Person:George Bradley (2)

From Ancestors and Descendants of Morris A. Bradley

According to tradition, he moved from New Haven to Windsor, but, although much research has been done on his name, nothing conclusive concerning his ancestry or place of birth has come to light.

If one may use family names as a clue to relationship, then George Bradley surely had some connection with the Bradleys of New Haven. The following names are frequently found in both the New Haven and Windsor, Bradley families. Josiah, Reuben, Eli, Elisha, Jabez, Jason, Leonard, Henry William and George.

George Bradley was in Windsor in 1713, and was interested in a petition circulated for the formation of a new town. This petition was granted, the township to be "six miles square to be laid out to the Windsor men the same to be called Tolland and bounded on the south by Coventry and east by the Willamantuck River. The said occupants of settled by Windsor committee to pay all the charges of laying out and settling such lands." George Bradley was one of the men appointed to inhabit the new town, and therefore was one of the founders of Tolland. The men who undertook the responsibility of establishing this new town had to be men of some means and dependability.

On a list of "The Early Settlers of Tolland", we find "George Bradley from Windsor." This is undated, but probably 1716. On May 14, 1716, the proprietors of Windsor signed a petition concerning the boundaries of Coventry, also "that we may have the priviledge to choose a town clerk and other officers as the law directs.: George Bradley was one of the sixteen signers.

On March 22, 1716, George Bradley, an unmarried man, bought his first land in Tolland. This was the "7th lot on the East side of the Way and lyeing against Noah Grant's Lot. It contained forty acres for which he paid Nathan Gillett of Windsor, the sum of "thirty shillings in money." This seems to have been his only purchase until 1720, when he acquired sixty seven acres adjoining the above. In the same year he was granted seven acres of meadow land on the Skungamauk River. In 1724 a deed in his name relates to more land purchased, "bounded north and south by Noah Grant's Land West on the high Way and east on land not known whos." This was recorded by Samuel Mather, Justice of Peace. It was dated "the teenth yr of his Majestys King George reign May 20, 1724, Anno Dom." George Bradley's second last deed to land dated February 27, 1739, was for "25 acors", the amount paid being fifty pounds. This was recorded by Roger Wolcott, later Governor of Connecticut, and an ancestor of the Bradley family in Cleveland.

George Bradley made his last purchase in Tolland on February 11, 1740, when he paid thirty pounds for thirty acres adjoining his original homestead. Twenty four years before this, he bought forty acres for "thirty shillings in money." The last transaction of all was on January 2, 1741, when he acquired 100 acres in Stafford. Between the years 1720 and 1741, many parcels of land passed through his hands, and he was not a poor man when he died. There is some evidence that he was well to do when he came to Tolland.

When the inhabitants of Tolland were surveying, they laid out a tract of two acres, and enclosed it with a five rail fence, to be used as a cemetery. This was the first burial place and is known as the old South Cemetery. In this spot George Bradley is buried, and a monument erected to him is inscribed as follows:

"Here lies the body of George Bradley, who died April 20, 1746, in the 74th year of his age."

The mistakes in this inscription are obvious. The date of his death was April 20, 1741. He drafted his will on January 13, 1740-41, and his estate was inventoried the "4 and 5 day of May Anno Domini 1741." It totaled nearly three thousand pounds, a sizeable amount for those times.

1. ↑ Mrs. Grant Rideout. BRADLEY: Ancesters and Descendants of Morris A. Bradley. (privately printed Cleveland 1948).