THE FATHER OF THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES
William Bradford’s birthday, we celebrate on the anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims on Plymouth Rock. We do not know the exact date of his birth.
He was just an ordinary boy living in a small English village. He was brought up by relatives, for his father and mother had died when he was a child. They had left him a small fortune, so he was not in want.
When about twelve years old, he began to read the Bible. It interested him so much, that when older he attended the meetings of some neighbours who were studying the Bible and worshipping God in their own little Assembly. Separatists, they were called, for they had separated from the Established Church of England.
In those days, it was a crime in England for any one to hold or attend religious meetings of Separatists. The Bible printed in the English tongue, had long been forbidden reading, but in William Bradford’s days, it was beginning to be read quite widely, specially by Separatists.
These poor people’s Assemblies were watched by spies and informers. Separatists were arrested and imprisoned, while some were executed. Others fled into Holland—brave liberty-loving Holland—where there was no persecution for religion’s sake.
William Bradford became a Separatist. When about eighteen years old, he, too, fled into Holland, where he might serve his Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, in full liberty of conscience.
For ten years or more he lived in Holland. He was a member of an English Separatist Church in Leyden, under the gentle rule of its beloved pastor, John Robinson.
The Separatists believed that every man in the church-congregation should have a voice in its management; thus they elected their pastor.