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Archiver > BRADFORD > 1998-02 > 0887230366


From: George McSwain <>
Subject: trying something new...from the listowner
Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 15:52:46 -0500


Here is my John Bradford and his children. Anyone recognize him?

Descendants of John BRADFORD Col.-861

First Generation

1. John BRADFORD Col.-861 was born 1708. He died Nov 1787 in Halifax
County, NC.
BIOGRAPHY: According to the Watts Family traditions, from Brunswick
County, Virginia he moved to Fanquier County, Virginia where his uncle
William lived and signed his name "John of Virginia of the House of
Bradford". He obtained from John Earl of Granville, a grant of land under
the seal of George II of England, said grant reserving to the king all gold
found on or in said lands, situated in what is now Halifax County, NC.
According to Lamar H. Roberts in a letter in 1954, he moved to his
familes land grant in what is now Halifax County, NC and raised a family.
He served with distinction in the Revolution, held a Colonel's Commission
in the American Army, raised and equipped his own regiment and was at
Yorktown when Cornwallis surrendered. Was on the committee which drafted
the first constitution of North Carolina.
According to an article in the "Littleton (NC) Observer" dated 23 July
1970: He was the great-great grandson of Governor William Bradford of the
Pilgrim Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts and he served with distinction in
the affairs of the colony and state of North Carolina. In 1760 he was the
Commissioner of Peace for the Halifax County and from 1762-68 he served as
a member of the North Carolina Colonial Legislature. He served in the
Provincial Congresses of April and November 1776 and in 1777 was elected to
the North Carolina Senate. He was appointed Colonel from the Halifax County
by the Provincial Congress in September 1775 and was a member of the
Halifax Assembly which placed North Carolina under Military organizations
and on 12 april 1776 declared the famous "Halifax Resolves" for
independence.
!BIRTH: The direct link to his great-great grandfather Governor William
Bradford of the Pilgrim Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts is established by
several sources, but not the Genealogical Register of Plymouth Families
which does not list Col. John as a child of John Bradford and Rebecca
Bartlett.
There appears to be some confusion about who moved from MA to VA to NC and
when.
John married (1) Patience READE-862 on 1750.
They had the following children:
+ 2 F i. Rebecca BRADFORD-863 was born 25
Dec 1752.
3 F ii. Elizabeth BRADFORD-865 was born 1
May 1754.
4 F iii. Tabitha BRADFORD-866 was born 7 Dec
1756.
Tabitha married (1) Samuel CROWELL-867.
5 F iv. Frances BRADFORD-868 was born 25
May 1759.
Frances married (1) William WOOTEN-869.
+ 6 M v. Henry B. BRADFORD Rev.-841 was born
4 Dec 1761 and died 14 Mar 1833.
7 M vi. John BRADFORD-870 was born 15 May
1764.

John also married (2) Dorothea Miriam-871.
They had the following children:
8 F vii. Miriam BRADFORD-872 was born 15 Jun
1769.
Miriam married (1) CROWELL Col.-873.
9 M viii. Richard Henry BRADFORD-874 was born
30 Sep 1770.
10 F ix. Ann BRADFORD-875 was born 12 Sep
1772.

John also married (3) Elizabeth-876.
They had the following children:
11 M x. Neal BRADFORD-877 was born 10 Feb
1775. He died 29 Jul 1775.
12 F xi. Sara BRADFORD-878 was born 2 Jun
1776.
13 F xii. Martha BRADFORD-879 was born 6 Jan
1779.
14 F xiii. Mary BRADFORD-880 was born 7 Nov
1780.
15 M xiv. William BRADFORD-881 was born 20
Sep 1786.
He never married and died at 38 leaving a great deal of money and a
magnificant silver sugar bowl. "Uncle Billy" was very fond of his nephew
Edward(Ned) - his half-brother Henry's son. He paid for his education
including a medical education in Germany.

Second Generation

2. Rebecca BRADFORD-863 was born 25 Dec 1752.
Rebecca married (1) John BRANCH-864.
They had the following children:
+ 16 M i. John BRANCH Jr.-904.

6. Henry B. BRADFORD Rev.-841 was born 4 Dec 1761 in Halifax, NC. He
died 14 Mar 1833 in Enfield, NC.
BIOGRAPHY: Pioneer Methodist minister ordained on 2 March 1804 at
Whitaker's Chapel near Enfield, NC and married by his close friend the
famous Methodist Bishop Francis Asbury.
According to an article in the "? Observer" dated 23 July 1970: A state
historical highway marker honoring his memory was placed at the site of his
church on the Glenview Road (NC #481) about two miles southwest of Enfield,
NC.
He fought as a private in the War for American Independence and also in
1812. Asbury's famous journal records several visits to the Bradford home
in 1801-04 and in 1815 and compliments Bradford's work as a Methodist
preacher.
Bradford's Meeting House was one of the oldest places of worship in North
Carolina, organized in the late eighteenth century and deeded to Bishop
Asbury and the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1792. Originally log huts for
camp meetings before the first permanent structure was built, Bishop Asbury
preached there on Sunday, March 15, 1801. After meetings of the Roanoke
Union Society to discuss the reform issues in 1824-25 of which he was an
early reform member and for which he was brought to trial with a group of
Methodist ministers, the congregation moved into the new branch of
Methodism in 1828. It remained a thriving church with a large congregation
during the middle and latter part of the nineteenth century but by 1912
membership at Bradford's church had decreased and the building was sold and
subesequently torn down. In 1824 Henry Bradford advertised the "Bradford's
Female Academy" which subesequently became the Bradford Public School.
Henry married (1) Sarah CROWELL-842, daughter of Edward CROWELL-843 and
Martha RAEBURN-844 on 1 Jan 1782. Sarah was born 8 Jun 1763 in Halifax, NC.
She died 1839 in FL.
The Crowell family said to have descended from Oliver Cromwell. Some of her
sons moved to Florida where their cousin John Branch, Jr. was Governor and
established plantations. She was there when she died.

Henry and Sarah had the following children:
17 F i. Martha BRADFORD-845 was born 10 Oct
1782.
Martha married (1) John JUDGE-846.
18 M ii. Nathaniel BRADFORD-847 was born 30
Mar 1784.
He served in the Georgia Senate. Moved to Talahassee with his brothers.
Nathaniel married (1) Sarah TEMPLE-848.
19 F iii. Elizabeth BRADFORD-849 was born 10
Jul 1786. She died as an infant.
+ 20 M iv. John BRADFORD-837 was born 3 Dec
1787 and died 9 Nov 1855.
21 M v. Thomas BRADFORD-850 was born 17 Feb
1790.
Considered the black sheep of the family - he had refused to learn a
profession so his father, Henry, sent him to live with his brother John in
Tennessee in 1820, and all he did was marry Elizabeth Eelbeck (John's
wife's sister) who was also visiting at that time. Later moved to
Talahassee, Florida in 1831 with his three brothers and settled at Walnut
Hill in the same vicinity.
Thomas married (1) Elizabeth EELBECK-851.
22 M vi. Henry BRADFORD-852 was born 30 Oct
1791.
Moved in 1831 to Leon County, Florida from Halifax County, NC with his
three brothers. Lived on an establishment on the Thomasville Road.
Henry married (1) Nancy HARRIS-853.
23 F vii. Mary Crowell BRADFORD-854 was born
29 Jan 1793.
Mary married (1) Ely Whitaker TAYLOR-855.
24 F viii. Sallie BRADFORD-856 was born 22 Sep
1796. She died as an infant.
+ 25 M ix. Edward (Ned) BRADFORD Dr.-857 was
born 25 Aug 1798.
26 M x. Richard Henry BRADFORD-859 was born
15 Nov 1800.
BIOGRAPHY: Moved in 1831 to Leon County, Florida from Halifax County, NC
with his three brothers. Developed "Water Oak Plantation", near his brother
Ned's plantation "Pine Hill" some ten miles north of Tallahassee. His son
Capt. Richard H. Bradford was the first soldier killed in Florida in the
War Between the States. His mother died at his home in Florida in 1838.
Richard married (1) Ann Bryan FOORT-860.

George McSwain
1219 62nd St. NW
Bradenton, FL 34209
e-mail:

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