CHAPTER I.

Origin.-Descent.-Sketches of his Paternal Ancestors.-William Bradford, the First Printer of the Middle Colonies of America.-Andrew Bradford, his Son, Founder of the Newspaper Press of the Middle Colonies.-Colonel William Bradford, the Patriot Printer of '76.William Bradford, Attorney-General of the United States. His Remarkable Career as Aid-de-camp of Washington-Attorney-General and Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.-Thomas Bradford, LL.D., a Prominent Lawyer and Philanthropist of Philadelphia. Maternal Lineage. The Influence of the Loockerman Family.-Name Extinct in the History of New York, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, References to Events and Persons of their Times Respectively.

HON. VINCENT L. BRADFORD, LL.D., D. C. L., was, like William Penn, of Batavian, as well as British, origin. His first ancestor on the father's side, William Bradford, was a printer by trade, and came to Philadelphia with the founder of Pennsylvania in 1682.

His paternal ancestors for five generations were among the most prominent citizens of Philadelphia, and some of them distinguished as patriots and statesmen in the history of our country. William Bradford, his progenitor, was the first printer for the Middle Provinces, and started the first paper-mill in Pennsylvania, contended for and achieved the "freedom of the press" a century before the case of Wilkes in the

The reader of the following memoir, who may be interested in the bibliography of its subject is referred to the following authorities, as illustrating facts and enforcing the views expressed therein :

The "Bradford Miscellany," catalogued in the Pennsylvania Historical Society; the Loockerman Family Bible, elegant crown folio (1763), in the library of Vincent L. Bradford (deceased) the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Vols. VI. and VII.; Address of John William Wallace, LL.D., at the 200th anniversary of the birth of William Bradford, of New York; the address of Horatio Gates Jones, Esq., on Andrew Bradford, February 9, 1869; Thomas' History of Printing, Vol. II. Colonial Records, Vol. V.; Watson's Annals of Philadelphia, Vol. I.; Westcott's Historic Mansions and Buildings of Philadelphia; "The Forum," by David Paul Brown; Preface to Vol. 1 of Motley's History of the Dutch Republic; State Reports of the Senate of Michigan, 1837, 1838, 1839; Rev. Dr. Beadle's "Old and New" (1876); "or, The History of the Second Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia : its Beginning and Increase," Parkman's History of the Jesuits; Broadhead's History of New York; Dr. Griswold's Republican Court: Dr. Sands' History of the 5th Presbyterian Church. H. E. D.

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WILLIAM AND ANDREW BRADFORD.

English House of Lords. He issued a prospectus for printing the Bible four generations before the American Bible Society existed, and finally emigrated to New York, where he became a vestryman of Trinity Church, and lived to see his son Andrew, in Philadelphia, the founder of the newspaper press in the Middle Colonies.

This Andrew was the friend and patron of Benjamin Franklin, who was introduced by William Bradford the first to his son Andrew, and worked at his "printing house in Second Street, with the sign of the Bible, where Franklin was made welcome." The office of public printer for this province was filled by Andrew Bradford, who became a member of Common Councils, a man of large wealth and postmaster of Philadelphia, which offices he retained for several years. His nephew, William Bradford, 3d, or Colonel William Bradford, a hero in three wars, lieutenant in the old French (King George's) War, or the War of the Austrian Succession; captain in the French and Indian, or Seven Years' War; and colonel in the American Revolution,—was the "Patriot Printer of 1776." He was even more than this, for, as the friend of Whitefield, he favored that eminent preacher while in America, corresponded with him, united his name and influence with the labors of the great evangelist in the foundation of the Second Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, where his memory is still cherished with affection. He accomplished more for the political and religious welfare of his generation than most men of his day, and has deserved, by his character and career, the encomium of the Patriot Printer of '76, and a benefactor of mankind.

His son William, who was the companion in arms

WILLIAM BRADFORD, THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL.

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of his father and brother Thomas, in the same brigade though not in the same regiment, left the classic halls of Princeton, where he obtained distinction for his elegance in English composition, and enjoyed the permanent friendship of his fellow-student James Madison, afterwards president of the United States. On the 10th of April, 1777, by ballot in Congress, less than five years later, after having studied law with Chief-Justice Shippen in Philadelphia, he was made Deputy Muster-Master-General, with the rank of colonel in the army of the United States. He became prominent in all the scenes of Valley Forge, White Plains, Fredericksburgh, and the Raritan, during the eventful years 1777, 1778 and 1779. His impaired health from exposure rendered a residence at York, Pennsylvania, necessary; but in 1779-on being admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, he was summoned, at twenty-five years of age, by the Supreme Executive Council, with one year's standing at the bar, to the position of Attorney-General of the State of Pennsylvania; an office at that time, from political causes, peculiarly responsible and arduous. In the eleven years which followed, he retained the confidence of several State administrations. His name will be forever remembered in connection with that most beneficial change in the penal code of Pennsylvania, the restriction of the punishment by death. In 1792, Governor Mifflin requested him to present a memoir to the Legislature of Pennsylvania, in which Mr. Bradford, with remarkable legal ability, reached the conclusion, "that in all cases (except high treason and murder) the punishment of death may safely be abolished." On the 22d of April, 1794, the law was

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THOMAS BRADFORD, LL.D.

passed "that no crime whatsoever, hereafter committed, except murder of the first degree, shall be punished with death in the State of Pennsylvania."

But the talents of such a man were not to be confined to his native State. On the 22d of August, 1791, he was appointed one of the Justices of the Supreme Court. Even the honors of the Supreme Bench in Pennsylvania were not sufficient to detain him when the Father of his Country, who was personally acquainted with him during the War for Independence as his aid-de-camp and one of his military household, summoned Justice Bradford to his side. On the 28th of January, 1794, he was commissioned by President Washington Attorney-General of the United States. Among the first duties of his office was the suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion in the western counties of Pennsylvania. The correspondence and report on that occasion, in which the dignity of the Government was maintained, while conciliation was secured, were chiefly from the pen of Mr. Bradford.

The

The nephew of the Attorney-General was Thomas Bradford, LL. D., for forty years a prominent leader of the Philadelphia Bar, who inherited, in his later life, through his father, Thomas Bradford, printer, the larger portion of the Attorney-General's estate. ancestors of Mr. Bradford, from the time of William Penn, had been printers in an unbroken line, and conductors of newspapers. For an entire century (1719 to 1819) they had published successively in Philadelphia The American Weekly Mercury, The Pennsylvania Journal, The True American; and probably no parallel in American history can be found where, in consecutive order, one family has exercised so large an influ