602 till the time when it departed for America in 1620, and its history in Plymouth down to 1647. This manuscript folio volume of 270 pages disappeared during the American revolution and was supposed to have been taken by the British soldiers who used the old South church of Boston, where it was deposited, for a riding-school, or to have been carried away by Gov. Hutchinson in 1774. In 1855 Samuel G. Drake identified passages from a manuscript "History of Plymouth" in the Fulham library, quoted by Samuel Wilberforce in his "History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in America" (1846), with portions of the fragmentary history printed from the records of the first church, Plymouth. The work was found complete in Gov. Bradford's handwriting in the Fulham library. On a blank page was the bookplate of the New England library, from the cabinet of which, in the Old South church, the volume had disappeared. A copy was taken, and the work was printed in full in 1856 in the "Collections" of the Massachusetts historical society. Nathaniel Morton, Prince, and Gov. Hutchinson, in the preparation of their histories of Massachusetts colony, had access to this work and to the letters and other writings of Gov, Bradford, and drew mainly from those sources in narrating the story of the initial period of the colony. In 1897 the original manuscript of Gov. Bradford's narrative, at the original suggestion and through the influence of Thomas F. Bayard, during his ambassadorship to Great Britain, was turned over to Col. John Hay, the American ambassador, by the bishop of London, in whose library at Fulham it then was, for return to the commonwealth of Massachusetts, as an act of international courtesy. In 1896 the manuscript was reproduced in London in photo-zincograph facsimile. It has often been insufficiently described as the "log of the 'Mayflower,'" and many persons, in speaking of it, have wrongly supposed it to be the actual manuscript of that log.
BRADFORD, William, printer, b. in Leicester, England, in 1663; d. in New York, 23 May, 1752.
He was one of the Quakers brought over by Penn
in 1682, who founded in the midst of the forest the
town of Philadelphia. In 1685 he set up his printing-press, the first one south of New England, and the third one in the colonies. The same year he issued the "Kalendarium Pennsilvaniense" for 1686. In 1690 he joined with two others in building a paper-mill on the Schuylkill. Among his earliest publications were Keith's polemical tracts
against the New England churches. In 1691, having sided with Keith in his quarrel with the authorities, and printed his "Appeal to the People," and other tracts on his side of the controversy, Bradford was arrested for seditious libel, and his
press, forms, materials, and publications were confiscated. He was tried on the charge of having
printed a paper tending to weaken the hands of
the magistrates, but, conducting his own case with
shrewdness and skill, escaped punishment through
the disagreement of the jury. In his defence he contended, in opposition to the ruling of the court
directing the Jury to find only as to the facts of
the printing, that the jurors were judges of the
law as well as of the fact, and competent to determine whether the subject-matter was seditious, a
point that, in after times, was much controverted
in similar cases. Having incurred the displeasure
of the dominant party in Philadelphia, and receiving an invitation to establish a printing-press
in New York, he settled there in 1693, set up the
first press in the province, and the same year
printed the laws of the colony. He was appointed
public printer with an allowance of £50 per annum, and also received the appointment of printer
to the government of New Jersey. He retained an
interest in the press in Philadelphia, which was
managed by a Dutchman named Jansen until
Bradford's eldest son, Andrew, took charge of it
in 1712, and obtained the appointment of public
printer. On 16 Oct., 1725, William Bradford began the publication of the "New York Gazette,"
the fourth newspaper in the colonies, and in 1728
he established a paper-mill at Elizabethtown, N. J. He was the only printer in the colony for thirty years, and retained the office of public printer for more than fifty years. He is buried in
Trinity church-yard.—His son, Andrew Sowles, b. in Philadelphia in 1686; d. 23 Nov., 1742, was the only printer in Pennsylvania from 1712 to 1723. On 22 Dec, 1719, he began the publication of the first newspaper printed in the middle colonies, the "American Weekly Mercury." Benjamin Franklin, upon arriving in Philadelphia in 1723, found employment as a compositor in his printing-office. Andrew Bradford was postmaster of Philadelphia in 1732. He kept a book-store at the sign of the Bible in Second street in 1735, and in 1738 removed
to South Front street. In 1741 he started a periodical called the "American Magazine."—William, printer, and soldier of the revolution, b. in New York in 1719; d. in Philadelphia, 25 Sept., 1791, was a grandson of William Bradford, and became
a partner of his uncle Andrew; but a love-affair of the younger Bradford led to a breach of this relation. In 1741 he went to England, and the next year he returned to Philadelphia with printing material and a library, and on 2 Dec, 1742, issued
the first number of the "Pennsylvania Journal." In 1754 he established the London coffee-house in Philadelphia; and in 1762, in association with Mr. Rydd, he opened a marine-insurance office. He was a spirited writer, and in his journal assailed the pretensions of the British government, and inveighed against the stamp act. When the revolutionary war began he joined the Pennsylvania militia. As a major, and afterward a colonel, he fought in the battles of Trenton and Princeton, being wounded in the latter action, and was at
Fort Mifflin when it was bombarded by the British fleet on 16 Nov., 1777. After the withdrawal of the British troops from Philadelphia he returned from the army, broken down in health and ruined in purse. His son, Thomas, continued the publi-
