BRADFORD-L Archives

Archiver > BRADFORD > 1997-09 > 0875226437


From: George McSwain <>
Subject: Pilgrim - VA/NC Bradford connection
Date: Thu, 25 Sep 1997 18:27:17 -0400


I got a letter today from the Division of Archives and History in North
Carolina which you would be interested in. The state of North Carolina
thinks that Col. John Bradford and Rev. Henry Bradford were direct
descendants of Mayflower Pilgrim Gov. William Bradford! They sent me a copy
of an excerpt from the "Dictionary of North Carolina Biography" which
follows. They also sent a copy some genealogical data from their original
research indicating the line as follows:

Gov. William Bradford -> William Bradford -> John Bradford -> John
Bradford -> Col. John Bradford -> Rev. Henry Bradford

From "The Dictionary of North Carolina Biography" published 1979 by the UNC
Press, Chapel Hill, edited by William S. Powell:
Bradford, Henry Bartlett (4 Dec. 1761-14 Mar 1833), Methodist minister and
church founder, was the son of Colonel John Bradford and his first wife,
Patience Reed Bradford, of Halifax County. He was a direct descendant
(great-great-great-grandson) of William Bradford, governor and deputy
governor of the Plymouth Colony from 1621 until 1656. Henry's father was
one of the first commissioners of the peace for Halifax County, a member of
the assembly, a delegate to the fourth provincial congress in 1776, a
revolutionary soldier, and a representative to the first General Assembly
of North Carolina under the constitution of 1776. Colonel Bradford settled
near Enfield, Halifax County, on land granted by Lord Granville; a portion
of this land was given to Henry. Henry Bradford married Sarah Crowell,
daughter of Edward and Martha Rayburn Crowell, on 1 Jan. 1782. The ceremony
was performed by a friend of the Bradford family, the Reverend Francis
Asbury. Henry and Sally, as she was known to her friends and relatives,
made their home near Enfield on the land given to Henry by his father. The
union produced ten children and many descendants, most of whom now live
outside North Carolina. Bradford did not share his father's love for
military life or politics, even though he had seen service as a private in
the Revolutionary War. His leaning, for which the acquaintance with Francis
Asbury was undoubtedly responsible, was toward the Methodist Episcopal
church. Although he was never ordained by the church, Bradford frequently
preached to the people in the area around Enfield, gaining for himself a
reputation as a competent minister. Even Bishop Asbury, who visited the
local church in 1802, complimented Bradford for his work in behalf of
Methodism. By the late eighteenth century, Bradford had a regular
congregation attending his sermons, which, prior to the erection of the
first house of worship, were camp meetings held on his land near Enfield,
Temporary log huts in the arbor provided shelter from inclement weather. A
building called Bradford's Meeting House was completed about 1790, and a
few years later the congregation had grown large enough for incorporation
into the Methodist Episcopal Church in America. During the first quarter
of the nineteenth century, concern for reform within the Methodist
Episcopal church provoked internal quarrels and led to schisms within the
church body. Bradford supported the movement for change and demonstrated
his activism by joining the Roanoke Union Society, an organization formed
for serious consideration of reform measures within the Methodist church.
Bradford hosted three meetings of the society in 1824 and 1825, despite its
censure as a subversive group by the church hierarchy. A few years later,
Bradford was among a group of ministers called to appear before the board
of bishops for activity in the Roanoke Union Society and for patronizing
Mutual Rights, a publication advocating church reform. In December 1828,
Bradford was a delegate to the assembly that created the Methodist
Protestant Church in North Carolina. He immediately joined the annual
conference and began riding the Roanoke Circuit from his home near Enfield.
Bradford continued his work for the Methodist Protestant church until his
death. His widow left North Carolina to live with her son Richard in
Florida, where she died five years later. SEE: G. L. F. Carroll, ed.,
Francis Asbury in North Carolina (1964); J. E. Carroll, History of the
North Carolina Annual Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church (1939);
Halifax County Records (North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh); Halifax
Free Press, 10 Dec. 1824; Journal 4 the North Carolina Annual Conference of
the Methodist Protestant Church (1836); John Paris, History of the
Methodist Protestant Church in North Carolina (1849); Tarboro Free Press,
23 March 1833. JERRY L. CROSS - researcher NC Division
of Archives and History

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