Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation — William Bradford

William Bradford (c.1590 - c.1657) was an English Separatist leader in Leiden, Holland and in Plymouth Colony. He was a signatory to the Mayflower Compact and served as Plymouth Colony Governor five times covering about thirty years between 1621 and 1657. His journal Of Plimoth Plantation is the single most complete authority for the story of the Pilgrims and the early years of the Colony they founded. Written between 1630 and 1651, the journal describes the story of the Pilgrims from 1608, when they settled in the Dutch Republic through the 1620 Mayflower voyage, until the year 1647. The book ends with a list, written in 1651, of Mayflower passengers and what happened to them.