William Bradford (c. 19 March 1590 – 9 May 1657) was an English Puritan Separatist originally from the West Riding of Yorkshire in Northern England.

He moved to Leiden in the Dutch Republic in order to escape persecution from King James I of England, and then emigrated to the Plymouth Colony on the Mayflower in 1620.

[6] His uncles wanted him to help on the farm, and he later noted in his journal that he suffered at that time from a "long sickness" and was unable to work.

[12] During one meeting, Bradford met William Brewster, a bailiff and postmaster[13] who lived at Scrooby manor, four miles from Austerfield.

During frequent visits, Bradford borrowed books from him, and Brewster regaled him with stories of the efforts toward church reform taking place throughout England.

[14] By 1607, secret meetings were being held at Scrooby Manor and about 50 reform-minded individuals began to worship together, led by Richard Clyfton and the Rev.

[15] The Scrooby congregation decided in 1607 to leave England unlawfully for the Dutch Republic, where religious freedom was permitted, and Bradford determined to go with them.

The group encountered several major setbacks when trying to leave England, most notably their betrayal by an English sea captain who had agreed to carry them to the Netherlands, but instead turned them over to the authorities.

The Scrooby congregation had to work the lowest of jobs and to live in poor conditions, being foreigners and having spent most of their money in attempts to get to the Dutch Republic.

Edward and Alice (Carpenter) Southworth and their two sons were residing at Heneage House, the Duke's Place, in Aldgate in 1620.

[25][26] Therefore, they commenced three years of difficult negotiations in England seeking permission to settle in the northern parts of the Colony of Virginia (which then extended north to the Hudson River).

By July 1620, Robert Cushman and John Carver had made the necessary arrangements, and approximately fifty Separatists departed Delftshaven on board the Speedwell.

[28] According to the arrangements made by Carver and Cushman, the Speedwell was to meet with the Mayflower off the coast of England and both were destined for the northern part of the Colony of Virginia.

Joining the Scrooby congregation were about 50 colonists who had been recruited by the Merchant Adventurers for their vocational skills, which would prove useful in establishing a colony.

The term is derived from a passage in Bradford's journal, written years later, describing their departure from the Netherlands (itself an allusion to Hebrews 11:13 in the Bible): ...With mutual embraces and many tears, they took their leaves of one another, which proved to be the last leave to many of them...but they knew they were pilgrims and looked not much on those things, but lifted their eyes to heaven, their dearest country and quieted their spirits...[30]The Mayflower departed Plymouth, England on 6/16 September 1620.

[33] In November and December, these parties made three separate ventures from the Mayflower on foot and by boat, finally locating Plymouth Harbor in mid-December and selecting that site for settlement.

[34] The third exploration departed from the Mayflower on 6 December 1620 when a group of men (including Bradford) located Plymouth Bay.

A winter storm nearly sank their boat as they approached the bay, but they managed to land on Clark's Island, suffering from severe exposure to the cold and waves.

[35] During the ensuing days, they explored the bay and found a suitable place for settlement, now the site of downtown Plymouth, Massachusetts.

There were numerous brooks providing fresh water, and it had been the location of an Indian village known as Patuxet; therefore, much of the area had already been cleared for planting crops.

[41] On 11 January 1621, Bradford was helping to build houses when he was suddenly struck with great pain in his hipbone and collapsed.

[43] In an attempt to hide their weakness from Native Americans who might be watching them, the settlers buried their dead in unmarked graves on Cole's Hill, often at night, and made efforts to conceal the burials.

[46] On 16 March, the settlers had their first meeting with the American Indians in the region when Samoset walked into the village of Plymouth as a representative of Massasoit, the sachem of the Pokanokets.

The first part of the work was written in 1630; toward the end of his life, he updated it to provide "the account of the colony's struggles and achievements through the year 1646.

As Philip Gould writes, "Bradford hoped to demonstrate the workings of divine providence for the edification of future generations.

United States Senator George Frisbie Hoar and others made multiple attempts to have it returned, and the British finally relinquished it to Massachusetts on 26 May 1897.

[58] Bradford's journal also contributed to the book Mourt's Relation, which was written in part by Edward Winslow and published in England in 1622.