Alice (Carpenter) Bradford (bef. 1589 - abt. 1670)

Born before Oct 1589 in Somerset, England [uncertain]

Wife of Edward Southworth — married 28 May 1613 in Leiden, Zuid-Holland, Nederland

Wife of William Bradford — married 14 Aug 1623 (to 9 May 1657) in Plymouth Colony

Descendants

Died about 26 Mar 1670 after about age 80 in Plymouth, Plymouth Colony

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Brendan Zoglman [send private message], Mayflower Project WikiTree [send private message], Robert Kennedy [send private message], John Putnam [send private message], Thomas Walter [send private message], Claudia Breland [send private message], and Jane Hanson [send private message]

Alice (Carpenter) Bradford was related to a passenger on the Mayflower. Join: Mayflower Project Discuss: mayflower

Biography

Alice Carpenter was one of the children of Alexander Carpenter and his wife Priscilla whose surname is unknown. (Alice's mother was not Priscilla Dillen whose profile has been detached from this family).
Alice was probably born between 1584 and 1590 in an unknown parish in Somerset, England given that her older two siblings were born in Bath St James, Somerset in 1582 and 1584, and her five younger sisters were baptised in Wrington, Somerset from 1590 onwards.
There is no baptism for Alice in the Wrington parish register.
Her place of birth in the marriage register in Leiden, Holland is "England".
Her date of birth has previously been given as 3 August 1590. The date of baptism of her sister Joan (the first of the Wrington baptisms) was 2 August 1590.
If Joan was baptised shortly after being born, then Alice could not have been born later than October 1589.

Five younger sisters were born in Wrington between 1590 and 1598.
The family still seem to have been in Wrington in 1610 when the oldest of these sisters, Joan, died at the age of about 20 and was buried at Wrington.

The Carpenter family had moved to Leiden, Zuid Holland by 1612 when Julian, the eldest sister married George Morton, a native of York on 23 July 1612. Alice (spelled Elsge) was one of the witnesses, and her father Alexander was also a witness. ^[1]

Alice married Edward Southworth, at Leiden on 4 May, 1613.

Marriage May 28, 1613 Leiden Eduwaert Sodtwaert and Els Carpenter

Date Int Marriage- Datum ondertrouw: May 4, 1613 Leiden, Marriage: May 28, 1613 Leiden

Groom-Bruidegom: Eduwaert Sodtwaert Place of Birth-Plaats geboorte: england- Engelant Occupation-Beroep: saaiwerker

Bride- Bruid: Els Carpenter Place of Birth-Plaats geboorte:England- Engelant^[2] Remarks-Opmerkingen: Witnesses groom-Getuigen bruidegom: Tomas Sodtwaert brother - broer - Samuel Fuller brother in law - zwager - Rogier Wilson acquaintance-bekende Witnesses bride-Getuigen bruid: Anna Ras acq.-bekende - Elysabeth Gennings acq. -bekende - Maiden names witn bride- Meisjesnamen getuige buid: Carlisle en Lisle. ^[3]

Edward and Alice Southworth had two sons, Thomas and Constance.

After her husband passed away, Alice Southworth joined the Pilgrims in Plymouth Colony, Alice arrived in Plymouth on the Anne about 10 July 1623 (which had sailed with the Little James but arrived a week earlier) accompanied by Thomas Morton II, the likely son of the Thomas Morton I of the Fortune. Less than a month later she married William Bradford.

William and Alice's marriage was the fourth to take place in the new Colony, and Alice brought her own property into the marriage. Three children were born to the Bradfords: William, Mercy and Joseph.

Alice and Edward's son Thomas came over with his mother and Constant came over in 1628 and they were brought up in William Bradford's) household.^[4]

A transcription of a letter from William Bradford (husband of Alice Carpenter) in Plymouth, Massachusetts to his "loving sister" Mary Carpenter in Wrington, Somerset was printed in the New England Genealogical Register in 1860. ^[5] The commentary on this letter states that the transcribed date of 19 August 1664 must be wrong (William Bradford died in 1657) and was probably written in "1644 or 1646 to fit with other events."
The letter is an invitation to Mary to join the Bradford family in Plymouth Colony. However the letter also mentioned that England was at peace, which would suggest that the letter was written after the end of the Civil War on 1651. For more detail about the letter, see the profile of Priscilla Unknown, Alice and Mary's mother>

(The commentary on this letter is also mistaken about the relative years of birth for Alice (1590) and Mary (1577) - both of these are unsourced and conflict with the evidence from the parish registers).

Alice died on Saturday, 26 March 1670, in Plymouth^[6] and was buried there the next Tuesday near her husband. Her will dated 29 December 1669 and exhibited 7 June 1670 names her sister Mary Carpenter and sons Constant Southworth, Thomas Southworth (deceased), Joseph Bradford and Capt. William Bradford.^[7][8]

Notes

Alice's sister Juliana Carpenter (bp. 17 March 1584 St. James Church, Bath, Somersetshire?) married George Morton on 23 July 1612 in Leyden. George and Juliana arrived at Plymouth on 17-20 July 1623 aboard the Little James. George's brother Thomas Morton I (bp. 1 March 1589?) arrived earlier in Plymouth, aboard the Fortune on 9 November 1621.

The Southworths and William (Bradford) lived in Heneage House on Dukes Place in London for about a year before the Mayflower sailed, so were Alice (Carpenter) Southworth was probably well acquainted with William Bradford. Edward Southworth died by 1621, probably in Leyden, after the Mayflower sailed.

William was elected governor of the Colony in 1621, following the death of Governor Carver. William was reelected governor annually in the periods 1621-33, 1635-37, 1639-44 and 1645-57. In between he was elected Assistant Governor. He lived in his house at the bottom of Burial Hill in Plymouth and kept a farm in Kingston. He authored many books on history, the best known and one of the few not lost being History of Plymouth Plantations.^{[citation needed]}

Research Notes

This exerpt from the Mayflower Families book unsourced as there is no baptism record for Alice in the Wrington parish register after 1590." Alice was born probably in Wrington, Somerset, England about 1595. She died in Plymouth 26 or 27 March 1670." ^[9]

No baptism has been found for Alice. The parish registers for Wrington are complete from 1538 and her name is not present.

Is there any source for this statement? Although Alice Bradford had very little formal education, she had a strong personality, deep faith, great influence, and owner her own property. Wikipedia says, "The Carpenter sisters of Leiden, Netherlands and Plymouth Colony provided a unique genetic impact and moral influence to the colonization of the Plymouth Colony in America in the early 1620s. ... They became their family matriarchs that settled the hearths, and maintained Pilgrim Fathers".

Sources

1. ↑ Marriage: 23-07-1612 Place: Leiden
   Datum ondertrouw-Banns : 05-07-1612
   Groom: Joris Morthen Place of Birth: Jorck in Engelant Occupation: Merchant- koopman
   Bride: Julyaen Carpenter, Place of Birth: Baert in Engelant
   Witnesses Groom: Thomas Morthen brother - Rogier Wiltzoen Acq.
   Witnesses bride: Alexander Carpenter father- vader - Elsge Carpenter sister- zuster - Anna? Robisse acq.- bekende
   • Source: Erfgoed Leiden en omstreken Marriage record 23 July, 1612 Leiden Schepenhuwelijken (1592-1795) Archiefnr 1004 Archiefnaam Schepen huwelijken (1592-1795) Inventarisnummer 198 Folio: B - 013v
2. ↑ Source-Bron : Archiefnr: 1004 Archiefnaam Schepenhuwelijken (1592-1795) Inventarisnummer: 198 Folio: B - 021v Marriage May 28, 1613 Leiden and scan marriage record
3. ↑ Information from the Leiden Archives, a published English translation is Bangs, Jeremy Dupertus, Strangers and Pilgrims, Travellers and Sojourners - Leiden and the Foundations of Plymouth Plantation, General Society of Mayflower Descendants, Plymouth, Massachusetts, 2009
4. ↑ [http://www.packrat-pro.com/ships/anne.htm Anne left England in June or July 1623, carrying many families left behind from the Mayflower and Fortune.
5. ↑ Letter from William Bradford in: Kidder, Frederic. "Letter of Mary Carpenter". New England Historical and Genealogical Register vol. 14, page 195 (1860) Internet Archive Accessed 3 March 2021
6. ↑ Hayward, Elijah, copyist, "Plymouth Colony Records," NEHGR Vol. 9(1855):317.

   "Plymouth, Mrs. Alice Bradford, widow of Gov. William, [died] March 26, 1670 or '71. A most excellent woman; ae. about 80."

7. ↑ "Massachusetts, Plymouth County, Probate Records, 1633-1967," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L97D-VQ9K?cc=2018320&wc=M6BX-F29%3A338083801 : 20 May 2014), Wills 1633-1686 vol 1-4 > image 306 of 616; State Archives, Boston. Plymouth Colony Records, Wills Vol. 3, Part 1, page 2, Will of Alice Bradford.
8. ↑ Trask, W. B., "Abstracts of the Earliest Wills," NEHGR Vol. 7(1853):179.
9. ↑ Mayflower Families Through Five Generations, Silver Books, Volume Twenty-Two, The Descendants of William Bradford, 2004, Page 1

• Ann S. Lainhart and Robert S. Wakefield, Mayflower families through five generations, descendants of the pilgrims who landed at Plymouth, Mass. December 1620, family of William Bradford, General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 2004, Volume 22.
• Wikipedia for Carpenter Sisters
• Wikipedia: The_Anne_and_the_Little_James
• Find A Grave: Memorial #40142433, includes a portrait of Alice.
• Ruth Gardiner Hall, Descendants of Governor William Bradford through the first seven generations, N.p.: Bradford Family Compact, 1951.
• Clemens, William Montgomery American Marriages Before 1699 (Biblio Co., Pompton Lakes, New Jersey, 1926)
• Ancestry.com. The signers of the Mayflower Compact and their descendants [database on-line]. Provo, UT: The Generations Network, Inc., 2005.
• Whittemore, Henry. The signers of the Mayflower Compact and their descendants. New York: Mayflower Pub. Co., c1899.
• Yates Publishing, U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900 (The Generations Network, Inc., Provo, UT, USA, 2004)

Name Susannah Bradford

Gender Female

Spouse Name Ezekial Richardson

Spouse Birth: 1606 England

Marriage Year 1630

Household Members

Susannah Bradford

Ezekial Richardson

• Carlo Boyer, compiler. Ancestral Lines. 3rd, p99.
• Bradford's History Of Plymouth Plantation, Wright & Porter Printing Company,Boston, 1898.
• Willison, George F., Saints and Strangers, The Cornwall Press, Cornwall, NY, 1943, Third Printing.
• Barbara Wells Sarudy. 1623 Governor & Widower Wm Bradford woos his 1st love Widow Alice Carpenter Southworth to join him in Plymouth Colony, May 8, 2011. Blog Post from 17C American Women
• American Genealogical-Biographical Index, Godfrey Memorial Library, Middletown, CT, USA
• North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000
• Torrey, Clarence Almon. Torrey’s New England Marriages Prior to 1700 (Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc. Baltimore, 1985)
• Brainerd, Dwight. Ancestry of Thomas Chalmers Brainerd (Montreal, Quebec, 1948) Page 81-2
• www.familysearch.org
• "Alice Carpenter Southworth Bradford in 17th Century Documents," Pilgrim Hall Museum, accessed 5.31.2021