Person:William Bradley (30)

Origins

A Compilation of Descendents of Roger Prichard tells a frequently repeated, but unsourced, story that the Bradley family was from West Riding, Yorkshire, England, and were staunch Cromwell men. Sir William's title and the right to bear arms were conferred by Henry VIII. [Since Henry VIII died in 1547 and Sir William was born in 1597, this conferrence must have been to his father or grandfather.] He was an officer in the Parliamentary Army. The story goes that after his wife died, Sir William entrusted his eldest son, William, to Theophilus Eaton, William Davenport, and a small band of dedicated men who sailed to the New World in 1638 to found a new colony [New Haven].

It is known from New England records that William came to the colonies with his step-mother Elizabeth, who later married John Parmlee, then John Evarts, both of Guilford, CT. Her first husband's name and his first wife (William's parents) are said to be unknown. ^[8]

These comments reflect a longstanding debate over the parents of this William. The Ancestral File and many IGI entries list William Bradley and Joanna Waddington as his parents, but the original source for such information is not obvious, and research citing those parents does not generally offer any supporting facts or research in support of the identification. Accordingly, many well-regarded sources such as Families of Ancient New Haven and Prindle in Ancestry of Elizabeth Barrett Gillespie list his ancestry as unknown. The identification of Daniel and Elizabeth, the parents listed here, is based on the parish registers of Bingley, Yorkshire, which show children named Ellen, Joshua, Daniel, Stephen, and Nathan born to Daniel Broadley in the 1620s. Savage says of the immigrant William's brother Daniel: "Bradley... Bradley, DANIEL, New Haven, sw. fidel. 1657, had w. but no ch. d. Dec. 1658, and his est. went, after the wid.'s portion, to Joshua, Nathan, Stephen, and William Bradlee, and the w. of John Alling, wh. was Ellen Bradlee. William was call. br. and such prob. was the relat. of the other heirs." Although there is no William listed at Bingley, there is allegedly (in the Bradford/Shipley parish registers, which are not available online) one at Shipley just two years after Daniel and Elizabeth were married. Also, among the names of William's children were Abraham, Esther, and Nathaniel, which would have been names of additional siblings were he the son of Daniel.^[6] There does not appear to be any discussion of this theory by Jacobus or others in 20th century literature, but it is unclear if the relevant parish registers were known until recently.

Life in New England

William was on the Board of Selectmen 1656-1680; Deputy to the Conn. General Assembly. Children mentioned in his will: Joseph, Abraham, Benjamin, Nathaniel, Martha, Mary, Esther. . .

1.   Savage, James. A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England: Showing Three Generations of Those Who Came Before May, 1692, on the Basis of Farmer's Register. (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co, 1860-1862)
   1:234.

   WILLIAM, New Haven, m. 18 Feb. 1645, Alice Prichard, perhaps d. of Roger of Springfield, had Joseph, bapt. 4 Jan. 1646; Martha, 8 Oct. 1648; Abraham, b. 24 Oct. 1650, Mary, 30 Apr. bapt. 1 May 1653; Benjamin, 8, bapt. 12 Apr. 1657; Esther, 29 Sept. bapt. 25 Nov. 1659; Nathaniel, b. 26 Feb. 1661; and Sarah, 21, bapt. 25 June 1665. He d. 1691, made his will 22 June 1683, in wh. he ment. all the s. d. Munson, wh. was Martha, w. of Samuel, m. 26 Oct. 1665; Mary, w. of Samuel Todd, m. 26 Nov. 1668; and d. Brockett; wh. was Sarah, m. 23 May 1682; Esther d. prob. unm. Mr. Porter thinks, this William was br. of Daniel by an elder w. of their f. and that he and other ch. were brot. by their mo. a wid. wh. was a midwife at N. H. in 1655.

2. ↑ Descendants of Danyell Broadley de West Morton
   [1].

   citing Empsall, E. T., The Bradford Parish Register, Bradford Antiquarian Society Publications, Bradford, 1881.

   The other parish register cites on this website are accurate and identify Daniel Broadley as the father. The date is listed as primary because of the general quality of that research as compared to the unverifiable dates generally used by online sources using the 1619 date, although both are within a reasonable range for a man who immigrated in the late 1630s and married in 1645. Also, the 1619 date is usually attributed to a son of William, and it is Daniel's children who migrated with the immigrant William to New Haven and after whom he named his children.

3. ↑ William Bradley, in Find A Grave.
4.   Bingley and Shipley are side-by-side; Bingley being an area 3 times larger than Shipley. Currently both are districts within the metropolitan borough of Bradford next to Leeds in West Yorkshire. Bingley parish in 1500s included the smaller area of Shipley.
5.   The ancient Saxon township of Bingley is to be found in the middle of the Aire Valley, lying in the valley bottom on the highway (A650) between Bradford and Keighley (4 miles E.S.E. from the latter and 6 miles NW by N of the former and 14 miles W by N of Leeds. Its ancient township and parish boundaries are located in the upper division of the Wapentake of Skyrack and were formerly in the West Riding of the county of York (now in West Yorkshire).
6. ↑ Additional discussion can be found on the parents' talk page.
7. ↑ ^7.0 7.1 There are no gravestones remaining at Center Church, except those in the crypt. All remaining stones were lost or moved to Grove Street Cemetery in the early 1800's.
8. ↑ E.g., NEHGR 57:134 (1903)