32 Facts About Simon Bradstreet

1.

Simon Bradstreet was a colonial magistrate, businessman, diplomat, and the last governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

2.

Simon Bradstreet served on diplomatic missions and as agent to the crown in London, and served as a commissioner to the New England Confederation.

3.

Simon Bradstreet was politically moderate, arguing minority positions in favor of freedom of speech and for accommodation of the demands of King Charles II following his restoration to the throne.

4.

Simon Bradstreet was married to Anne, the daughter of Massachusetts co-founder Thomas Dudley and New England's first published poet.

5.

Simon Bradstreet was a businessman, investing in land and shipping interests.

6.

Simon Bradstreet's father was the rector of the parish church, and was descended from minor Irish nobility.

7.

At the age of 16, Simon Bradstreet entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

8.

Simon Bradstreet studied there for two years, before entering the service of the Earl of Lincoln as an assistant to Thomas Dudley in 1622.

9.

Simon Bradstreet took over Dudley's position when the latter moved temporarily to Boston in 1624.

10.

Simon Bradstreet lived there for a time, moving in 1634 to Ipswich before becoming one of the founding settlers of Andover in 1648.

11.

Simon Bradstreet had varied business interests, speculating in land, and investing with other colonists in a ship involved in the coasting trade.

12.

Simon Bradstreet became one of its leading figures, serving on the management committee, and publishing handbills advertising its lands.

13.

Simon Bradstreet was known to own two slaves, a woman named Hannah and her daughter Billah.

14.

Simon Bradstreet was politically moderate, arguing against legislation and judicial decisions punishing people for speaking out against the governing magistrates.

15.

Simon Bradstreet was outspoken in opposition to the witch hysteria that infested his home town of Salem, culminating in numerous trials in 1692.

16.

Simon Bradstreet served for many years as a commissioner representing Massachusetts to the New England Confederation, an organization that coordinated matters of common interest among most of the New England colonies.

17.

Simon Bradstreet was regularly chosen as an assistant, serving on the council that dominated the public affairs of the colony, but did not reach higher office until 1678, when he was first elected deputy governor under John Leverett.

18.

Simon Bradstreet was against military actions against some of the colony's foreign neighbors, opposing official intervention in a French Acadian dispute in the 1640s, and spoke against attacking the New Netherland during the First Anglo-Dutch War.

19.

Simon Bradstreet was sent on a number of diplomatic missions, dealing with settlers, other English colonies, and the Dutch in New Amsterdam.

20.

The agents were harshly criticized by hardline factions of the legislature, but Simon Bradstreet defended the need to accommodate the king's wishes as the safest course to take.

21.

How to respond to the king's demands divided the colony; Simon Bradstreet was part of the moderate "accommodationist" faction arguing that the colony should obey the king's wishes.

22.

Simon Bradstreet would turn out to be the last governor under its original charter.

23.

Juries frequently refused to condemn ships accused of violating the acts; in one instance Simon Bradstreet tried three times to get a jury to change its verdict.

24.

Simon Bradstreet refused to actually implement the law, and Randolph published open challenges to it.

25.

Simon Bradstreet was in some degree vindicated when he won re-election in 1682, and he then used his judicial authority to further undermine the law's effects.

26.

Simon Bradstreet was offered a position on Dudley's council, but refused.

27.

Simon Bradstreet had to defend the colony against those who were opposed to the reintroduction of the old rule, who he characterized in reports to London as malcontents and strangers stirring up trouble.

28.

Simon Bradstreet approved the expeditions of Sir William Phips in 1690 against Acadia and Quebec.

29.

Simon Bradstreet was offered a position on Phips' council when the new governor arrived in 1692, but declined.

30.

Simon Bradstreet was buried in the Charter Street Burying Ground in Salem.

31.

Anne Simon Bradstreet died in 1672; the couple had eight children, of whom seven survived infancy.

32.

In 1676 Simon Bradstreet married Ann Gardner, the widow of Captain Joseph Gardner, son of Thomas Gardner of Salem.