Alden Bradford

Background

Alden Bradford was born on November 19, 1765 and was a descendant of Governor Bradford of Plymouth and also of John Alden. He was the son of Colonel Gamaliel and Sarah (Alden) Bradford of Duxbury, Massachusetts.

His father was a shipowner, magistrate, and a person of considerable importance in an inconsiderable place.

Education

Young Alden was the first of the line to go to college, graduating from Harvard in 1786, after which he taught school for a year at Milton.

Career

After studying for the ministry under Samuel West, a leading liberal of his day, Bradford obtained a license to preach in 1790 but then accepted a tutorship in Greek at Harvard. He resigned this position three years later and became pastor of the Congregational Church at Wiscasset, Maine.

Wiscasset was then a brisk little town but much given to tuberculosis, which Bradford attributed to the drinking of tea and spirits until he was himself attacked. He promptly gave up the ministry and was at once cured. He continued to reside at Wiscasset and was soon appointed a clerk of the court for Lincoln County, an office which he retained until with his fellow Federalists he was swept from office in 1811.

He next established himself in a book-selling business in Boston but the firm was unsuccessful and it took him many years to clear off the debts. In 1812, he was appointed a secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which post he retained for twelve years.

In 1824, he was again removed by the defeat of the Federalists, the excuse in Bradford's case being charges which were wholly unsubstantiated and which were later entirely refuted. He then became editor of the Boston Gazette, continuing a somewhat unprofitable interest in politics, although he obtained a minor appointment as justice of the peace at New Bedford. He seems to have taken up with several of the "isms" of the day being known as a strong "anti-Masonry" man, a temperance advocate, and a Unitarian, or, as he called himself, a "Berean. "

Achievements

• Bradford was a prolific writer, the bibliography of his works containing over forty items. None of these have any living interest to-day except the few in which he printed original historical documents. His History of Massachusetts to 1820 (1822 - 29) had a contemporaneous but not a permanent value, which may be said of other original historical works. His Speeches of the Governors of Massachusetts 1763-75 (1815), usually cited as Massachusetts State Papers, is valuable for the original material printed in it. It is the printing of original letters and other papers which also gives value to his Life of Jonathan Mayhew (1838).

Works

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  • New England Chronology: from the discovery of the country, by Cabot, in 1497 to 1800 1820.

    (Mark Twain once famously said "there was but one solitary...)

  • History of the Federal Government, for Fifty Years, From March, 1789 to March, 1839

    (History of the Federal Government, for Fifty Years, From ...)

  • A Particular Account of the Battle of Bunker or Breed's Hill on the 17th of June, 1775.

    (One of the earliest historical accounts of the battle of ...)

  • History of Massachusetts

    (This is a reproduction of a classic text optimised for ki...)

  • From July, 1775 ... to the year 1789 (inlcusive)

    (This is a reproduction of a classic text optimised for ki...)

  • History of Massachusetts for Two Hundred Years: from the year 1620 to 1820

    (This is a reproduction of a classic text optimised for ki...)

  • Memoir of the life and writings of Rev. Jonathan Mayhew, D. D.: pastor of the West Church and Society in Boston, from June, 1747, to July, 1766

    (This is a reproduction of a classic text optimised for ki...)

Religion

In his religious affiliation Alden Bradford was a Congregationalist, so after receiving his license to preach, he became a pastor of the Congregational Church at Wiscasset, Maine.

Views

Bradford being known as a strong "anti-Masonry" man, a temperance advocate, and a Unitarian, or, as he called himself, a "Berean. "

Personality

Bradford was a man of strong, upright character, of public spirit, of cultivated tastes of large use to his own generation and of some slight use to this.

Connections

In 1795, Bradford married Margaret Stevenson of Boston.

Father:

Gamaliel Bradford

Mother:

Sarah (Alden) Bradford

mentor:

Samuel West

Wife:

Margaret Stevenson