11

II
THE PILGRIM 23

III
THE GOVERNOR: EARLY DUTIES 41

IV
THE GOVERNOR: LATER ADMINISTRATION 61

V
THE GOVERNOR: LAST ACTS 89

WILLIAM BRADFORD OF PLYMOUTH

I

THE BOY

_Earth's transitory things decay,
Its pomps, its pleasures pass away;
But the sweet memory of the good
Survives in the vicissitude._

J. BOWRING.

The world has nothing more worthy of our regard than its unconscious
heroes. Though many can discern their own true importance, a peculiar
charm invests such as do not realize it, even if they are told. They
seem to think others would have done better in their place, and they
lightly estimate their services, at less than their fellow-men accredit
them. His ideal of duty captivates the doer more than his own agency
therein. The noblest men are made by the contemplation of their models.
Like the great Apostle, they are not disobedient unto the heavenly
vision. Among earth's worthies, modest and unconscious of greatness,
there stands the figure of William Bradford.

We find him first as a native of Austerfield, England, on the south
border of Yorkshire. There is no official record of his birth. But in
addition to his own declaration of age when first married, the clearly
legible record of his baptism, March 19, 1589, would indicate that by
the modern calendar he was born in 1590. The garments worn by him at the
chapel March 19-29, being a short white linen covering and mitts which
came for exhibition to Essex Institute in Salem, Massachusetts, are the
apparel of a small babe.

The affirmation of Bradford, as a man thoroughly established in his
integrity and his accuracy of statement, this declaration in the
important matter of his marriage contract when he was required to
subscribe his own signature, must be accepted as more weighty than the
opinions given by others regarding his age in later years of his life,
and the posthumous inscription placed long afterward on his monument. It
is unlikely that he was consulted about his age, for any future epitaph,
since even the necessary making of his will was deferred to the day of
his death. Not long before his nuptials on December 10-20, 1613, he
averred that he was twenty-three; and, supposing an error of his quite
improbable here, our conclusion appears justified that he was born in
1590 by the Gregorian ca