Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation: a Chronicle / record source. Covers AD 1606 – 1646, with 100 events in chronological order. Text license and provenance included.
| Type | Chronicle / record |
|---|---|
| Viewpoint | Insider account |
| Years covered | AD 1606 – 1646 |
| Events | 100 events, 91 placed on the map |
| Author | William Bradford |
| Original title | Of Plymouth Plantation |
Regions: The Americas 79 · Western Europe 21
| Year | Place | Event | Passage |
|---|---|---|---|
| AD 1606 | Gainsborough | Separatist believers on the border of Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire split into two churches that met separately (the Scrooby and Gainsborough side). Pastor Clyfton, then Robinson, appear in the text. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.2006 |
| AD 1607 | Boston | In Boston, Lincolnshire, they chartered a whole ship to slip across secretly on a set day. Their permission to leave was blocked, so they relied on bribes and secret means. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.2133 |
| AD 1608 | Kingston upon Hull | The following spring, at Kingston upon Hull, they contracted a Dutch ship from Zeeland to try to cross again. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.2167 |
| AD 1608 | Amsterdam | The believers who reached the Low Countries (Netherlands) welcomed Robinson and Brewster and tried to set up church order; seeing the quarrels in the old church in Amsterdam, they considered moving. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.2315 |
| AD 1608 – 1609 | Leiden | They left Amsterdam for Leiden, a beautiful city with a university but no sea trade, so they earned their living by manual labor. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.2344 |
| AD 1617 | Leiden | The Leiden church openly debated going to unsettled America. Many feared and opposed it, but they resolved to go (debate between Guiana and Virginia). | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.2674 |
| AD 1618 | London | Robert Cushman carried the Leiden church's letters and confession of faith in person to Sir John Wolstenholme, and sat in on the reading (negotiations with the Virginia Company). | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.3208 |
| AD 1619 | London | After a long wait, they obtained a patent confirmed with the seal of the Virginia Company. The applicant in name was John Wincob. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.3460 |
| AD 1620 | London | The seven-year joint-stock terms between merchant investors and emigrants (16 and over, £10 per person = one share, etc.) were fixed in writing. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.3649 |
| AD 1620 | Delfshaven | The Leiden believers boarded at Delfshaven. The tide would not wait, so they hurried the farewell; pastor Robinson knelt and prayed. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.4304 |
| AD 1620 | Southampton | With a fair wind they reached Southampton, and met the large ship from London and the rest of the party (the Mayflower). | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.4313 |
| AD 1620 | Southampton | At Southampton they answered disagreement over changed contract terms with a letter to the investors dated August 3. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.4363 |
| AD 1620 | Dartmouth | Right after departure, the small ship Speedwell began to leak, so both ships turned back into port to discuss repairs. Cushman wrote a letter here on August 17. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.4679 |
| AD 1620 | Plymouth | Returning from Dartmouth to Plymouth (England), they gave up the Speedwell and packed everyone into one ship, the Mayflower. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.4891 |
| AD 1620 | Plymouth | On September 6 they all boarded one ship and went back to sea in a fair wind. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.4899 |
| AD 1620 | During the voyage they met severe storms several times; the upper deck leaked, a middle beam bent, and it cracked. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.4928 | |
| AD 1620 | Provincetown | They reached the harbor at Cape Cod and fell to the ground to thank God. The text continues describing a desolate shore, with no friends to meet them, no inn, and no houses. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.5070 |
| AD 1620 | Provincetown | On December 6, ten men in a shallop went to explore the bay further. At night they saw the smoke of native fires, and in the morning they split into two groups that combed the shore and the woods. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.5295 |
| AD 1620 | Eastham | Early in the morning they were attacked by natives shooting arrows, but they drove them off without anyone being hurt (the 'first encounter'). | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.5394 |
| AD 1620 | Plymouth | On December 15 they moved the ship, and on the 16th, with a good wind, they safely entered the harbor they had explored earlier (Plymouth). | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.5483 |
| AD 1620 | Provincetown | Before landing, everyone signed the covenant (the Mayflower Compact), setting the foundation of joint government; John Carver was confirmed as governor that year. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.5566 |
| AD 1621 | Plymouth | Within two or three months half of the party died, especially in the deep winter of January and February (even healthy people caring for the sick were short). | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.5611 |
| AD 1621 | Plymouth | Natives were prowling around nearby; Massasoit came together with Squanto, and they made a six-point peace treaty (not to harm one another, to help one another if attacked, and so on). The record says the treaty lasted 24 years. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.5741 |
| AD 1621 | Plymouth | In early April the Mayflower, which had landed the believers, was sent back to England (it had stayed at anchor a long time because of the need and the danger). | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.5958 |
| AD 1621 | Plymouth | Governor Carver, sowing seed in the fields, fell on a hot day complaining of a headache, and within a few hours lost consciousness. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.6003 |
| AD 1621 | Plymouth | After Carver, William Bradford was elected governor and Isaac Allerton assistant; Allerton was re-elected every year after that. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.6014 |
| AD 1621 | Plymouth | On May 12, the first marriage at Plymouth. Following Dutch custom, a magistrate, not a minister, performed the civil wedding. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.6021 |
| AD 1621 | Bristol | They visited their new friend Massasoit with gifts and sent men to look at the land, guided by Squanto. On the road food ran short, and they returned exhausted. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.6048 |
| AD 1621 | Middleborough | On August 14 an armed party surrounded the house and searched it, but the target had already left that very day. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.6177 |
| AD 1621 | Boston | On September 18, ten men and Squanto (as guide and interpreter) set out in a shallop to survey Massachusetts Bay and trade. They were welcomed warmly. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.6196 |
| AD 1621 | Plymouth | In November the small ship Fortune arrived unannounced, carrying Cushman and 35 people. There was almost no food. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.6236 |
| AD 1621 | Plymouth | The Narragansett people sent a threat: a snakeskin tied around a bundle of arrows. Plymouth filled the skin with bullets and sent it back. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.6434 |
| AD 1622 | Boston | At the end of March they prepared to trade in Massachusetts. Hobomok voiced suspicion, but they went, traded well, and returned safely. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.6531 |
| AD 1622 | At the end of May, when food was nearly gone, a small boat appeared from the sea and was found to come from a nearby fishing ship. Letters from English investors arrived with weak support. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.6553 | |
| AD 1622 | Plymouth | Seeing the men Weston sent come ashore, Plymouth decided to welcome them kindly (out of loyalty to Weston personally and pity for the people). | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.6950 |
| AD 1622 | Plymouth | That summer they built a sturdy fort of timber (flat roof, loopholes, cannon mounted, constant watch). | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.7038 |
| AD 1622 | Weymouth | Right after the harvest, Weston's party, settled in Massachusetts, wasted food through intemperance and soon realized hunger was coming; they tried to buy trade goods in Plymouth. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.7120 |
| AD 1623 | Bristol | Hearing that their friend Massasoit was gravely ill, they sent men and comfort goods to visit him. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.7233 |
| AD 1623 | Weymouth | Based on news brought by one man from Massachusetts and other evidence, Plymouth weighed the plot seriously and responded; it is recorded that several leaders were removed. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.7249 |
| AD 1623 | Plymouth | With the food gone, everyone began to plant more grain and to think about how to get a better harvest (the occasion for dividing land by family). | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.7360 |
| AD 1623 | Plymouth | A long drought withered the crops, so they kept a day of fasting and prayer; toward evening clouds gathered and soft rain fell. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.7656 |
| AD 1623 | Plymouth | The Anne arrived, and about ten days later the new small vessel Little James, which had been lost from it in a storm, came in. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.7672 |
| AD 1623 | Weymouth | In mid-September Captain Robert Gorges arrived with his commission as governor, to found a colony on the site Weston's party had abandoned. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.7919 |
| AD 1624 | Plymouth | At the election of new officers, the governor asked to resign and proposed adding more assistants. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.8196 |
| AD 1624 | Plymouth | Winslow brought in from England, with supplies, three heifers and a bull, which became the start of cattle in this land. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.8262 |
| AD 1624 | Plymouth | When the plotting and factions came to light, the governor held a court, summoned the whole population, and prosecuted Lyford and Oldham. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.8949 |
| AD 1624 | Plymouth | By the guilty verdict, Oldham was to be banished at once and Lyford after a six-month reprieve. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.9253 |
| AD 1625 | Plymouth | Around the spring election, Oldham, who had been banished, returned without permission and caused trouble; he was caught and driven out past the guards. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.9551 |
| AD 1625 | Plymouth | They put Standish on a large ship to England with letters and instructions for the investors and the New England council. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.10072 |
| AD 1625 – 1626 | Leiden | Pastor Robinson died at Leiden. The news came through Standish together with the death of Cushman, and Plymouth was deeply discouraged. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.10151 |
| AD 1626 | Plymouth | In early April a shallop was sent to meet Standish on his return; sad news, such as the death of Robinson, arrived with him. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.10134 |
| AD 1626 | London | They sent Allerton to England to negotiate the terms with the investors, with instructions not to finalize anything. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.10321 |
| AD 1626 | London | At the investors' meeting on October 26, the agreed contract for buying Plymouth (payment of £1,800, etc.) was put in writing and fixed. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.10380 |
| AD 1627 | Plymouth | Calling everyone together, they concluded that trade should go on as before to repay debts, and that those on the list be registered as 'purchasers'. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.10565 |
| AD 1627 | A ship bound for Virginia lost its way and ran aground at Cape Cod. The governor helped, repaired it again and again, and looked after the passengers. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.10632 | |
| AD 1627 | Bourne | To make trade easier on the waterways, they built a small bark at Manomet, built a house, and placed men there to raise grain and pigs. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.10797 |
| AD 1627 | New York City | Isaac de Rasiere of New Netherland sent the governor of Plymouth a letter asking for friendship and trade. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.10864 |
| AD 1627 | Plymouth | A set of articles with the 'undertakers' (Bradford, Standish, Allerton and others): the colony took on the debts, and they had trade rights for six years (articles 1–6). | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.11043 |
| AD 1628 | Augusta | After obtaining the Kennebec patent, they built a trading post at the most suitable spot up the river and stocked it with winter and summer goods. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.11343 |
| AD 1628 | Bourne | The Dutch came up again to the Manomet trading post with sugar, cloth and other goods, and the trade in wampum shells was opened. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.11354 |
| AD 1628 | Quincy | Morton sold guns to the natives and became a threat, so the nearby settlements asked Plymouth for an alliance and seized him by force. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.11652 |
| AD 1629 | Salem | Allerton crossed on a ship bound for Salem, and many godly people arrived who would set up a church in Massachusetts Bay. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.11813 |
| AD 1629 | Plymouth | Thirty-five people from Leiden sailed in May and arrived at Plymouth by way of England (a second group arrived the following year). | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.11899 |
| AD 1630 | London | After long negotiation, the Plymouth and Kennebec patents were issued in Bradford's name. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.11989 |
| AD 1630 | Plymouth | John Billington, a 'first comer', was found guilty of deliberate murder by a jury and executed (the colony's first execution). | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.12965 |
| AD 1630 | Charlestown | On the evening of the Sabbath, July 25, Johnson received a letter from Governor Winthrop: disease was spreading in Charlestown, and it said the hand of God could be felt. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.12993 |
| AD 1631 | Castine | That year the Penobscot trading post was raided by the French, who took beaver pelts and trade goods worth about 500 pounds. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.13641 |
| AD 1632 | A letter said that Peirce's ship Ryan was badly damaged in an accident and he lost most of his property (it reached the colony on April 7 of the next year). | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.14100 | |
| AD 1633 | Windsor | The Dutch built a flimsy fort to block them and threatened them with cannon, but the Plymouth boat passed by; they built a house up the river and set a fence around it (the first English settlement). | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.14343 |
| AD 1633 | Plymouth | That year an infectious fever killed more than twenty people, including old friends from Leiden. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.14397 |
| AD 1634 | Augusta | Hocking of Piscataway invaded Plymouth's limits and insisted on trading upriver; after a clash he was killed. This caused tension with the Boston side. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.14501 |
| AD 1634 | A Plymouth bark traded on the Dutch side, met Captain Stone and was drawn into the affair. Later Stone's party was killed by natives (l.14828). | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.14770 | |
| AD 1634 | Windsor | In spring the natives around the trading post died miserably of smallpox; the people of Plymouth looked after them. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.14859 |
| AD 1634 | The Pequots fought with a neighbor and fell out with the Narragansett. Since they were also at odds with the Dutch, they sent a friendly embassy to Massachusetts. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.15853 | |
| AD 1635 | London | On behalf of the colony, Winslow submitted a petition asking for protection or permission against French and Dutch schemes to divide the land. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.14938 |
| AD 1635 | Castine | The Frenchman d'Aulnay entered the harbor of Penobscot and lured some of the trading post's men aboard his ship and seized them. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.15097 |
| AD 1635 | Cambridge | The Massachusetts committees expressed willingness to help Plymouth's plan to drive the French out of Penobscot with troops and ammunition. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.15195 |
| AD 1635 | Plymouth | On Saturday, August 14–15, a storm and hurricane-like winds swept in, unlike any seen before. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.15295 |
| AD 1635 | Windsor | People from Massachusetts came flocking every day and tried to settle near the land Plymouth had bought, which caused conflict. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.15351 |
| AD 1636 | Boston | John Oldham, who lived in Massachusetts, went out in a small ship to trade with the southern natives and died after a quarrel with them. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.15920 |
| AD 1637 | Early in spring the Pequots raided the English working in the fields of the lower Connecticut River, killing some and carrying others off. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.15974 | |
| AD 1637 | Mystic | Connecticut and Massachusetts forces met in Narragansett country and joined up. The Narragansett watched from a distance, and the English carried out the raid themselves. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.16192 |
| AD 1637 | Fairfield | The hidden Pequots were discovered in a marsh and chased; the next day a search found nine dead. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.16281 |
| AD 1637 | Sassacus, the Pequot chief, fled to the Mohawks and was beheaded (presumably meant to appease the English and the Narragansett). | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.16335 | |
| AD 1638 | Plymouth | In the year Prence was elected governor, three men who had committed robbery and murder were executed after trial. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.16392 |
| AD 1638 | Plymouth | Around June 1–2 there was a great earthquake. First came a sound like distant thunder, and it passed from north to south. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.16552 |
| AD 1639 – 1640 | Plymouth | The two colonies chose commissioners to fix the boundary, but at one meeting at Hingham they could not agree (they quarreled over the wording concerning the Charles River). | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.16632 |
| AD 1640 | Plymouth | Bradford handed the patent he had held in trust over to the enlarged body of freemen and the various towns (Plymouth, Duxbury, Scituate, Taunton, Sandwich, Yarmouth, Barnstable, Marshfield, etc.). | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.16754 |
| AD 1641 | Plymouth | On October 15, John Atwood (agent of the Sherley side), Bradford and others agreed on the terms ending the long accounting dispute. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.17050 |
| AD 1641 | Plymouth | The priest Chauncy, invited in 1638, clashed with the church over baptism and left; the church called other pastors and held a public debate. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.17191 |
| AD 1642 | Boston | Governor Bellingham of Massachusetts wrote to Plymouth about two matters decided by the General Court and asked for advice (the Familists and trade issues). | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.17327 |
| AD 1643 | Plymouth | Around April 18 the elder Brewster, Bradford's friend, died; a long biographical sketch followed. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.17818 |
| AD 1643 | Boston | At the Boston meeting of September 7, the approval of the Plymouth court was confirmed, and the confederation treaty of the United Colonies took effect with the signatures of the commissioners of the four colonies. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.18378 |
| AD 1643 | Norwich | Uncas defeated the Narragansett forces, captured Miantonomo, and on the commissioners' advice had him executed. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.18435 |
| AD 1644 | Plymouth | Because the land was narrow and poor, many people left this place for better places (a crisis for the church too). | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.18480 |
| AD 1644 | The commissioners halted Uncas's attack on the Narragansett and the Niantic, and signed six articles in which England promised to help Uncas. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.18663 | |
| AD 1645 | Boston | The commissioners met in Boston ahead of their regular time (because of the dispute with the French and Uncas's attack on the Narragansett). | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.18696 |
| AD 1645 | Boston | Narragansett chiefs came to Boston with a large retinue and reached a ten-article agreement with the commissioners (compensation, hostages, keeping the peace). | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.18938 |
| AD 1646 | Plymouth | In mid-May three warships entered the harbor in battle formation. Captain Cromwell was a man who had captured several Spanish ships in the West Indies. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.19141 |
| AD 1646 | London | Discontented figures from Massachusetts tried to shake Plymouth, so Winslow went to England to defend it. | Bradford 1908 Jameson판 OCR l.19193 |