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- Herausgeber: Booksell-Verlag
- Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
- Sprache: Englisch
In "Of Plymouth Plantation (Complete Edition)," William Bradford offers a captivating first-hand account of the early years of the Plymouth Colony, detailing the trials and tribulations faced by the Pilgrims who sought religious freedom in the New World. Bradford's literary style is characterized by a puritanical earnestness and a rich, narrative-driven prose that weaves together personal reflections, historical events, and theological insights. This work serves not only as a vital historical document but also as a testament to the complexities of faith and community in the face of hardship, grounding it within the larger narrative of America's founding and the quest for liberty. William Bradford, the colony's second governor and an influential leader, drew from his own experiences as an English Separatist to convey the struggles and triumphs of his fellow settlers. Escaping religious persecution in England, Bradford's dedication to preserving the memory of the Pilgrims' journey reflects his commitment to their cause and his understanding of history as a moral narrative aimed at future generations. His leadership during the establishment of the colony and his role as a chronicler profoundly shaped the cultural and historical legacy of early America. "Of Plymouth Plantation" is essential reading for anyone interested in American history, religious studies, or early colonial life. Bradford's profound insights and eloquent prose offer an intimate look at a pivotal moment in history, making this work a must-read for scholars and casual readers alike who seek to understand the values, struggles, and triumphs that continue to resonate in the American narrative. In this enriched edition, we have carefully created added value for your reading experience: - A succinct Introduction situates the work's timeless appeal and themes. - The Synopsis outlines the central plot, highlighting key developments without spoiling critical twists. - A detailed Historical Context immerses you in the era's events and influences that shaped the writing. - A thorough Analysis dissects symbols, motifs, and character arcs to unearth underlying meanings. - Reflection questions prompt you to engage personally with the work's messages, connecting them to modern life. - Hand‐picked Memorable Quotes shine a spotlight on moments of literary brilliance. - Interactive footnotes clarify unusual references, historical allusions, and archaic phrases for an effortless, more informed read.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023
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Of Plymouth Plantation (Complete Edition)
Table of Contents
Introduction
A testament to endurance and community, this work follows a small band of English Separatists as they seek to build a godly society while negotiating peril, scarcity, and the moral burdens of founding a new settlement in a contested land.
Written by William Bradford, a longtime governor of Plymouth Colony, Of Plymouth Plantation is a seventeenth-century historical chronicle set chiefly in and around present-day Massachusetts, with early scenes in England and the Netherlands. Bradford composed the account over many years, principally from the 1630s into the early 1650s, narrating events that span roughly 1608 to 1647. The manuscript circulated privately, was later lost to public view, and reemerged to be printed in the nineteenth century; modern complete editions present the full text derived from Bradford’s recovered history, offering readers a primary source from the formative decades of English colonization in New England.
As a reading experience, the book offers an intimate, plainspoken voice and a measured, reflective mood. Bradford writes as both participant and recorder, combining year-by-year entries with retrospective commentary that weighs choices, trials, and mercies. The narrative moves from the congregation’s struggles abroad to the transatlantic voyage and the precarious work of settlement, all described with an eye for practical details and spiritual significance. Rather than dramatic embellishment, expect sober assessments, careful lists, and a methodical record of civic and communal life. The result is a chronicle that invites patient attention and rewards readers with clarity about motives, institutions, and everyday realities.
Several themes animate the work. It explores religious conviction as a communal bond, tracing how a covenant people attempted to align governance, labor, and worship. It considers liberty under law, including early experiments in collective decision-making that would echo through later American political thought. It portrays scarcity, illness, and environmental challenge as constant tests of resolve. It also documents encounters and negotiations with Indigenous peoples from the colonists’ perspective, revealing the limits and assumptions of Bradford’s worldview. Across these concerns runs a steady effort to find meaning in adversity, to weigh prudence against principle, and to sustain a fragile society.
As a document, Of Plymouth Plantation holds exceptional historical value while requiring a discerning eye. It is a primary source shaped by Bradford’s role, theology, and aims, offering intimate access to beliefs, policies, and daily conditions within an early English settlement. At the same time, its interpretive frame can narrow the field of vision, emphasizing providential explanations and colonial priorities. Modern readers can use the text alongside other sources to situate its claims, attend to its silences, and understand its language within its time. Read critically, the chronicle clarifies both remembered traditions and the complex realities beneath them.
The book’s relevance endures because the questions it raises persist: Why do communities leave, and how do they begin again? What binds people in crisis, and what forms of governance can sustain them? Today’s readers may see parallels in debates about migration, religious freedom, mutual obligation, and the ethics of settlement. Bradford’s attention to consent, leadership, and accountability speaks to enduring civic concerns, while his descriptions of material hardship ground abstract ideals in concrete work and risk. The narrative also invites reflection on memory—how origin stories are formed, contested, and revised as societies reckon with their pasts.
Approached on its own terms, this complete presentation of Bradford’s history offers both narrative momentum and documentary depth. Its early-modern diction and chronological structure reward unhurried reading, and editorial aids in modern editions can help with context and terminology. Treat it as a window into the making of a colony and the interior life of its chronicler: a record of institutional experiments, seasonal labors, and shifting alliances, set against the uncertainties of a new place. The journey it offers is as intellectual as it is historical, inviting readers to consider ideals, compromises, and the responsibilities of collective life.
Synopsis
Of Plymouth Plantation is William Bradford’s chronicle of the origins and early decades of the Plymouth Colony, written between about 1630 and 1650. The complete edition brings together two books that span from the Separatists’ flight from England to events of the 1640s, followed by lists and notes through 1650. Bradford presents documents, letters, and firsthand observations to record the community’s purpose, governance, hardships, and progress. The narrative explains how a small religious congregation became a functioning colony. It proceeds in roughly chronological order, balancing practical details with Bradford’s frequent citations of sources, covenants, and agreements that shaped the settlement’s legal and social life.
Bradford begins with the English Separatists in Nottinghamshire and nearby areas who sought to worship outside the established church. Facing legal pressure, they relocated to Leiden in the Dutch Republic. He describes their work, patience, and continuing challenges in Holland, including economic hardship, concerns about cultural assimilation, and the uncertainty of looming European conflicts. The group resolved to plant a colony in North America to secure their community and advance their religious goals. Negotiations with investors and officials produced a patent and financial backing via Merchant Adventurers. Leaders organized a departing party, arranged ships, and planned for the risks of an Atlantic crossing.
Preparations led to the chartering of two vessels, the Speedwell and the Mayflower. Mechanical problems forced the Speedwell to be abandoned, and the party consolidated onto the Mayflower. Bradford describes the difficult voyage, the landfall at Cape Cod in 1620, and the drafting of a voluntary civil covenant known as the Mayflower Compact to provide a basis for order. Exploration along the coast identified a suitable harbor and abandoned planting fields at the site they would name Plymouth. The settlers began building before winter fully set in, dividing labor, erecting common structures, and organizing defense while still rationing limited provisions.
The first winter brought severe mortality. In the spring, Samoset and then Squanto initiated contact, and a treaty of mutual defense and peace was made with Massasoit, the Wampanoag leader. Squanto taught planting techniques that aided the first successful harvest. Shipments such as the Fortune brought new people but few supplies, straining resources. Subsequent arrivals, including the Anne and Little James, changed the colony’s composition. Bradford recounts early experiments with communal labor and the 1623 shift to private plots to increase productivity. A period of drought ended after a day of fasting and prayer, followed by rain and improved yields, stabilizing food supplies.
Bradford outlines the colony’s civil and military organization, including annual elections for governor and assistants and the appointment of officers such as Captain Miles Standish. Economic survival centered on fishing and the fur trade, but debt to investors limited growth. In 1626 a group of colonists known as the Undertakers assumed the colony’s obligations to gain better control of trade. Emissary Isaac Allerton managed negotiations in England, generating both progress and controversy over costs and agreements. Cattle arrived, and in 1627 people and livestock were divided into lots. The colony built trading posts and small vessels to extend commerce and reduce dependency.
External relations occupied much of Bradford’s account. He narrates the collapse of Thomas Weston’s Wessagusset settlement and Plymouth’s efforts to maintain order. He describes clashes with Thomas Morton of Merrymount over illicit trade and disorder, resulting in Morton’s removal. The colony pursued secure land titles from the Council for New England and established a trading house on the Kennebec under patent. Competition brought disputes, including the Hocking incident in 1634, and French forces seized the Penobscot trading house in 1635, which the colonists could not recover. These episodes illustrate ongoing legal, diplomatic, and commercial challenges in a contested region.
Bradford situates Plymouth amid wider New England developments. The Massachusetts Bay migration after 1630 changed regional dynamics, prompting coordination and boundary discussions. The book records earlier internal disruptions involving John Lyford and John Oldham and the colony’s church and civil responses. Alliances with native leaders, particularly Massasoit, continued, and wampum became a circulating medium in trade. During the Pequot War of 1636–1637, Plymouth provided a small contingent and support while larger forces came from other colonies. In 1643 the United Colonies of New England formed for mutual defense and consultation, with Plymouth as a member. New towns and courts broadened the colony’s institutions.
As the narrative proceeds, Bradford notes alternating scarcity and plenty, periodic illness, and the deaths of notable figures, including the first governor, John Carver. He reproduces letters, inventories, compacts, and patents to document decisions and outcomes. While acknowledging fortuitous events in providential terms, he consistently records practical measures in farming, trade, diplomacy, and law. By the late 1640s, Plymouth has steadier harvests, routine courts, and multiple trading links, though debt and rivalry persist. Bradford closes the continuous history around 1646–1647, emphasizing the endurance of the community and summarizing lessons from its beginnings for the instruction of later generations.
The complete edition concludes with lists and notes compiled to 1650, including the names of Mayflower passengers, brief accounts of their later circumstances, and registers of marriages and births. Bradford preserves the Mayflower Compact, agreements with investors, and other foundational documents. The overall message is the establishment of a self-governing colony through disciplined labor, negotiated alliances with native leaders, and persistent adjustment to economic constraints. The work functions as a primary source on early New England settlement, presenting the colony’s progression from a vulnerable outpost to a modestly stable society, while recording the legal frameworks, key events, and relationships that sustained its growth.
Historical Context
William Bradford’s chronicle unfolds between roughly 1606 and 1647, tracing a Separatist congregation from northern England to the Dutch Republic and then to New England, where they founded Plymouth Colony at Patuxet (modern Plymouth, Massachusetts). The setting straddles the North Atlantic world shaped by Reformation-era confessional conflict, mercantile investment, and imperial competition. Plymouth stood within Wampanoag homelands between Cape Cod and Massachusetts Bay, where the ecological effects of the Little Ice Age and recent epidemics intersected with English settlement. The book’s time frame overlaps with the reigns of James I and Charles I, the Council for New England’s 1620 charter, and the early decades of English colonization, situating the colony amid shifting legal claims, fragile alliances, and hard material constraints.
The English Reformation and the criminalization of separatist worship under statutes such as the 1593 Act Against Seditious Sectaries and enforcement after the 1604 Canons set the stage for Bradford’s community. The congregation gathered at Scrooby, Nottinghamshire, around 1606 under leaders like John Robinson and William Brewster, facing surveillance, arrests, and fines. Failed and successful escapes in 1607–1608 led many to Amsterdam and then Leiden by 1609. Bradford recounts the pressures that pushed these English Separatists abroad, preserving names, places, and magistrates involved in their flights. Of Plymouth Plantation connects directly to this persecution by documenting why a covenantal church chose exile and later sought an even riskier migration across the Atlantic.
Life in the Dutch Republic (1609–1620) unfolded during the Twelve Years’ Truce with Spain, in a milieu of relative toleration, bustling trade, and Calvinist civic order. Bradford describes Leiden’s textile economy, the congregation’s artisanal labor, and anxieties about cultural assimilation and the truce’s expiration in 1621 amid the wider Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648). Leaders such as John Carver, Robert Cushman, and Thomas Weston negotiated with the Virginia Company and later the Council for New England to secure patents and financing. The book mirrors these geopolitical and economic considerations, recording deliberations over patents, oaths, and commercial terms that would govern the proposed colony’s legality, labor regimen, and obligations to London Adventurers.
The catastrophic 1616–1619 epidemic that struck coastal New England peoples, including Patuxet, created a demographic shock that shaped the colony’s location and early diplomacy. Bradford frames the Mayflower migration against this backdrop. After the Speedwell’s failures, 102 passengers and crew departed on the Mayflower from Plymouth, England, in September 1620, reaching Cape Cod on November 9, 1620. Because they had landed outside their patent, the male passengers drafted and signed the Mayflower Compact on November 11, 1620 (Old Style), pledging a civil body politic and consent-based laws. Exploration parties identified the abandoned Patuxet site, and settlers began building in December. The winter of 1620–1621 proved devastating: about 45 of the 102 passengers died, including many leaders. On March 16, 1621, Samoset made first contact, followed by Tisquantum (Squanto), whose knowledge of English and the locale facilitated planting and diplomacy. In March 1621, Plymouth concluded a mutual defense and peace treaty with Ousamequin (Massasoit) of the Wampanoag, establishing terms for restitution, alliance, and safe conduct. A successful harvest in autumn 1621, shared with Wampanoag visitors, became emblematic of tenuous stability. Bradford’s narrative is our principal source for the compact’s consensual governance, the mortality data, the names of key Native and English actors, and the 1621 treaty’s practical importance in sustaining the fragile settlement.
The colony’s legal and economic footing evolved amid complicated ties to the Merchant Adventurers of London. Early patents proved insecure; a 1621 arrangement via John Pierce was later revised, culminating in a 1629 patent held by Bradford for Plymouth’s use. To improve productivity, the 1623 land division shifted from communal labor to family allotments, which Bradford records as increasing yields. Debt to the Adventurers, roughly in the range of £1,800–£2,000, was assumed in 1627 by “Undertakers” including Bradford, Allerton, and Standish, who financed repayment through the beaver trade and trading posts such as at the Kennebec River. The book details charter ambiguities, freight rates, and negotiations, linking governance to mercantile realities.
Regional instability tested Plymouth. Thomas Weston’s Wessagusset (Weymouth) colony collapsed in 1622–1623 amid thefts and an impending conflict; Captain Myles Standish’s preemptive strike, which Bradford recounts, sought to avert a broader war. At Mount Wollaston (Merrymount), Thomas Morton’s maypole revels and arms trading with Native peoples prompted Plymouth to arrest and deport him in 1628, a moral and security episode Bradford treats as symptomatic of disorderly colonization. The Pequot War (1636–1638), centered in Connecticut and culminating in the Mystic massacre (May 26, 1637), drew Plymouth into alliance with Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, and Narragansett forces. Bradford provides a providential gloss while preserving logistical and diplomatic details of Plymouth’s limited but real participation.
The 1630s transformed New England. The Great Migration brought roughly 20,000 Puritans to Massachusetts Bay (founded 1630 under John Winthrop), altering regional power balances and trade networks. Plymouth navigated boundary disputes, intercolonial jurisprudence, and markets as beaver stocks declined in the 1640s. A fatal 1634 confrontation with trader John Hocking on the Kennebec tested Plymouth’s trading claims and intercolonial justice, which Bradford describes alongside negotiations with Massachusetts authorities. In 1643, the United Colonies of New England—Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven—formed for mutual defense and coordination, an arrangement Bradford viewed as pragmatic necessity. His later annals intersect with the opening of the English Civil War (1642), which disrupted commerce and oversight from the metropole.
Bradford’s history functions as a social and political critique of his age. By contrasting consensual covenanting in the Mayflower Compact with episcopal coercion and royal policy, he implicitly challenges authoritarian church-state entanglements. His treatment of debt, the Merchant Adventurers, and exploitative terms criticizes speculative capitalism that disregarded communal welfare. Episodes at Wessagusset and Merrymount expose class and moral fractures within English society overseas, while the 1623 privatization of plots critiques utopian communal labor and endorses measured property reform. The narrative reveals the contradictions of English sovereignty claims amid reliance on Wampanoag diplomacy and Native expertise, thus exposing the moral tensions, legal ambiguities, and social inequities embedded in early colonial expansion.
Table of Contents
Of Plymouth Plantation (Complete Edition)
Introduction
To many people the return of the Bradford Manuscript is a fresh discovery of colonial history. By very many it has been called, incorrectly, the log of the "Mayflower." Indeed, that is the title by which it is described in the decree of the Consistorial Court of London. The fact is, however, that Governor Bradford[1] undertook its preparation long after the arrival of the Pilgrims, and it cannot be properly considered as in any sense a log or daily journal of the voyage of the "Mayflower." It is, in point of fact, a history of the Plymouth Colony, chiefly in the form of annals, extending from the inception of the colony down to the year 1647. The matter has been in print since 1856, put forth through the public spirit of the Massachusetts Historical Society, which secured a transcript of the document from London, and printed it in the society's proceedings of the above-named year. As thus presented, it had copious notes, prepared with great care by the late Charles Deane; but these are not given in the present volume, wherein only such comments as seem indispensable to a proper understanding of the story have been made, leaving whatever elaboration may seem desirable to some future private enterprise.
It is a matter of regret that no picture of Governor Bradford exists. Only Edward Winslow of the Mayflower Company left an authenticated portrait of himself, and that, painted in England, is reproduced in this volume. In those early days Plymouth would have been a poor field for portrait painters. The people were struggling for their daily bread rather than for to-morrow's fame through the transmission of their features to posterity.
The volume of the original manuscript, as it was presented to the Governor of the Commonwealth and is now deposited in the State Library, is a folio measuring eleven and one-half inches in length, seven and seven-eighths inches in width and one and one-half inches in thickness. It is bound in parchment, once white, but now grimy and much the worse for wear, being somewhat cracked and considerably scaled. Much scribbling, evidently by the Bradford family, is to be seen upon its surface, and out of the confusion may be read the name of Mercy Bradford, a daughter of the governor. On the inside of the front cover is pasted a sheet of manilla paper, on which is written the following:—
"Consistory Court of the Diocese of London
In the matter of the application of The Honorable Thomas Francis Bayard, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary in London of the United States of America, for the delivery to him, on behalf of the President and Citizens of the said States, of the original manuscript book entitled and known as The Log of the Mayflower.
Produced in Court this 25th day of March, 1897, and marked with the letter A.
Then come two manilla leaves, on both sides of which is written the decree of the Consistorial Court. These leaves and the manilla sheet pasted on the inside of the front cover were evidently inserted after the decree was passed.
Next comes a leaf (apparently the original first leaf of the book), and on it are verses, signed "A. M.," on the death of Mrs. Bradford. The next is evidently one of the leaves of the original book. At the top of the page is written the following:—
This book was rit by govener William bradford and given to his son mager William Bradford and by him to his son mager John Bradford. rit by me Samuel bradford mach 20, 1705.
At the bottom of the same page the name John Bradford appears in different handwriting, evidently written with the book turned wrong side up.
The next is a leaf bearing the following, in the handwriting of Thomas Prince:—
Tuesday, June 4—1728
Calling at Major John Bradford's at Kingston near Plimouth, son of Major Wm. Bradford formerly Dep Gov'r of Plimouth Colony, who was eldest son of Wm. Bradford Esq their 2nd Gov'r, & author of this History; ye sd Major John Bradford gave me several manuscript octavoes wh he assured me were written with his said Grandfather Gov'r Bradford's own hand. He also gave me a little Pencil Book wrote with a Blew lead Pencil by his sd Father ye Dep Gov'r. And He also told me yt He had lent & only lent his sd Grandfather Gov'r Bradford's History of Plimouth Colony wrote by his own Hand also, to judg Sewall; and desired me to get it of Him or find it out, & take out of it what I thought proper for my New-England Chronology: wh I accordingly obtained, and This is ye sd History: wh I found wrote in ye same Handwriting as ye Octavo manuscripts above sd.
Thomas Prince.
N.B. I also mentioned to him my Desire of lodging this History in ye New England Library of Prints & manuscripts, wh I had been then collecting for 23 years, to wh He signified his willingness—only yt He might have the Perusal of it while He lived.
T. Prince.
Following this, on the same page, is Thomas Prince's printed book-mark, as follows:—
This Book belongs to The New-England-Library, Begun to be collected by Thomas Prince, upon his entring Harvard-College, July 6 1703; and was given by
On the lower part of a blank space which follows the word "by" is written:—
It now belongs to the Bishop of London's Library at Fulham.
There are evidences that this leaf did not belong to the original book, but was inserted by Mr. Prince.
At the top of the first page of the next leaf, which was evidently one of the original leaves of the book, is written in Samuel Bradford's hand, "march 20 Samuel Bradford;" and just below there appears, in Thomas Prince's handwriting, the following:—
But major Bradford tells me & assures me that He only lent this Book of his Grandfather's to Mr. Sewall & that it being of his Grandfather's own hand writing He had so high a value of it that he would never Part with ye Property, but would lend it to me & desired me to get it, which I did, & write down this that sd Major Bradford and his Heirs may be known to be the right owners.
Below this, also in Thomas Prince's handwriting, appears this line:—
"Page 243 missing when ye Book came into my Hands at 1st."
Just above the inscription by Prince there is a line or two of writing, marked over in ink so carefully as to be wholly undecipherable. On the reverse page of this leaf and on the first page of the next are written Hebrew words, with definitions. These are all in Governor Bradford's handwriting. On the next page appears the following:—
Though I am growne aged, yet I have had a long- ing desire, to see with my own eyes, something of that most ancient language, and holy tongue, in which the Law, and oracles of God were write; and in which God, and angels, spake to the holy patriarks, of old time; and what names were given to things, from the creation. And though I cañot attaine to much herein, yet I am refreshed, to have seen some glimpse here- of; (as Moses saw the Land of canan afarr of) my aime and desire is, to see how the words, and phrases lye in the holy texte; and to dicerne some- what of the same for my owne contente. ——— —— — J
Then begins the history proper, the first page of which is produced in facsimile in this volume, slightly reduced. The ruled margins end with page thirteen. From that page to the end of the book the writing varies considerably, sometimes being quite coarse and in other places very fine, some pages containing nearly a thousand words each. As a rule, the writing is upon one side of the sheet only, but in entering notes and subsequent thoughts the reverse is sometimes used. The last page number is 270, as appears from the facsimile reproduction in this volume of that page. Page 270 is followed by two blank leaves; then on the second page of the next leaf appears the list of names of those who came over in the "Mayflower," covering four pages and one column on the fifth page. The arrangement of this matter is shown by the facsimile reproduction in this volume of the first page of these names. Last of all there is a leaf of heavy double paper, like the one in the front of the book containing the verses on the death of Mrs. Bradford, and on this last leaf is written an index to a few portions of the history.
For copy, there was used the edition printed in 1856 by the Massachusetts Historical Society. The proof was carefully compared, word for word, with the photographic facsimile issued in 1896 in both London and Boston. The value of this comparison is evident in that a total of sixteen lines of the original, omitted in the original first copy, is supplied in this edition. As the work of the Historical Society could not be compared, easily, with the original manuscript in London, these omissions, with sundry minor errors in word and numeral, are not unreasonable. The curious will be pleased to learn that the supplied lines are from the following pages of the manuscript, viz.: page 122, eight lines; page 129, two lines; the obverse of page 201, found on the last page of Appendix A, two lines; page 219, two lines; pages 239 and 258, one line each. The pages of the manuscript are indicated in these printed pages by numerals in parentheses.
There are several errors in the paging of the original manuscript. Pages 105 and 106 are marked 145 and 146, and pages 219 and 220 are marked 119 and 120, respectively. Page 243 is missing.
Such as it is, the book is put forth that the public may know what manner of men the Pilgrims were, through what perils and vicissitudes they passed, and how much we of to-day owe to their devotion and determination.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE LEGISLATURE
JOURNAL OF THE SENATE.
Monday, May 24, 1897.
The following message from His Excellency the Governor came up from the House, to wit:—
Boston, May 22, 1897.
To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives.
I have the honor to call to your attention the fact that Wednesday, May 26, at 11 a.m., has been fixed as the date of the formal presentation to the Governor of the Commonwealth of the Bradford Manuscript History, recently ordered by decree of the Consistory Court of the Diocese of London to be returned to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts by the hands of the Honorable Thomas F. Bayard, lately Ambassador at the Court of St. James; and to suggest for the favorable consideration of your honorable bodies that the exercises of presentation be held in the House of Representatives on the day and hour above given, in the presence of a joint convention of the two bodies and of invited guests and the public.
Roger Wolcott.
Thereupon, on motion of Mr. Roe,—
Ordered, That, in accordance with the suggestion of His Excellency the Governor, a joint convention of the two branches be held in the chamber of the House of Representatives, on Wednesday, May the twenty-sixth, at eleven o'clock a.m., for the purpose of witnessing the exercises of the formal presentation, to the Governor of the Commonwealth, of the Bradford Manuscript History, recently ordered by decree of the Consistory Court of the Diocese of London to be returned to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts by the hands of the Honorable Thomas F. Bayard, lately Ambassador at the Court of St. James; and further
Ordered, That the clerks of the two branches give notice to His Excellency the Governor of the adoption of this order.
Sent down for concurrence. (It was concurred with same date.)
JOURNAL OF THE SENATE.
Wednesday, May 26, 1897.
Joint Convention.
At eleven o'clock a.m., pursuant to assignment, the two branches met in
Convention
in the chamber of the House of Representatives.
On motion of Mr. Roe,—
Ordered, That a committee, to consist of three members of the Senate and eight members of the House of Representatives, be appointed, to wait upon His Excellency the Governor and inform him that the two branches are now in convention for the purpose of witnessing the exercises of the formal presentation, to the Governor of the Commonwealth, of the Bradford Manuscript History.
Messrs. Roe, Woodward and Gallivan, of the Senate, and Messrs. Pierce of Milton, Bailey of Plymouth, Brown of Gloucester, Fairbank of Warren, Bailey of Newbury, Sanderson of Lynn, Whittlesey of Pittsfield and Bartlett of Boston, of the House, were appointed the committee.
Mr. Roe, from the committee, afterwards reported that they had attended to the duty assigned them, and that His Excellency the Governor had been pleased to say that he received the message and should be pleased to wait upon the Convention forthwith for the purpose named.
His Excellency the Governor, accompanied by His Honor the Lieutenant-Governor and the Honorable Council, and by the Honorable Thomas F. Bayard, lately Ambassador of the United States at the Court of St. James's, the Honorable George F. Hoar, Senator from Massachusetts in the Congress of the United States, and other invited guests, entered the chamber.
The decree of the Consistorial and Episcopal Court of London, authorizing the return of the manuscript and its delivery to the Governor, was read.
The President then presented the Honorable George F. Hoar, who gave an account of the manuscript and of the many efforts that had been made to secure its return.
The Honorable Thomas F. Bayard was then introduced by the President, and he formally presented the manuscript to His Excellency the Governor, who accepted it in behalf of the Commonwealth.
On motion of Mr. Bradford, the following order was adopted:—
Whereas, In the presence of the Senate and of the House of Representatives in joint convention assembled, and in accordance with a decree of the Consistorial and Episcopal Court of London, the manuscript of Bradford's "History of the Plimouth Plantation" has this day been delivered to His Excellency the Governor of the Commonwealth by the Honorable Thomas F. Bayard, lately Ambassador of the United States at the Court of St. James's; and
Whereas, His Excellency the Governor has accepted the said manuscript in behalf of the Commonwealth; therefore, be it
Ordered, That the Senate and the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts place on record their high appreciation of the generous and gracious courtesy that prompted this act of international good-will, and express their grateful thanks to all concerned therein, and especially to the Lord Bishop of London, for the return to the Commonwealth of this precious relic; and be it further
Ordered, That His Excellency the Governor be requested to transmit an engrossed and duly authenticated copy of this order with its preamble to the Lord Bishop of London.
His Excellency, accompanied by the other dignitaries, then withdrew, the Convention was dissolved, and the Senate returned to its chamber.
Subsequently a resolve was passed (approved June 10, 1897) providing for the publication of the history from the original manuscript, together with a report of the proceedings of the joint convention, such report to be prepared by a committee consisting of one member of the Senate and two members of the House of Representatives, and to include, so far as practicable, portraits of His Excellency Governor Roger Wolcott, William Bradford, the Honorable George F. Hoar, the Honorable Thomas F. Bayard, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord Bishop of London; facsimiles of pages from the manuscript history, and a picture of the book itself; copies of the decree of the Consistorial and Episcopal Court of London, the receipt of the Honorable Thomas F. Bayard for the manuscript, and the receipt sent by His Excellency the Governor to the Consistorial and Episcopal Court; an account of the legislative action taken with reference to the presentation and reception of the manuscript; the addresses of the Honorable George F. Hoar, the Honorable Thomas F. Bayard and His Excellency Governor Roger Wolcott; and such other papers and illustrations as the committee might deem advisable; the whole to be printed under the direction of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, and the book distributed by him according to directions contained in the resolve.
Senator Alfred S. Roe of Worcester and Representatives Francis C. Lowell of Boston and Walter L. Bouvé of Hingham were appointed as the committee.
DECREE OF THE CONSISTORIAL AND EPISCOPAL COURT OF LONDON
DECREE.
MANDELL by Divine Permission LORD BISHOP OF LONDON—To The Honorable Thomas Francis Bayard[2] Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria at the Court of Saint James's in London and To The Governor and Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States of America Greeting—WHEREAS a Petition has been filed in the Registry of Our Consistorial and Episcopal Court of London by you the said Honorable Thomas Francis Bayard as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria at the Court of Saint James's in London on behalf of the President and Citizens of the United States of America wherein you have alleged that there is in Our Custody as Lord Bishop of London a certain Manuscript Book known as and entitled "The Log of the Mayflower" containing an account as narrated by Captain William Bradford who was one of the Company of Englishmen who left England in April 1620 in the ship known as "The Mayflower" of the circumstances leading to the prior Settlement of that Company at Leyden in Holland their return to England and subsequent departure for New England their landing at Cape Cod in December 1620 their Settlement at New Plymouth and their later history for several years they being the Company whose Settlement in America is regarded as the first real Colonisation of the New England States and wherein you have also alleged that the said Manuscript Book had been for many years past and was then deposited in the Library attached to Our Episcopal Palace at Fulham in the County of Middlesex and is of the greatest interest importance and value to the Citizens of the United States of America inasmuch as it is one of the earliest records of their national History and contains much valuable information in regard to the original Settlers in the States their family history and antecedents and that therefore you earnestly desired to acquire possession of the same for and on behalf of the President and Citizens of the said United States of America AND WHEREIN you have also alleged that you are informed that We as Lord Bishop of London had fully recognised the value and interest of the said Manuscript Book to the Citizens of the United States of America and the claims which they have to its possession and that We were desirous of transferring it to the said President and Citizens AND WHEREIN you have also alleged that you are advised and believe that the Custody of documents in the nature of public or ecclesiastical records belonging to the See of London is vested in the Consistorial Court of the said See and that any disposal thereof must be authorised by an Order issued by the Judge of that Honorable Court And that you therefore humbly prayed that the said Honorable Court would deliver to you the said Manuscript Book on your undertaking to use every means in your power for the safe transmission of the said Book to the United States of America and its secure deposit and custody in the Pilgrim Hall at New Plymouth or in such other place as may be selected by the President and Senate of the said United States and upon such conditions as to security and access by and on behalf of the English Nation as that Honorable Court might determine AND WHEREAS the said Petition was set down for hearing on one of the Court days in Hilary Term to wit Thursday the Twenty fifth day of March One thousand eight hundred and ninety seven in Our Consistorial Court in the Cathedral Church of Saint Paul in London before The Right Worshipful Thomas Hutchinson Tristram Doctor of Laws and one of Her Majesty's Counsel learned in the Law Our Vicar General and Official Principal the Judge of the said Court and you at the sitting of the said Court appeared by Counsel in support of the Prayer of the said Petition and during the hearing thereof the said Manuscript Book was produced in the said Court by Our legal Secretary and was then inspected and examined by the said Judge and evidence was also given before the Court by which it appeared that the Registry at Fulham Palace was a Public Registry for Historical and Ecclesiastical Documents relating to the Diocese of London and to the Colonial and other possessions of Great Britain beyond the Seas so long as the same remained by custom within the said Diocese AND WHEREAS it appeared on the face of the said Manuscript Book that the whole of the body thereof with the exception of part of the last page thereof was in the handwriting of the said William Bradford who was elected Governor of New Plymouth in April 1621 and continued Governor thereof from that date excepting between the years 1635 and 1637 up to 1650 and that the last five pages of the said Manuscript which is in the handwriting of the said William Bradford contain what in Law is an authentic Register between 1620 and 1650 of the fact of the Marriages of the Founders of the Colony of New England with the names of their respective wives and the names of their Children the lawful issue of such Marriages and of the fact of the Marriages of many of their Children and Grandchildren and of the names of the issue of such marriages and of the deaths of many of the persons named therein And after hearing Counsel in support of the said application the Judge being of opinion that the said Manuscript Book had been upon the evidence before the Court presumably deposited at Fulham Palace sometime between the year 1729 and the year 1785 during which time the said Colony was by custom within the Diocese of London for purposes Ecclesiastical and the Registry of the said Consistorial Court was a legitimate Registry for the Custody of Registers of Marriages Births and Deaths within the said Colony and that the Registry at Fulham Palace was a Registry for Historical and other Documents connected with the Colonies and possessions of Great Britain beyond the Seas so long as the same remained by custom within the Diocese of London and that on the Declaration of the Independence of the United States of America in 1776 the said Colony had ceased to be within the Diocese of London and the Registry of the Court had ceased to be a public registry for the said Colony and having maturely deliberated on the Cases precedents and practice of the Ecclesiastical Court bearing on the application before him and having regard to the Special Circumstances of the Case Decreed as follows—(1) That a Photographic facsimile reproduction of the said Manuscript Book verified by affidavit as being a true and correct Photographic reproduction of the said Manuscript Book be deposited in the Registry of Our said Court by or on behalf of the Petitioner before the delivery to the Petitioner of the said original Manuscript Book as hereinafter ordered—(2) That the said Manuscript Book be delivered over to the said Honorable Thomas Francis Bayard by the Lord Bishop of London or in his Lordship's absence by the Registrar of the said Court on his giving his undertaking in writing that he will with all due care and diligence on his arrival from England in the United States convey and deliver in person the said Manuscript Book to the Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States of America at his Official Office in the State House in the City of Boston and that from the time of the delivery of the said Book to him by the said Lord Bishop of London or by the said Registrar until he shall have delivered the same to the Governor of Massachusetts he will retain the same in his own Personal custody—(3) That the said Book be deposited by the Petitioner with the Governor of Massachusetts for the purpose of the same being with all convenient speed finally deposited either in the State Archives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the City of Boston or in the Library of the Historical Society of the said Commonwealth in the City of Boston as the Governor shall determine—(4) That the Governors of the said Commonwealth for all time to come be officially responsible for the safe custody of the said Manuscript Book whether the same be deposited in the State Archives at Boston or in the Historical Library in Boston aforesaid as well as for the performance of the following conditions subject to a compliance wherewith the said Manuscript Book is hereby decreed to be deposited in the Custody of the aforesaid Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and his Successors to wit:—(a) That all persons have such access to the said Manuscript Book as to the Governor of the said Commonwealth for the time being shall appear to be reasonable and with such safeguard as he shall order—(b) That all persons desirous of searching the said Manuscript Book for the bona fide purpose of establishing or tracing a Pedigree through persons named in the last five pages thereof or in any other part thereof shall be permitted to search the same under such safeguards as the Governor for the time being shall determine on payment of a fee to be fixed by the Governor—(c) That any person applying to the Official having the immediate custody of the said Manuscript Book for a Certified Copy of any entry contained in proof of Marriage Birth or Death of persons named therein or of any other matter of like purport for the purpose of tracing descents shall be furnished with such certificate on the payment of a sum not exceeding one Dollar—(d) That with all convenient speed after the delivery of the said Manuscript Book to the Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts the Governor shall transmit to the Registrar of the Court a Certificate of the delivery of the same to him by the Petitioner and that he accepts the Custody of the same subject to the terms and conditions herein named AND the Judge lastly decreed that the Petitioner on delivering the said Manuscript Book to the Governor aforesaid shall at the same time deliver to him this Our Decree Sealed with the Seal of the Court WHEREFORE WE the Bishop of London aforesaid well weighing and considering the premises DO by virtue of Our Authority Ordinary and Episcopal and as far as in Us lies and by Law We may or can ratify and confirm such Decree of Our Vicar General and Official Principal of Our Consistorial and Episcopal Court of London IN TESTIMONY whereof We have caused the Seal of Our said Vicar General and Official Principal of the Consistorial and Episcopal Court of London which We use in this behalf to be affixed to these Presents DATED AT LONDON this Twelfth day of April One thousand eight hundred and ninety seven and in the first year of Our Translation.
(L.S.)
RECEIPT OF AMBASSADOR BAYARD.
In the Consistory Court of London
In the Matter of the Original Manuscript of the Book entitled and known as "The Log of the Mayflower."
I the Honourable THOMAS FRANCIS BAYARD lately Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America at the Court of Saint James's London Do hereby undertake, in compliance with the Order of this Honourable Court dated the twelfth day of April 1897 and made on my Petition filed in the said Honourable Court, that I will with all due care and diligence on my arrival from England in the United States of America safely convey over the Original Manuscript Book Known as and entitled "The Log of the Mayflower" which has been this twenty ninth day of April 1897 delivered over to me by the Lord Bishop of London, to the City of Boston in the United States of America and on my arrival in the said City deliver the same over in person to the Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts at his Official Office in the State House in the said City of Boston AND I further hereby undertake from the time of the said delivery of the said Book to me by the said Lord Bishop of London until I shall have delivered the same to the Governor of Massachusetts, to retain the same in my own personal custody.
RECEIPT OF GOVERNOR WOLCOTT.
His Excellency Roger Wolcott, Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, in the United States of America.
To the Registrar of the Consistorial and Episcopal Court of London.
Whereas, The said Honorable Court, by its decree dated the twelfth day of April, 1897, and made on the petition of the Honorable Thomas Francis Bayard, lately Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America at the Court of Saint James in London, did order that a certain original manuscript book then in the custody of the Lord Bishop of London, known as and entitled "The Log of the Mayflower," and more specifically described in said decree, should be delivered over to the said Honorable Thomas Francis Bayard by the Lord Bishop of London, on certain conditions specified in said decree, to be delivered by the said Honorable Thomas Francis Bayard in person to the Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, thereafter to be kept in the custody of the aforesaid Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and his successors, subject to a compliance with certain conditions, as set forth in said decree;
And Whereas, The said Honorable Court by its decree aforesaid did further order that, with all convenient speed after the delivery of the said manuscript book to the Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the Governor should transmit to the Registrar of the said Honorable Court a certificate of the delivery of the same to him by the said Honorable Thomas Francis Bayard, and his acceptance of the custody of the same, subject to the terms and conditions named in the decree aforesaid;
Now, Therefore, In compliance with the decree aforesaid I do hereby certify that on the twenty-sixth day of May, 1897, the said Honorable Thomas Francis Bayard delivered in person to me, at my official office in the State House in the city of Boston, in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, in the United States of America, a certain manuscript book which the said Honorable Thomas Francis Bayard then and there declared to be the original manuscript book known as and entitled "The Log of the Mayflower," which is more specifically described in the decree aforesaid; and I do further certify that I hereby accept the custody of the same, subject to the terms and conditions named in the decree aforesaid.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto signed my name and caused the seal of the Commonwealth to be affixed, at the Capitol in Boston, this twelfth day of July in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and ninety-seven.
ADDRESS OF SENATOR HOAR.
The first American Ambassador to Great Britain, at the end of his official service, comes to Massachusetts on an interesting errand. He comes to deliver to the lineal successor of Governor Bradford, in the presence of the representatives and rulers of the body politic formed by the compact on board the "Mayflower[3]," Nov. 11, 1620, the only authentic history of the founding of their Commonwealth; the only authentic history of what we have a right to consider the most important political transaction that has ever taken place[1q] on the face of the earth.
Mr. Bayard has sought to represent to the mother country, not so much the diplomacy as the good-will of the American people. If in this anybody be tempted to judge him severely, let us remember what his great predecessor, John Adams, the first minister at the same court, representing more than any other man, embodying more than any other man, the spirit of Massachusetts, said to George III., on the first day of June, 1785, after the close of our long and bitter struggle for independence: "I shall esteem myself the happiest of men if I can be instrumental in restoring an entire esteem, confidence and affection, or, in better words, the old good-nature and the old good-humor between people who, though separated by an ocean and under different governments, have the same language, a similar religion and kindred blood."
And let us remember, too, the answer of the old monarch, who, with all his faults, must have had something of a noble and royal nature stirring in his bosom, when he replied: "Let the circumstances of language, religion and blood have their natural and full effect."
It has long been well known that Governor Bradford wrote and left behind him a history of the settlement of Plymouth. It was quoted by early chroniclers. There are extracts from it in the records at Plymouth. Thomas Prince used it when he compiled his annals. Hubbard depended on it when he wrote his "History of New England." Cotton Mather had read it, or a copy of a portion of it, when he wrote his "Magnalia." Governor Hutchinson[4] had it when he published the second volume of his history in 1767. From that time it disappeared from the knowledge of everybody on this side of the water. All our historians speak of it as lost, and can only guess what had been its fate. Some persons suspected that it was destroyed when Governor Hutchinson's house was sacked in 1765, others that it was carried off by some officer or soldier when Boston was evacuated by the British army in 1776.
In 1844 Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford, afterward Bishop of Winchester, one of the brightest of men, published one of the dullest and stupidest of books. It is entitled "The History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in America." It contained extracts from manuscripts which he said he had discovered in the library of the Bishop of London at Fulham. The book attracted no attention here until, about twelve years later, in 1855, John Wingate Thornton, whom many of us remember as an accomplished antiquary and a delightful gentleman, happened to pick up a copy of it while he was lounging in Burnham's book store. He read the bishop's quotations, and carried the book to his office, where he left it for his friend, Mr. Barry, who was then writing his "History of Massachusetts," with passages marked, and with a note which is not preserved, but which, according to his memory, suggested that the passages must have come from Bradford's long-lost history. That is the claim for Mr. Thornton. On the other hand, it is claimed by Mr. Barry that there was nothing of that kind expressed in Mr. Thornton's note, but in reading the book when he got it an hour or so later, the thought struck him for the first time that the clew had been found to the precious book which had been lost so long. He at once repaired to Charles Deane, then and ever since, down to his death, as President Eliot felicitously styled him, "the master of historical investigators in this country." Mr. Deane saw the importance of the discovery. He communicated at once with Joseph Hunter, an eminent English scholar. Hunter was high authority on all matters connected with the settlement of New England. He visited the palace at Fulham, and established beyond question the identity of the manuscript with Governor Bradford's history, an original letter of Governor Bradford having been sent over for comparison of handwriting.
How the manuscript got to Fulham nobody knows. Whether it was carried over by Governor Hutchinson in 1774; whether it was taken as spoil from the tower of the Old South Church in 1775; whether, with other manuscripts, it was sent to Fulham at the time of the attempts of the Episcopal churches in America, just before the revolution, to establish an episcopate here,—nobody knows. It would seem that Hutchinson would have sent it to the colonial office; that an officer would naturally have sent it to the war office; and a private would have sent it to the war office, unless he had carried it off as mere private booty and plunder,—in which case it would have been unlikely that it would have reached a public place of custody. But we find it in the possession of the church and of the church official having, until independence was declared, special jurisdiction over Episcopal interests in Massachusetts and Plymouth. This may seem to point to a transfer for some ecclesiastical purpose.
The bishop's chancellor conjectures that it was sent to Fulham because of the record annexed to it of the early births, marriages and deaths, such records being in England always in ecclesiastical custody. But this is merely conjecture.
I know of no incident like this in history, unless it be the discovery in a chest in the castle of Edinburgh, where they had been lost for one hundred and eleven years, of the ancient regalia of Scotland,—the crown of Bruce, the sceptre and sword of state. The lovers of Walter Scott, who was one of the commissioners who made the search, remember his intense emotion, as described by his daughter, when the lid was removed. Her feelings were worked up to such a pitch that she nearly fainted, and drew back from the circle.
As she was retiring she was startled by his voice exclaiming, in a tone of the deepest emotion, "something between anger and despair," as she expressed it: "By God, no!" One of the commissioners, not quite entering into the solemnity with which Scott regarded this business, had, it seems, made a sort of motion as if he meant to put the crown on the head of one of the young ladies near him, but the voice and the aspect of the poet were more than sufficient to make this worthy gentleman understand his error; and, respecting the enthusiasm with which he had not been taught to sympathize, he laid down the ancient diadem with an air of painful embarrassment. Scott whispered, "Pray forgive me," and turning round at the moment observed his daughter deadly pale and leaning by the door. He immediately drew her out of the room, and when she had somewhat recovered in the fresh air, walked with her across Mound to Castle Street. "He never spoke all the way home," she says, "but every now and then I felt his arm tremble, and from that time I fancied he began to treat me more like a woman than a child. I thought he liked me better, too, than he had ever done before."
There have been several attempts to procure the return of the manuscript to this country. Mr. Winthrop, in 1860, through the venerable John Sinclair, archdeacon, urged the Bishop of London to give it up, and proposed that the Prince of Wales, then just coming to this country, should take it across the Atlantic and present it to the people of Massachusetts. The Attorney-General, Sir Fitzroy Kelley, approved the plan, and said it would be an exceptional act of grace, a most interesting action, and that he heartily wished the success of the application. But the bishop refused. Again, in 1869, John Lothrop Motley, then minister to England, who had a great and deserved influence there, repeated the proposition, at the suggestion of that most accomplished scholar, Justin Winsor. But his appeal had the same fate. The bishop gave no encouragement, and said, as had been said nine years before, that the property could not be alienated without an act of Parliament. Mr. Winsor planned to repeat the attempt on his visit to England in 1877. When he was at Fulham the bishop was absent, and he was obliged to come home without seeing him in person.
In 1881, at the time of the death of President Garfield, Benjamin Scott, chamberlain of London, proposed again in the newspapers that the restitution should be made. But nothing came of it.
Dec. 21, 1895, I delivered an address at Plymouth, on the occasion of the two hundred and seventy-fifth anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims upon the rock. In preparing for that duty, I read again, with renewed enthusiasm and delight, the noble and touching story, as told by Governor Bradford. I felt that this precious history of the Pilgrims ought to be in no other custody than that of their children. But the case seemed hopeless. I found myself compelled by a serious physical infirmity to take a vacation, and to get a rest from public cares and duties, which was impossible while I stayed at home. When I went abroad I determined to visit the locality, on the borders of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, from which Bradford and Brewster and Robinson, the three leaders of the Pilgrims, came, and where their first church was formed, and the places in Amsterdam and Leyden where the emigrants spent thirteen years. But I longed especially to see the manuscript of Bradford at Fulham, which then seemed to me, as it now seems to me, the most precious manuscript on earth, unless we could recover one of the four gospels as it came in the beginning from the pen of the Evangelist.
