Dudley Bradstreet (magistrate)

Dudley Bradstreet (1648 – 13 November 1702) was an American magistrate who served as the Justice of the Peace of Andover, Massachusetts during the Salem Witch Trials.[1][2]

Dudley Bradstreet
Born1648
Cambridge, Massachusetts Bay Colony
Died13 November 1702
Andover, Province of Massachusetts Bay
Spouse(s)Anne Wood Price

Background

Bradstreet was born to Simon Bradstreet and Anne Dudley Bradstreet in Cambridge, Massachusetts, moving to Andover as an infant.[3] He served as a colonel in the colonial militia, a Deputy to the General Court of Massachusetts, and in the Massachusetts Governor's Council from 1698 until 1702.[4]

Salem Witch Trials

During the Salem Witch Trials, Bradstreet was Justice of the Peace for Andover. He issued warrants for the arrest and imprisonment of forty-eight suspected "witches", after which he refused to issue any more. As a result, Bradstreet and his wife, Anne, were accused of witchcraft and forced to flee the area.[2] In December 1692, Bradstreet's name appears atop a 1692 petition to the Superior Court of Judicature at Salem to free fellow residents of Andover from prison. Also signing this petition was Rev. Francis Dane.[5]

Family
In Reference to Her Children (excerpt)
My fifth, whose down is yet scarce gone,

Is 'mongst the shrubs and bushes flown.
And as his wings increase in strength,

On higher boughs he'll perch at length.

— Anne Bradstreet[6]

He was the fifth son of Governor Simon Bradstreet and his wife, the poet Anne Dudley Bradstreet. Anne's father, Thomas Dudley, was also Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony.[3] One of his brothers, John Bradstreet, was also implicated in the witch trials.[2]

Bradstreet married Anne Wood Price, daughter of Richard and Anne (Priddeth) Wood and widow of Theodore Price. Their children were:[1]

  1. Margaret, married Job Tyler, son of Moses Tyler.
  2. Dudley, married Mary Wainwright.
  3. Anne, died in infancy.

Bradstreet was an ancestor of 20th-century U.S. President Herbert Hoover.[7]

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References
  1. Watson, Marston (2004). Governor Thomas Dudley: and descendants through five generations. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co. p. 22. ISBN 9780806365244.
  2. Weiser-Alexander, Kathy. "The "Witches" of Massachusetts". Legends of America. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
  3. Moore, Jacob Bailey (1848). Lives of the Governors of New Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay. Gates & Stedman. p. 377.
  4. Mackenzie, George Norbury, and Nelson Osgood Rhoades, editors. Colonial Families of the United States of America: in Which is Given the History, Genealogy and Armorial Bearings of Colonial Families Who Settled in the American Colonies From the Time of the Settlement of Jamestown, 13th May, 1607, to the Battle of Lexington, 19th April, 1775. 7 volumes. 1912. Reprinted, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1966, 1995.
  5. Ray, Benjamin (2002). "Salem Witch Trials". University of Virginia. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
  6. Bradstreet, Anne (1897). The Poems of Mrs. Anne Bradstreet (1612–1672): Together with her Prose Remains. unspecified: The Duodecimos. OCLC 1949305.
  7. McLean, Hulda Hoover (1967). Genealogy of the Herbert Hoover Family. Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace, Stanford University.
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