Talk:William Bradford (governor)

New page for descendants?
For starters, here's an idea...According to WP:MOS, articles really ought to be prose and lists should really be kept to a minimum. I'm familiar with the strong genealogical tradition surrounding Mayflower families, and so I can certainly understand the interest in listing notable descendants. However, I, for one, find it rather cumbersome. Most biographical articles in Wikipedia do not include lists of descendants, but Pilgrim articles frequently do, which seems to be an inconsistency. Also, the list of descendants can really overwhelm the article and does not illuminate the life of the subject in any way. So, my suggestion, move the descendants section to a new list article, List of descendants of William Bradford (Plymouth governor) or some such thing. That way the list can be built out as long as can be without overwhelming the biographical article. Thoughts?? Historical Perspective (talk) 20:53, 26 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Hearing no objections, I think I'm going to go ahead and create a separate page for descendants. I've done some looking around and there are other list pages of descendants (mostly royalty), so that type of list page is already established on Wikipedia.  Listing descendants on biographical pages is not the norm. Historical Perspective (talk) 14:48, 15 June 2010 (UTC)
 * Another option is to put ancestors and/or descendants in a show/hide template as is seen in other articles. Mugginsx (talk) 16:05, 6 October 2012 (UTC)

Of Plymouth Plantation: Journal or Book?
The introduction says "his journal" was published as Of Plymouth Plantation, but the literary section below says "It is a common misconception that the manuscript was actually Bradford's journal. Rather, it was a retrospective account of his recollections and observations, written in the form of two books." There is no citation for the latter assertion. Obviously these are conflicting statements that need to be resolved. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Contortrix (talk • contribs) 17:54, 17 May 2012 (UTC)


 * You are correct. The historic document was the Mayflower Compact.  The book was a recording of recollections, some of which are not accurate.  The book is important in its own right but the historic document would have been the Compact which established rules on how they would live in the New World and is considered by some scholars as the first Constitution. Mugginsx (talk) 17:40, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

Quote from Philip Gould "bishop of London's library at Lambeth Palace". I think he meant to write Fulham Palace. Fulham Palace was the official residence of the Bishop of London. Lambeth Palace was and still is the London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.177.39.64 (talk) 21:01, 28 April 2017 (UTC)

Citation error around 'Schmidt'
Citation error(s) around 'Schmidt' should be repaired. MaynardClark (talk) 01:29, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

Beliefs about the Pequot massacre of 1637
Quote from Gov William Bradford: "Those that escaped the fire were slain with the sword; some hewed to pieces, others run through with their rapiers, so that they were quickly dispatched and very few escaped. It was conceived they thus destroyed about 400 at this time. It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fire…horrible was the stink and scent thereof, but the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they gave the prayers thereof to God, who had wrought so wonderfully for them." — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.85.241.6 (talk) 00:59, 27 November 2015 (UTC)
 * This event is vaguely referred to in Thanksgiving: "Hundreds of Pequots were killed, leading Governor Bradford to proclaim that Thanksgiving from then on would be celebrating "the bloody victory, thanking God that the battle had been won."" I would have supposed a massacre which became one of the origins of joyful Thanksgiving might have been noteworthy for the bio. Any particular reasons for the omission? --Ehitaja (talk) 17:57, 23 January 2021 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 2 one external links on William Bradford (Plymouth Colony governor). Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20070215045321/http://www.pilgrimhall.org:80/governors.htm to http://www.pilgrimhall.org/governors.htm
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20111102201352/http://www.plimoth.org/media/pdf/bradford_william.pdf to http://www.plimoth.org/media/pdf/bradford_william.pdf

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Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 05:47, 5 January 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 1 one external link on William Bradford (Plymouth Colony governor). Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20160115134427/http://www.pilgrimhall.org/bradfordwilliam.htm to http://www.pilgrimhall.org/bradfordwilliam.htm

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at Sourcecheck).

Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 02:58, 28 February 2016 (UTC)

List of descendants necessary?
Please contribute to the discussion about whether or not we need a List of descendants of William Bradford on Wikipedia: Talk:List_of_descendants_of_William_Bradford_(Plymouth_governor) - Tea and crumpets (talk) 23:33, 28 June 2019 (UTC)

Relationship with natives??
Could someone add something about how he started a lasting relationship with the Powhatan? 24.19.217.96 (talk) 04:33, 13 October 2022 (UTC)