Alden Bradford
Alden Bradford | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 5th Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth | |
| In office 1812–1824 | |
| Preceded by | Benjamin Homans |
| Succeeded by | Edward D. Bangs |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 19 November 1765 Duxbury, Massachusetts |
| Died | 26 October 1843 (aged 77) Boston, Massachusetts |
| Alma mater | Harvard College, 1786 |
| Occupation | Politician, clergyman, writer |
Alden Bradford (19 November 1765 – 26 October 1843) was an American politician, clergyman and author who served as the 5th Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth.
Biography
Alden Bradford was born in Duxbury, Massachusetts on 19 November 1765.[1] He graduated from Harvard in 1786 and received a degree of LL.D. there.[2] He was then ordained as a Congregational church pastor, serving in Wiscasset, Maine. After a short time he resigned his pulpit, ostensibly for health reasons, and became active as a local politician. As an ardent Federalist, Governor Elbridge Gerry dismissed him as clerk of Lincoln County's court.[3] After moving to Boston he served from 1812 to 1824 as secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.[2] At times a bookseller and journalist, his works included a History of Massachusetts and Memoir of the Life and Writings of Rev. Jonathan Mayhew.[4]
He was a descendant of Plymouth Colony governor William Bradford (c. 1590 – 1657).[5]
Alden Bradford built (or arranged to have built) the Bradford House, built 1794, a historic house in Wiscasset Historic District.[5]
Notes
- 1 2 Morison, Samuel Eliot (November 1921). "Memoir of Alden Bradford". Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society. LV: 153. Retrieved 21 March 2023 – via Internet Archive.
- 1 2 3 "The Late Alden Bradford, Esq". Christian Examiner and General Review. Boston, MA: James Munroe and Company: 375. January 1844. Retrieved 21 March 2023 – via Google Books.
- ↑ Joshua M. Smith, Making Maine: Statehood and the War of 1812 (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2022), 19-20.
- ↑ Bradford Family History (American Genealogical Research Institute, 1978).
- 1 2 Wolcott Andrews (1972). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Wiscasset Historic District / "Wiscasset Point"". National Park Service. Retrieved 15 July 2016. with 12 photos from 1972