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Welthian LORING ___?-1679 |
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Thomas RICHARDS c1590-c1650 |
Alice CARPENTER c1590-1670 |
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William BRADFORD 1589/90-1657 |
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Alice RICHARDS 1627-1671 |
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William BRADFORD 1624- 1704 |
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Thomas BRADFORD 1657-1731 |
Thomas moved from the Plymouth Plantation Colony to Norwich CT as he inherited a "home-lot" from his half-uncle, John May Bradford, who had been one of the orginal "Townsmen" of Norwich. John May Bradford was the son, and only child of Governor William Bradford of the Plymouth Colony by his first wife, Dorothy May. John, then a young child, had remained in Holland with his May grandparents when his parents sailed for the New World on the Mayflower. He came to Plymouth in 1627 and after he had grown to maturity, and seeing that his father's household in Plymouth was filled to capacity, he moved first to Duxbury for awhile, then settled in Norwich CT.
Although married to Martha Bourne, John Bradford had no children, and left this home-lot to his half-nephew, Thomas. This home-lot bore the date of the oldest proprieters of Norwich, 1659. John Bradford's will, which was exhibited at the Colony Court in Sept. of 1676, provided for Thomas Bradford to receive it, while John's widow, Martha married Thomas Tracy, whose lot was opposite the town green.
Thomas moved to Norwich, in 1678, after John died and may have built a small log cabin on the lot. Apparently, according to the History of Norwich, by Caulkins, page 170, Thomas built a "new dwelling house" on the lot and sold it to Simon Huntington, Jr. on April 2, 1691 for a price of "...£50 in country pay, of £25 in money".
Thomas married Ann Smith Raymond in 1680 in Norwich and had two children before 1691. It is likely that Thomas and Ann outgrew the "new dwelling house" and needed a larger home for their growing family and farm land on which to earn a living. Thus, in connection with his mother-in-law's brother, Nehemiah Smith, Jr. (son of Nehemiah Smith [Sr.]) he purchased a 200 acre farm on the outer limits of New London CT, in what would now be Salem CT.
Evidently, Thomas Bradford engaged in buying and selling land, by himself and through partnerships with various others, throughout his life. He must have lived in Montville CT in the 1993 through 1995 period because two of his children were born there.
He served as a Lieutenant in the local militia from 1709 to 1713. He was a deputy from Lyme CT to the General Court in Hartford in 1700, 1704, and 1708. He died and was buried in Windham CT in 1731, where he had also lived for a while. He had also purchased farmland in Canterbury CT, some of which was left to his son, James Bradford*. After his wife, Ann, died in 1705, Thomas married second to Priscilla Mason and had two daughters, Margaret Bradford and Anne Bradford, the latter of whom married Timothy Dimmock. The History of Norwich states, in error, that Thomas Bradford died in 1708.