ness._

Governor Calvin Coolidge of Massachusetts, at the twenty-fifth
anniversary of the Lord's Day League, Boston, 1920.

On reaching the age of twenty-one, our Bradford became the possessor of
his native estate in England, which he sold, as then useless for him to
hold. But well he knew, that the recantation of his faith would restore
him to independence and presumably to the favor of the Austerfield
community. What lay in the future for him he could not conceive. He took
the sale money and ventured in some commercial enterprise, but did not
prosper in it. His career was to be of more importance than the business
of a merchant.

After turning twenty-two, he was admitted, on proof and security, a
citizen of Leyden, as William Bradford, Englishman. In the end of the
next year his marriage bans were published, and he was registered as a
worker in fustian, a coarse cloth of cotton and flax. On December 20,
1613, he wedded Dorothy May, aged sixteen, formerly of Cambridge, and
probably the granddaughter of John May, Bishop of Carlisle in 1577. Her
autograph, "Dority May," appears in her marriage contract. Bradford,
when in America later, had friendly correspondence with her father in
Holland.

While in Leyden now, he had the joy of perceiving the rapid growth of
the Puritan fellowship there, numbering finally almost three hundred.
Purchasing considerable land, they settled in a community by themselves.
Robinson, their spiritual head, was held in much esteem throughout the
city, for his noble character and fine abilities. Bradford in written
eulogy ascribes to him "y^e tender love & godly care of a true pastor."

Yet in spite of the hospitality of Holland, the condition was not normal
nor the prospects ideal, for an English settlement among those of
foreign speech. The rising generation would naturally affiliate with
their neighbors, entering the Dutch army and society; and the outcome
promised to be a blend of blood and customs. The truce between Holland
and Spain would be over in 1619; and the Thirty Years War was already
rising in Europe. Wishing to preserve their national character and
distinct religious order, they meditated emigration as a colony. In this
the foreign missionary motive was also strong, freely acknowledged, and
always remembered. "A great hope & inward zeall they had," Bradford
later recorded, "of laying some good foundation, or at least to make
some way thereunto, for y^e propaga