William Bradford

William Bradford (1590–1657) was the governor of Plymouth Colony for most of the thirty-six years following its founding, and its historian. Born at Austerfield in Yorkshire, he joined the Separatist congregation at Scrooby as a teenager, went with it into exile in Leiden in 1609, and sailed on the Mayflower in 1620; his wife drowned in Provincetown harbor while the ship lay at anchor. Elected governor in 1621 after the death of John Carver, he guided the colony through famine, debt and conflict with neighbors. His history Of Plymouth Plantation, written between 1630 and 1650 and not printed until 1856, is the chief source for the story of the Pilgrims.