William Bradford (1719 – September 25, 1791) was a printer, soldier, and leader during the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...

from

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. Bradford was born in New York City in 1719,Some sources give Bradford's birth year as 1722: . and was the grandson of the printer William Bradford. He was apprenticed to (and later a partner of) his uncle

Andrew Bradford Andrew Bradford (1686 – November 24, 1742) was an early American printer in colonial Philadelphia. He published the first newspaper in Philadelphia, ''The American Weekly Mercury'', beginning in 1719, as well as the first magazine in America in ...

. This relationship ended in 1741. He visited England that year, returning in 1742 with equipment to open his own printing firm as well as a library. Bradford was the publisher of '' The Pennsylvania Journal'', the first number of which appeared on December 2, 1742. In later years each issue had the still-recognized image of the snake chopped into segments with the motto " Unite or Die". Variations of this logo were also used by Paul Revere,

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...

, and others. In 1754 he also opened the

London Coffee House English coffeehouses in the 17th and 18th centuries were public social places where men would meet for conversation and commerce. For the price of a penny, customers purchased a cup of coffee and admission. Travellers introduced coffee as a bevera ...

in Philadelphia and began to write marine insurance. As a publisher and writer he attacked many policies of the British government, and was especially vocal in his opposition to the Stamp Act in 1765. The first

Continental Congress The Continental Congress was a series of legislative bodies, with some executive function, for thirteen of Britain's colonies in North America, and the newly declared United States just before, during, and after the American Revolutionary War. ...

met in

in 1774, and Bradford was named as the official printer for the Congress. In this role he printed the formal resolutions, broadsides, and documents such as the Declaration of Rights, that the Congress issued. When the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

started, Bradford left his business in his son's hands and, despite being middle aged, went into active military service with the

Pennsylvania militia The Pennsylvania National Guard is one of the oldest and largest National Guards in the United States Department of Defense. It traces its roots to 1747 when Benjamin Franklin established the Associators in Philadelphia. With more than 18,000 per ...

. He was made a major, and later promoted to colonel. He saw action at Trenton and

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine ...

, at

Fort Billingsport Fort Billingsport (Fort Billings in some sources), at Billingsport in Paulsboro, Gloucester County, New Jersey, United States, was an American Revolutionary War fort on the Delaware River. The site of the fort is now a public park of the same n ...

, and at Fort Mifflin. Because the wound he received at the battle of Princeton continued to trouble him, when British forces withdrew from Philadelphia he resigned from the militia and returned to the city. His son Thomas had continued ''The Pennsylvania Journal'' during his absence. Now they became partners, and over the years expanded their publishing house. After William's death on September 25, 1791 Thomas continued their enterprise. A second son,

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

(sometimes called William, Jr.), joined the

Continental Army The Continental Army was the army of the United Colonies (the Thirteen Colonies) in the Revolutionary-era United States. It was formed by the Second Continental Congress after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, and was establis ...

, became a lawyer and was later Chief Justice of the

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

Supreme Court and U. S. Attorney General. Thomas's son Samuel Fisher Bradford. continued the family tradition and is noted for the American printing of ''

Rees's Cyclopædia Rees's ''Cyclopædia'', in full ''The Cyclopædia; or, Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Literature'' was an important 19th-century British encyclopaedia edited by Rev. Abraham Rees (1743–1825), a Presbyterian minister and scholar w ...

''. The following obituary of Bradford was published in the ''Maryland Herald'' on October 11, 1791:

References

External links

*Th
Bradford Family Papers
including correspondence and other materials from 1620 to 1906, are available for research use at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bradford, William 1719 births 1791 deaths American people of English descent Military personnel from New York City People of the Province of New York American printers Pennsylvania militiamen in the American Revolution 18th-century American newspaper publishers (people) 18th-century printers Colonial American printers

References

Further reading

External links