possession of the Bishop of London,' but the statement not having come under the notice of any one in New England interested in the matter, it was not till 1855 that certain paragraphs in a 'History of the Protestant Episcopal Church of America,' by Samuel Wilberforce, published in 1846, professedly quoted from a 'MS. History of Plymouth in the Fulham Library,' led to its identification. These paragraphs were shown by J. W. Thornton to the Rev. Mr. Barry, author of 'The History of Massachusetts,' who brought them under the notice of Sam. G. Drake, by whom they were at once identified with certain passages from Bradford's 'History,' quoted by the earlier historians. On inquiry in England the surmise was confirmed, and a copy having been made from the manuscript in Bradford's handwriting in the Fulham Library, it was published in vol. iii. (1856) of the 4th series of the 'Collections' of the Mass. Hist. Soc. The manuscript is supposed to have been taken to England in 1774 by Governor Hutchinson, who is the last person in America known to have had it in his possession. The printed bookplate of the New England Library is pasted on one of the blank leaves.
[The chief original sources for the life of Bradford are his own writings; Mather's Magnalia, vol. ii. chap. i.; Shurtleff's Recollections of the Pilgrims in Russell's Guide to Plymouth; Morton's Memorial; Hunter's Collections concerning the Early History of the Founders of New Plymouth, 1849. See also Belknap's American Biography, ii. 217-51; Young's Chronicles of the Pilgrims; Fessenden's Genealogy of the Bradford Family; Savage's Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England, i. 231; Raine's History of the Parish of Blyth; Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts; Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 4th series, vol. iii.; Winsor's Governor Bradford's Manuscript History of Plymouth Plantation and its Transmission to our Times, 1881; Dean's Who identified Bradford's Manuscript? 1883.]
BRADFORD, WILLIAM (1663–1752), the first printer in Pennsylvania, was the son of William and Anne Bradford of Leicestershire, where the family had held a good position for several generations. He is usually said to have been born in 1658, and on his tombstone the date is 1660, but both dates are contradicted by the 'American Almanac' for 1739, printed by himself, where, under the month of May, the following entry appears: 'The printer born the 20th, 1663.' He learned his art in the office of Andrew Sowles, Gracechurch Street, London. Sowles was an intimate friend of William Penn and George Fox, and his daughter Elizabeth married Bradford. It says much for the enlightened forethought of Penn that he induced Bradford to accompany him in his first voyage to Pennsylvania, on which he sailed 1 Sept. 1682. Bradford returned to London, but he set out again in 1685, hoping to embrace within his operations the whole of the middle colonies. In 1692 he was printing for Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Rhode Island, and in 1702 also for Maryland. The earliest issue from his press is an almanac for 1686 (printed in 1685), entitled 'America's Messenger,' of which there is a copy in the Quakers' Library, London. In 1686, along with some Germans of the name of Rittenhouse, he erected on the Wissahickon, near Philadelphia, the first paper-mill ever established in America. Apart from almanacs his first publication was in 1688, a volume entitled 'The Temple of Wisdom,' which included the essays and religious meditation of Francis Bacon. Of this book there is a copy in the Quakers' Library, London. The honour of being the first to propose the printing of the Bible in America is usually assigned to Cotton Mather, but in 1688, seven years before Mather, Bradford had entered upon the project of printing a copy of the Holy Scriptures with marginal notes, and with the Book of Common Prayer. In 1689 he was summoned before the governor and council of Pennsylvania for printing the charter. During the disputes in the colony caused by the proceedings of George Keith, Bradford, who sided with Keith, was arrested for publishing the writings of Keith and Budd, and his press, type, and instruments were seized. Not only, however, were they restored to him by Fletcher, governor of New York, during his temporary administration of Pennsylvania, but at the instance of Fletcher he went to New York, where, on 12 Oct. 1693, he was appointed royal printer at a salary of 40l., which was raised in 1696 to 60l., and in 1702 to 75l. In 1703 he was chosen deacon of Trinity Church, New York, from which he received 30l. on bond, to enable him to print the Common Prayer and version of the Psalms, and when the enterprise did not pay the bond was returned to him. In 1725 he began the publication of the 'New York Gazette,' the first newspaper published in New York, which he edited until his eightieth year. He was also appointed king's printer for New Jersey, as appears from the earliest copy of the laws of that state printed in 1717. He died on 22 May 1752 at the age of eighty-nine. He was buried in the grounds of Trinity Church, New York, where there is a monument to his memory. His character
