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About Maj. John Bradford
Descendant of Mayflower passengers William Bradford and Dorothy (May) Bradford
Maj. John Bradford was born on 20 February 1651/2 in Plymouth, Plymouth County, Massachusetts. His date of birth has also been found as 20 Feb 1653. He served in the military as Major of Plymouth forces. He gave land for the minister's home, church, and school.. This included 11 acres of woodland for permanent use of the ministry. In 1687 John was a First Deputy from Plymouth to General Court. From 1689 to 1691 he was a Deputy to General Court. In 1708/9 he was a Selectman. In 1719 John was a Representative to the General Assembly in Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts. He died on 8 December 1736 in Kingston, Plymouth County, Massachusetts. He was buried after 8 December 1736 in Old Burying Ground, Kingston, Plymouth County, Massachusetts. Parents: Maj. William Bradford and Alice Richards.
GRANDSON OF MAYFLOWER PASSENGER GOVERNOR WILLIAM BRADFORD
John's home, built in 1675, is apparently still standing and can be seen from the railway between Boston and Plymouth. He was prominent in civic affairs, a representative to the First General Court at Boston, and helped to incorporate Plymouth as a separate town.
According to tradition, the Indians attempted to burn John's house during King Philip's War. The Major discovered the fire. He spied an Indian on Abrams Hill waving a blanket and shouting to his fellows, and shot him. But on approach, William could not find the body. After the war, the Indian met Bradford and showed him the scars of his wound.
John and his wife Mercy share common ancestors in Alexander Carpenter and Priscilla Dillon, who were the father and mother-in-law of Gov. William Bradford of the Mayflower.
"The children were christened as a family 1 March 1691. The will of John Bradford of Kingston, gentleman, dated 2 October 1732, proved 21 December 1736, names wife Marcy; grandson Robert Bradford, son of John Bradford deceased; son Samuel Bradford; daughter Alice Hearsy, wife of Joshua of Hingham; dau. Marcy Cushman, widow of Isaac Jr. late of Plimpton; dau. Pricilla Chipman, wife of Seth; five grandsons, James, Zadock, Samuel, Eliphalet and William, sons of William Bradford deceased; granddau. Hannah Bradford, dau. of William Bradford deceased; and wife and son Samuel and joint executors." --Evelyn Beran
ANCESTRY OF MAJ. JOHN BRADFORD:
Maj. John Kingston Bradford is a descendant of Charlemagne, Alfred the Great, William the Conqueror, Henry I, Sir William Marshall and Strongbow de Clare. He is also a descendant of Malcolm III, David I, and the ancient kings of Scotland.
NOTABLE RELATIONS
John Bradford shares common ancestors with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Vice President Levi Parsons Morton, Sen. Adlai Stevenson III, Jan Garrigue Masaryk (foreign minister of Czechoslovakia), Lt. Col. Ebenezer Sproat, Revolutionary War heroine Deborah Sampson, Gen. Henry Hastings Sibley (first Governor of Minnesota), Col. Robert Gould Shaw (portrayed in the film "Glory"), Commander William B. Cushing, Lt. Alonzo Cushing (Cushing's Battery), and Lt. Howard B. Cushing (Indian Fighter), Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison (Pulitzer Prize-winning historian), Rev. James Freeman (first Unitarian preacher), social reformer Rev. Everett Edward Hale (author of "Man Without A Country"), biographer Gamaliel Bradford, artists Norman Rockwell and Frederick Edwin Church, publisher Frank Nelson Doubleday, Roger Nash Baldwin (Founder of the ACLU), Phyllis Livingston Baker (Mrs. Fred Astaire), Daniel Hudson Burnham (Chicago architect and city planner), Noah Webster, genealogist James Savage, publishers G.P. Putnam and Sons and Hugh Hefner, Dr. Benjamin Spock, inventor George Eastman, and actors Charlotte Cushman, Humphrey Bogart, Clint Eastwood, Anthony Perkins, Christopher Reeve, and John Lithgow.
WARNING: Some show this couple married 5 Feb 1673/74. Some show his middle name as Kingston, which seems odd. It may be that somewhere someone called him John "of Kingston" and that somehow that was misinterpreted as a middle name that has been repeated in error. We haven't seen a primary source that lists his middle name as such. If anyone can clarify, please contact us.
Larry Overmire
GEDCOM Note
May have died in 1651 or 1652. Married Mercy Warren
GEDCOM Note
John inherited Gov. William Bradford's precious manuscript, "Of Plimouth Plantation," one of the most important documents of early American history. He passed it down to his son Samuel. At some point, the work was loaned to Rev. Thomas Prince who was using it as a reference for his own book that he was writing. He kept it in his library in Boston's Old South Church. The British, who occupied the Old South Church during the Revolution, then got hold of it. Later it turned up in the Bishop of London's palace and was only returned to the state of Massachusetts, after some negotiation, in 1897.
Major Bradford was prominent in civic affairs. He was not only a military leader, but served as representative to the First General Court at Boston and helped to incorporate Plymouth as a separate town.
Maj. Bradford's home in Kingston, built in 1675, is still standing and open to the public today. According to tradition, the Indians attempted to burn John's house during King Philip's War. The Major discovered the fire. He spied an Indian on Abrams Hill waving a blanket and shouting to his fellows, and shot him. But on approach, he could not find the body. After the war, the Indian met Bradford and showed him the scars of his wound.
Maj. John Bradford died on Dec. 8, 1736, in Kingston, at the age of about 84, and was laid to rest in the Old Burying Bround at First Church in Kingston.
- Biography of Maj. John Bradford
by Laurence Overmire
Origins
Alice Richards married William Bradford, Jr., the son of Gov. William Bradford of the Mayflower, on Jan. 28, 1649/50 in Plymouth. Alice gave birth to ten children: John, William, Thomas, Alice, Mercy, Hannah, Melatiah, Samuel, Mary and Sarah.
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Maj. John Bradford's Timeline
| 1653 |
February 20, 1653
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Plymouth, Plymouth Colony, Colonial America
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| 1672 |
1672
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Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States
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| 1675 |
December 29, 1675
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Plymouth, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, British Colonial America
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| 1677 |
January 28, 1677
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Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts
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| 1679 |
December 10, 1679
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Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts
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| 1681 |
December 20, 1681
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Kingstown, (Present Washington County), Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Colonial America
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| 1683 |
December 23, 1683
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Plymouth, (Present Plymouth County), Plymouth Colony (Present Massachusetts), Colonial America
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| 1686 |
March 10, 1686
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Plymouth, Plymouth Colony, Colonial America
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| 1688 |
April 15, 1688
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Kingston, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, Colonial America
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