nts was chosen
annually to share the executive responsibility. Bradford's rule was firm
and judicious, and to his guidance more than to that of any other man
the prosperity of the Plymouth Colony was due. His tact and kindness in
dealing with the Indians helped to relieve the colony from the conflicts
with which almost every other settlement was afflicted. In 1630 the
council for New England granted to "William Bradford, his heires,
associatts, and assignes," a new patent enlarging the original grant of
territory made to the Plymouth settlers. This patent Bradford in the
name of the trustees made over to the body corporate of the colony in
1641. Bradford died in Plymouth on the 9th of May 1657. He was the
author of a very important historical work, the _History of Plimouth
Plantation_ (until 1646), first published in the _Proceedings_ of the
Massachusetts Historical Society for 1856, and later by the state of
Massachusetts (Boston, 1898), and in facsimile, with an introduction by
John A. Doyle, in 1896. The manuscript disappeared from Boston during
the War of Independence, was discovered in the Fulham library, London,
in 1855, and was returned by the bishop of London to the state of
Massachusetts in 1897. This work has been of inestimable value to
writers on the history of the Pilgrims, and was freely used, in
manuscript, by Morton, Hubbard, Mather, Prince and Hutchinson. Bradford
was also undoubtedly part author, with Edward Winslow, of the "Diary of
Occurrences" published in Mourts' _Relation_, edited by Dr H.M. Dexter
(Boston, 1865). He also wrote a series of _Dialogues_, on church
government, published in the Massachusetts Historical Society's
Publications (1870.)

For Bradford's ancestry and early life see Joseph Hunter, _Collections
concerning the Founders of New Plymouth_, in Massachusetts Historical
Society's _Collections_ (Boston, 1852); also the quaint sketch in
Cotton Mather's _Magnalia_ (London, 1702), and a chapter in Williston
Walker's _Ten New England Leaders_ (New York, 1901).

BRADFORD, WILLIAM (1663-1752), American colonial printer, was born in
Leicestershire, England, on the 20th of May 1663. He learned the
printer's trade in London with Andrew Sowle, and in 1682 emigrated with
William Penn to Pennsylvania, where in 1685 he introduced the "art and
mystery" of printing into the Middle Colonies. His first imprint was an
almanac, _Kalendarium Pennsilvaniense or America's Messenger_ (1685