1st wife of William ‘Alice’ Bradford

Not Alice Morton. Robert Morton, Esq. & Alice Morton are not known to have had a daughter “Alice” who married William Bradford (d. 1596).

Biography

Updated 2 November 2023

The first wife of William Bradford was born before 1536, in the area of Austerfield, Blyth, Yorkshire, England. We don’t know her name or origins.

She married before 28 Nov 1552 in Austerfield, York, England to William Bradford (1533-1595) later of Austerfield, Yorkshire, England; his first wife. The 1552 date is his father’s will date; no marriage record has been found. William was the oldest son of Robert Bradford (son of Peter) and his 1st, unknown wife.

Children of William Bradford and Alice:

1. William Bradford Born: 19 Mar 1559 - Austerfield, Yorkshire, England Buried: 15 Jul 1591 - Austerfield, Yorkshire, England. He married Alice Hanson (1562-1597). The father of Gov. William Bradford.
2. Robert Bradford born 1561 Austerfield, York, England Christened: 25 Jun 1561 Austerfield, Yorkshire, England Died: 23 Apr 1607 - Austerfield, Yorkshire, England. Married Alice Waingate.
3. Alice Bradford born Abt 1567 Austerfield, Yorkshire, England. She was a legatee in her grandfather's 1552 will.

Thomas Bradford is seen as her son, But he is more likely William's brother, who signed his will in 1605, than his son.

Secdied before 19 Oct 1567 before about age 31 in Austerfield, Yorkshire, England, when William Bradford married Margaret Fox, the daughter of William Fox of Harworth, co. They had a daughter Elizabeth, bpt Austerfield 16 July 1571, who married James Hall.

Disputed origins

Note: it is not confirmed that Alice Morton is the grandmother of William Bradford, Governor of Plymouth County. Please help source. 29 June 2011.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bradford-71

The name Alice Morton as suggested by J. G. Hunt has never been proven. Anthony Morton, of Bawtry was not known to have had a sister Alice.

NEHGR 111:68 "Notes." See Hunt JG in sources.

This article draws a parallel between William Bradford the immigrant and George Morton, who were brothers in law and mentions a suit between Anthony Morton and William Bradforth (Grandfather of the immigrant. Then: "A fine is preserved, dated Trinity 1577, wherein Wm. Bradfurthe is plaintiff and Anthony Morton and Mary, his wife, are deforciants, and lands at Awsterfield and Bawtrye arre at issue (yorks Fines). Who was this Wm. Bradfurthe?" Hunt concludes he is the William (bur. 10 Jan 1595/6) because of "About Trinity Term [22 May-12 Jen], 1577 he purchased of Anthony Morton land and houses in Austerfield and Bawtry, co. York, and land in Misson, co. Nottingham."[NEHGR 84:7,8]. William (d. 1595/6) had children, Alice, William, Robert and Elizabeth (2nd wife). "Whence the name Alice? I submit that the following Morton pedigree taken from Hunter's 'Familiae Minorum Gentium', with additions from a Morton genealogy suggests that Alice Bradford, great aunt of the governor, was named for her mother, Alice Morton, sister of Anthony, supra."

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For purposes of argument

The small print on the left, commenting on the article, reads:

Hunter’s Familiae Minorum Gentium p. 212 doesn’t have anything about Mortons. Mortons on p. 229-233 and 241-243 don’t mention a likely Anthony and don’t mention Alice.

Source: https://www.wikitree.com/photo/png/Morton-40 from Hunt, J. G. Hunt, "A Possible Added Morton-Bradford Connection," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 111, 1957, 68.< AmericanAncestors >

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References

1. WeRelate.org
2. English Origins of New England Families, 2nd Ser. Vol. 1. p. 243 Ancestry of the Bradfords of Austerfield, Co. York by William Bradford Browne. Ed. by Gary Boyd Roberts, pub. by Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, 1985.
3. Descendants of Governor William Bradford, by Ruth Gardiner Hall, under auspices of the Bradford Family Compact.
4. Bradford Genealogy by Faith Bradford
5. A Line of Bradfords 1460-1988 by Bradford Stone
6. http://www.treetreetree.org.uk/Bradford.htm#William1 cites
   1. # Allen, John Kermott (1908). George Morton of Plymouth Colony and some of his descendants. Page 4. < Archive.Org >. Robert Morton of Bawtry is not shown with a daughter Alice.
7. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Unknown-518539 Cites
   1. Browne, William Bradford. "Ancestry of the Bradfords of Austerfield, Co. York. Records Extending the Ancestral Line of Gov. William Bradford. New England Historical and Genealogical Register Vol 83:439-464 (1929) and Vol 84: 5-17 (1930). vol 84, pp 7, 8. < AmericanAncestors >
   2. Hunt, J. G., "A Possible Added Morton-Bradford Connection," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 111: 68. (1957)
   3. Banks, Charles Edward, The English Ancestry and Homes of the Pilgrim Fathers Who Came to Plymouth, Genelogical Publishing Co., Inc. Baltimore, 1976 1962 printing. Originally published 1929.
   4. Willison, George F., Saints and Strangers, The Cornwall Press, Cornwall, NY, 1943, Third Printing
   5. A memorial for William Bradford 1533-1595: http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=image&guid=afce86bd-d898-4e99-82ab-5...
   6. Fessenden, G.M. A Genealogy of the Bradford Family, The New England Historical & Genealogical Register (NEHGS, Boston, 1850) Vol. 4, Page 43
   7. Brainerd, Dwight. Ancestry of Thomas Chalmers Brainerd (Montreal, Quebec, 1948) Page 55-6
8. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Morton-167
9. “ Mayflower needs England help. Did Anthony Morton have a sister Alice?” (Mar 21, 2020)

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http://mayflowerhistory.com/bradford-william/

William Bradford

BAPTISM: 19 March 1589/90 at Austerfield, co. Yorks, England, son of William and Alice (Hanson) Bradford.
FIRST MARRIAGE: Dorothy May, on 10 December 1613 at Amsterdam, Holland.
SECOND MARRIAGE: Alice (Carpenter) Southworth, on 14 August 1623 at Plymouth.
CHILDREN (by Dorothy): John
CHILDREN (by Alice): William, Mercy, Joseph
DEATH: 9 May 1657 at Plymouth.
yDNA HAPLOGROUP: I-M253 (I-Y21372)
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William Bradford's 1592 edition of the Geneva Bible, currently on display at the Pilgrim Hall Museum in Plymouth.

William Bradford was born in 1590 in the small farming community of Austerfield, Yorkshire. His father William died when young Bradford was just one year old. He lived with his grandfather William, until his grandfather died when he was six. His mother Alice then died when he was seven. Orphaned both from parents and grandparents, he and older sister Alice were raised by their uncle Robert Bradford. William was a sickly boy, and by the age of 12 had taken to reading the Bible, and as he began to come of age he became acquainted with the ministry of Richard Clyfton and John Smith, around which the Separatist churches of the region would eventually form about 1606. His family was not supportive of his moves, and by 1607 the Church of England were applying pressure to extinguish these religious sects. Bradford, at the age of 18, joined with the group of Separatists that fled from England in fear of persecution, arriving in Amsterdam in 1608. A year later he migrated with the rest of the church to the town of Leiden, Holland, where they remained for eleven years. Bradford returned to Amsterdam temporarily in 1613 to marry his 16-year old bride, Dorothy May. In Leiden, Bradford took up the trade of a silk weaver to make ends meet, and also was able to recover some of the estate in England that he had been left by his father, to support himself and his new wife in Leiden. They had a son, John, born about 1615-1617 in Leiden.

A chair that once belonged to Governor William Bradford, now on display at the Pilgrim Hall Museum in Plymouth.

By 1620, when a segment of the church had decided to set off for America on the Mayflower, Bradford (now 30 years old) sold off his house in Leiden, and he and his wife Dorothy joined; however, they left young son John behind, presumably so he would not have to endure the hardships of colony-building. While the Mayflower was anchored off Provincetown Harbor at the tip of Cape Cod, and while many of the Pilgrim men were out exploring and looking for a place to settle, Dorothy Bradford accidentally fell overboard and drowned.

John Carver was elected governor of Plymouth, and remained governor until his death a year later in April 1621. Bradford was then elected governor, and was re-elected nearly every year thereafter. In 1623, he married to the widowed Alice (Carpenter) Southworth, and had a marriage feast very reminiscent of the "First Thanksgiving," with Massasoit and a large number of Indians joining, and bringing turkeys and deer. Bradford was the head of the government of Plymouth, oversaw the courts, the colony's finances, corresponded with investors and neighbors, formulated policy with regards to foreigners, Indians, and law, and so had a very active role in the running of the entire Colony. With his second wife, he had three more children, all of whom survived to adulthood and married.
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Beginning in 1630, he started writing a history of the Plymouth Colony, which is now published under the title Of Plymouth Plantation. He continued writing his history of Plymouth through about 1651. Bradford's History is one of the primary sources used by historians, and is the only thorough history of Plymouth Colony that was written by a Mayflower passenger. It is required reading in a number of collegiate American History courses, and an edition of it was edited by MayflowerHistory.com historian Caleb Johnson (see Amazon.com link to the right). A number of his letters, poems, conferences, and other writings of William Bradford, have also survived.

William Bradford was generally sick all through the winter of 1656-1657; on May 8, Bradford predicted to his friends and family that he would die, and he did the next day, 9 May 1657, at the age of 68.
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