WILLIAM BRADFORD, Sr., was of English ancestry, his family having come originally from Yorkshire, where Bradfords bearing the same family arms were found upon the Manor of that name, in the reign of Henry III. He was the son of William Bradford and Elizabeth Lightbody, who came to Maryland early in the eighteenth century, and settled upon land at the head of Bush river. His father was one of the early schoolmasters of the colony. He was commissioned by the Bishop of London to teach on the plantations and became later on a soldier in the Colonial Army with the rank of captain.
The subject of this sketch was born in 1739 at his father's home place, on Bynum's Run, just across which lived his near neighbor, Aquila Hall. He obtained a good education under his father's tuition, and he also received an early training in the doctrine of the Christian religion, in which his family had for generations been more or less conspicuous. His father had been registrar, clerk and vestryman in St. John's Parish, and he succeeded him as a member of the same vestry. His paternal grandfather was John Bradford, a merchant of London, whose brother, Samuel Bradford, was Bishop of Rochester and Dean of Westminster, and his paternal grandmother was Mary Skinner daughter of Matthew Skinner, M. D., of London, and a granddaughter of Robert Skinner, Bishop of Bristol. Several of his ancestors had also been closely connected in an official way with St. Ann's Parish, London. His paternal great grandfather, William Bradford, was a parish officer therein during the great plague of 1665, and of whom is a recorded that "so conscientious was he in the performance of his duties that he remained in London, giving his personal attention to the sick and dying, through he removed his family to Islington.
The latter's only children were, as stated above, John and Samuel, and a daughter, Hannah, who married Joseph Presbury, of London, and whose son, James Presbury, came to Maryland and settled near his cousin, William Bradford. He was the ancestor of the Presbury family of Maryland.
William Bradford, Sr., became a pronounced patriot, as did also his only brother, George Bradford. Both he and his brother were elected members of the Harford Committee of 1775, the latter of whom would, no doubt, have been a signer, too, of Harford's "Declaration of Independence" had he been present at the time.
The "senior" which William Bradford suffixed to his name when he signed the declaration, and which was something unusual for him to do, was to designate him from his nephew of the same name, who was also an ardent patriot and a lieutenant of Capt. Alexander Lawson Smith's Company of Fort Washington fame. It was an earnest of the intense responsibility which he assumed, when he so solemnly pledged himself to the sacred cause of his country. In September, 1775, he organized Company No. 13 of Harford Minute men, and was its captain. He was married in 1764 to Sarah McComas, to whom were born eleven children, one of whom, Samuel Bradford, married Jane Bond, and lived for many years in Bel Air. Samuel was the father of Augustus W. Bradford, Governor of Maryland during the Civil War.
William Bradford lived adjoining his brother upon a tract containing about three hundred acres, called "Littleton," where he died in 1794.
