Bradford attends Clif

We may, however, conclude from what is said by Dr. Mather, that Bradford owed little to him of that deeply contemplative and religious turn of mind which was remarked in him as early as his twelfth year. He was brought up as the sons of yeomanry in those days were when not sent into the towns, attending to the husbandry operations of the family. But the report of Clifton's awakening ministry reached Austerfield. Young as he was, ton's ministry. the voice came home to his heart. Babworth cannot be less than six or seven miles from Austerfield, yet he was a frequent attendant on Clifton's ministry. In going from Austerfield to Babworth he would pass through Scrooby, where we see Downes, a friend of the family, resided, and where he would meet with several persons, Brewster among the number, who walked across the meadows to Babworth, and who returned, their hearts burning within them, and strengthening one another in the persuasion that such were the ministers by whom Christianity put forth its genuine influences. And when Clifton's voice was silenced by authority he would be amongst those who reclaimed against the unwise and oppressive act; and when Clifton gave up for ever his pleasant benefice, and

separated himself from the Church to which perhaps he was in heart strongly attached-his affections drawing him one way and his judgment another— Bradford, young as he was, would be likely to see that no other way had remained for him, and that it was his own duty and his highest interest to render him all the encouragement and support in his little power, and to abandon the church which one of its best ministers had been driven out from. Opposing himself to the wishes of his family, and self a Sepa- daring the derision which would be showered upon him by the clowns of Auster

Formally professes him

ratist.

field, he declared himself a Separatist, joined the Scrooby Church, and became a very active and useful person in the difficult operations which they were soon called on to perform. This seems to have been the part he took when he was from fifteen to eighteen years of age.

To complete the early portion of the personal history of this remarkable man, which is the only part of it which belongs to me, it may be added that it has been discovered by the American inquirers riages. into the history of the early settlers that he married one Dorothy May. She accompanied him to

His mar

America, one of the memorable hundred who were in the May-Flower.5 She reached the American coast; but, while the ship was in the harbour at New Plymouth, she fell overboard 54 and was drowned. May is no Basset-Lawe name, so that we are not warranted in claiming her for another member of the Scrooby Church; and she was probably a daughter of a Mrs. May, a member of Johnson's Separatist Church at Amsterdam, who is spoken of not very respectfully by Ephraim Pagitt in his Heresiography, p. 62. Two years after her death, Bradford married Mrs. Alice Southworth, a widow, to whom, according to tradition, he had been attached before he went to America.

53 Often said to be One Hundred and One. Dr. N. B. Shurtleff has prepared a very critical catalogue of them, in which it appears that One Hundred embarked, and One Hundred arrived at Cape Cod: but that there was a child born on the passage named Oceanus Hopkins: but this addition to the number of passengers was balanced by the death of William Butten, servant to Mr. Samuel Fuller. A child who was named Peregrine White was born at the Cape in November, on board the ship. So'that One Hundred and One may still be said to be the number of those who landed. It is a melancholy fact, and one which shows that the emigration was really no trifling sacrifice which these people made, that in less than a year, fifty-one persons who had come over were dead!

54 In the former edition I have said that a boat upset in which she was but I have been set right by a valued New England correspondent.

She had married in the interval, and had become a widow. Bradford renewed his proposals by letter. She accepted them, and sailed for New Plymouth in the second year of the existence of the colony. Two sons of hers, Constant Southworth and Thomas Southworth, also came out, who were brought up by Governor Bradford, and became important persons in the colony.

worths.

The Southworths were eminently a Basset-Lawe The South- family. We learn from Thoroton that, in 1612, there was a Thomas Southworth, who had lands at Clarborough, and a William Southworth, a freeholder at Heyton. We find also, in the Visitation of Nottinghamshire, in 1614, that an Edward Southworth was then living, but so little did he care for such things, that all the account of his family which he gave to the Heralds was, that he was the son of Robert Southworth, the son of Richard, the son of Aymond, who lived at Wellam in the reign of King Henry the Eighth. From another source we know that one of the family, a Mr. Robert Southworth, consorted with the extreme Puritans, who were going the way of separation. It is the letter of Smith to Bernard of Worksop, in which this passage

occurs: alluding to the speech of Naaman, Smith says, "By this place Mr. Bernard intended to sin against his conscience, for he did acknowledge this truth we now profess divers times, and was upon the point of separation with some of his people with him; yet, loving the world and preferment as Naaman is thought to do, he chose rather to stay still in his vicarage against his conscience than to lose it, and to follow Christ with a good conscience. Do you not remember, Mr. Bernard, what you said to me and Mr. Robert Southworth, coming together from W. [Worksop ?], that, speaking of the danger of walking in this truth of Christ we now profess, you said you could easily die upon the tree for the truth, but you could not without great horror think of being burned as the martyrs were in Queen Mary's days; and that all the journey you were casting how to dispatch your estate and to get away with safety."

With this passage before us, and the fact that some of the name became early settled in the new country, we cannot err if we claim some of them as lay members of the Scrooby Church, perhaps this very Mr. Robert Southworth himself. The time of the conversation alluded to would be about 1604.