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Transcribers note:
Numbers in square brackets, [29], represent original manuscript
pages.
Letters in Square brackets, [AB], represent a link to a footnote
located at the end of the book.
A caret ^ indicates that the following letter/s are
superscripted. The letters are enclosed in curly brackets where
it may not be clear about which letters are superscripted.
A square bracket, like [~m] indicates a letter with a tilde
above.
A square bracket, like [p=] indicates a letter with a macron
under the letter.
[=m] and [=n] sometimes are used to represent a double letter.
16^li. represents 16 pounds in monetary terms. The original
manuscript used a middle dot before and after the numbers, but
this publisher used only a single period/stop after the number.
The 'li' appears to mean libra and in this book the 'l' is
crossed with a middle bar or stroke. It was very difficult to
represent in a Latin-1 text, so 'li' must suffice.
Most often y, such as y^e, represents a thorn and the word is
'the'. Sometimes you will encounter the actual word 'the'.
This book is composed of many letters written by a number
of authors and each writer uses their own spellings and
abbreviations, which was common for the time in which they
were written.
Spelling is inconsistent and is left unchanged from the original
printing of this book.
BRADFORD'S HISTORY
"OF PLIMOTH PLANTATION."
From the Original Manuscript.
With a Report of the Proceedings Incident
to the Return of the Manuscript
to Massachusetts.
Printed Under the Direction of the Secretary of the
Commonwealth,
by Order of the General Court.
Boston:
Wright & Potter Printing Co., State Printers,
18 Post Office Square.
1898.
INTRODUCTION.
To many people the return of the Bradford Manuscript is a fresh
discovery of colonial history. By very many it has been called,
incorrectly, the log of the "Mayflower." Indeed, that is the title by
which it is described in the decree of the Consistorial Court of London.
The fact is, however, that Governor Bradford undertook its preparation
long after the arrival of the Pilgrims, and it cannot be properly
considered as in any sense a log or daily journal of the voyage of the
"Mayflower." It is, in point of fact, a history of the Plymouth Colony,
chiefly in the form of annals, extending from the inception of the
colony down to the year 1647. The matter has been in print since 1856,
put forth through the public spirit of the Massachusetts Historical
Society, which secured a transcript of the document from London, and
printed it in the society's proceedings of the above-named year. As thus
presented, it had copious notes, prepared with great care by the late
Charles Deane; but these are not given in the present volume, wherein
only such comments as seem indispensable to a proper understanding of
the story have been made, leaving whatever elaboration may seem
desirable to some future private enterprise.
It is a matter of regret that no picture of Governor Bradford exists.
Only Edward Winslow of the Mayflower Company left an authenticated
portrait of himself, and that, painted in England, is reproduced in this
volume. In those early days Plymouth would have been a poor field for
portrait painters. The people were struggling for their daily bread
rather than for to-morrow's fame through the transmission of their
features to posterity.
The volume of the original manuscript, as it was presented to the
Governor of the Commonwealth and is now deposited in the State Library,
is a folio measuring eleven and one-half inches in length, seven and
seven-eighths inches in width and one and one-half inches in thickness.
It is bound in parchment, once white, but now grimy and much the worse
for wear, being somewhat cracked and considerably scaled. Much
scribbling, evidently by the Bradford family, is to be seen upon its
surface, and out of the confusion may be read the name of Mercy
Bradford, a daughter of the governor. On the inside of the front cover
is pasted a sheet of manilla paper, on which is written the following:--
"_Consistory Court of the Diocese of London_
In the matter of the application of The Honorable Thomas Francis
Bayard, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary in London of the
United States of America, for the delivery to him, on behalf of the
President and Citizens of the said States, of the original manuscript
book entitled and known as The Log of the Mayflower.
Produced in Court this 25th day of March, 1897, and marked with the
letter A.
HARRY W. LEE
Registrar.
1 Deans Court
Doctors Commons"
Then come two manilla leaves, on both sides of which is written the
decree of the Consistorial Court. These leaves and the manilla sheet
pasted on the inside of the front cover were evidently inserted after
the decree was passed.
Next comes a leaf (apparently the original first leaf of the book), and
on it are verses, signed "A. M.," on the death of Mrs. Bradford. The
next is evidently one of the leaves of the original book. At the top of
the page is written the following:--
This book was rit by govener William bradford and given to his son
mager William Bradford and by him to his son mager John Bradford. rit
by me Samuel bradford mach 20, 1705.
At the bottom of the same page the name John Bradford appears in
different handwriting, evidently written with the book turned wrong side
up.
The next is a leaf bearing the following, in the handwriting of Thomas
Prince:--