GUBERNATOR,
Vir, judicio Lynceario praeditus; quem nec numma, nec honos allexit. Regis auctoritatem, et populi libertatem, aequa lance libravit. Religione cordatus, vita innocuus, mundum et vicit et deseruit, 27 die Martii, A. D. 1697, annoque Guliel: 3t. IX. et Æt. 94.
Gov. Bradstreet was married in England to Miss Ann Dudley, daughter of Mr. Thomas Dudley, when she was sixteen years old. She is the most distinguished of the early matrons of our country by her literary powers, of which proof is given in a volume of poems. It was dedicated to her father in poetry, dated March 20, 1642. The title of the book is, "Several poems, compiled with great variety of wit and learning, full of delight; wherein especially is contained a complete discourse and description of the four elements, constituting ages of man, seasons of the year, together with an exact epitome of the three first monarchies, viz., the Assyrian, Persian, Grecian, and Roman commonwealth, from the beginning to the end of their last king, with divers other pleasant and serious poems. By a Gentlewoman of New England." A second edition of it was printed at Boston, 1678, by John Foster, in a respectable 12mo of 255 pp., and a third edition was published in 1758. The work does honor to her education, by her frequent allusions to ancient literature and historical facts, and to her character, as a daughter, a wife, a parent, and Christian. This volume is a real curiosity, though no reader, free from partiality of friendship, might coincide with the commendation of her in the funeral eulogy of John Norton:
"Could Maro's muse but hear her lively strain,
He would condemn his works to fire again.
* * * * * * *
Her breast was a brave palace, a broad street,
Where all heroic, ample thoughts did meet,
Where nature had such a tenement ta'en,
That other souls, to her's, dwelt in a lane."
Dr. Mather, in his Magnalia, gives a high commendation of her, "whose poems, divers times printed, have afforded a grateful entertainment unto the ingenious, and a monument for her memory beyond the stateliest marbles."
Their children were as follows:
- Samuel, who had two daughters b. in Boston, 1663, 1665.
- Simon, who was settled in the ministry in New London, Ct.
- Dudley of Andover.
- John, who was b. in Andover, July 31, 1652, and settled in Salem.
- Ann, who m. Mr. Wiggin of Exeter.
- Dorothy, who m. Rev. Seaborn Cotton, Hampton, June 25, 1654.
- Hannah, who m. Mr. Andrew Wiggin, Exeter, June 14, 1659.
- Mary, who m. Mr. Nathaniel Wade, Nov. 11, 1672.
Mrs. Bradstreet died in Andover, Sept. 16, 1672, aged 60.
Gov. Bradstreet married for his second wife, a sister of Sir George Downing, who was in the first class that graduated at Harvard College, and was ambassador of Cromwell and Charles II. to Holland. See Abbot's History of Andover.