this may be compared what is said of him by Winslowe's. Winslowe who joined his church while it was at Leyden, and who was one of the party of a hundred, the first instalment of the Leyden church to the English population of America. "'Tis true, I confess, he was more rigid in his course and way at first than toward his latter end; for his study was peace and union as far as might agree with faith and a good conscience; and for schisms and divisions there was nothing in the world more hateful to him. But for the government of the Church of England, as it was in the Episcopal way, the Liturgy, and stinted prayers of the church thereby, yea, the constitution thereof as national, so consequently the corrupt communion of the unworthy and the worthy receivers of the Lord's Supper, these things were never approved of by him, but witnessed against to his death, and are by the church over which he was to this day."49 Here was something of substantial principle, something very unlike the puerile cavils about the few ceremonial acts which were continued

49 The reader will find in the Appendix the opinion formed of him by John Shaw, the eminent Presbyterian Minister of the time of the Commonwealth, and may compare it with what he says of other English Separatists, who went to Holland.

from the primeval ages of Christianity, interesting as symbolical, and venerable as of unfathomed antiquity; and we cannot but regard such a man as entitled to a voice in Christian controversies.

With the zeal of Brewster there was, therefore, now united the moderation and prudence, and perhaps the hesitancy, of Robinson. But we have now to introduce upon the stage another person who joined himself to the church when quite a youth, who removed with it to Amsterdam, and from thence to Leyden, and who was in the first ship, the May Flower, which entered the harbour of New Plymouth. He William held no office in the Church, but he had the Bradford. chief share in managing the civil affairs of the colony, and subsequently became the person to whom we are indebted for so much authentic information concerning this movement. This was WILLIAM BRADFORD, to whose energy while still quite a young man the church appears to have been greatly indebted in the trying circumstances which attended its removal from England.

He

It is to Dr. Cotton Mather that we are indebted for what is known of the early life of Bradford. seems to have owed most of his information to writings

of Bradford himself, which are now lost. An unfor

tunate but very excusable misprint in Dr. Mather's work, or more probably a mistake in the Mistake in printing Ansterfield for manuscript, has frustrated all former in

Austerfield. quirers into the origin and family connec

tions of Bradford, about which curiosity has been alive. In the Magnalia we read that he was born at Ansterfield. No such place can be found in the villare of England, and therefore the name was no guide to the country in which inquiry might be made about him with any chance of success. But, in fact, what is printed Ansterfield ought to be Austerfield, a village near Scrooby, being about as far to the northeast of Bawtry as Scrooby is to the south.50 And this point having been ascertained, opportunities were opened for the discovery of the station in life which his family had occupied, to support the representations given in general terms by Dr. Mather, and of the

50 I had the pleasure of drawing the attention of my highlyesteemed friend the Hon. James Savage of Boston, who visited England in 1842 for the purpose of collecting information concerning the early emigrants, to this fact when the evidence was in a less complete state than it now is. My communication to him on this subject is inserted among his "Gleanings for New England History," in the eighth volume of the Third Series of Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

UNIV. OF

persons with whom the family of the future Governor of New Plymouth were connected by friendship or alliances.

Austerfield is an ancient village, consisting then, as it does now, of a few houses inhabited by persons engaged in the occupation of husbandry, and a small chapel of a very early age. Ecclesiastically it is dependent on the church of Blythe, and the vicar of that parish appoints the curate. Unlike Scrooby in that respect, whose early registers are lost, Austerfield has preserved them from the beginning in a good state; and it is chiefly by the help of what is Bradford

recorded in them that we are able to show

born there.

that this was the birth-place of Governor Bradford, and to give some account, such as it is, of his family. Dr. Mather says that he was sixty-nine years of age at the time of his death, May the 9th, 1657. This would carry back his birth to the year 1588-9; and with this agrees with sufficient exactness the following entry among the baptisms at Austerfield:

1589, March 19th. William, the son of William Bradfourth-where 1589 is 1590, according to our present mode of dating.

Dr. Mather further informs us that he was born to

some estate, that his parents died when he was young, and that he was brought up by his grandfather and uncles. These statements receive curious support from the entries in the Register, and from fiscal and testamentary documents.

On these authorities the following genealogical account of the Bradfords of Austerfield is based :

A William Bradford was living there in or about 1575, when he and one John Hanson were the only persons in the township who were assessed Bradfords of to the Subsidy. Bradford was taxed on

Genealogical account of the

Austerfield.

20 shillings land, and Hanson on 60 shillings goods, annual value. These were the two grandfathers of the future Governor; and the circumstance, trifling as it is, that they were the only assessable inhabitants of Austerfield, shows at once the general poverty of the place, and that they stood in some degree of elevation above all their neighbours, except the incumbent of the chapel, who, like other clergymen, was not subject to the tax. "William Bradfourth the eldest" was buried January 10th, 1595-6. This was the grandfather of the Governor, who was then about six years old.

Three Bradfords appear in the next generation, who