The Bradford House

William Bradford, governor of the colony, is one of the English Separatists (religious non-conformists) who went to Leiden, Holland, in 1608. He emigrated to new England on the Mayflower in 1620 and succeeded John Carver as governor in the summer of 1621. He lives here with his second wife, Alice.

Just beyond the Bradford house, at the cross street, is a redoubt, a defensive structure with four swivel guns mounted at the corners. In the event of an insurrection, or attackers breaching the palisade, the guns or "murtherers" would have been used to clear the streets. Closed to the public.

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William Bradford was baptised in Austerfield, Yorkshire on March 19, 1589/90. With other members of the Scrooby Separatist congregation he emigrated to the Netherlands in 1609, living for a year in Amsterdam and then moving to Leiden. In Amsterdam in 1613 he married his first wife, Dorothy May. They both sailed aboard the Mayflower, leaving their son, John, behind. Dorothy drowned in Cape Cod harbor on December 7, 1620. In August, 1623, he married Alice (Carpenter) Southworth, widow of Edward Southworth. He had four children and died in Plymouth May 9, 1657, having served as Plymouth Colony’s governor for many years.

Alice (Carpenter) (Southworth) Bradford was originally from Wrington, Somerset. Her father and some of his children emigrated to Leiden where she married Edward Southworth in 1613. She had two sons by Edward and three children by William, and died in 1670.