Simon Bradstreet - Early Life

Early Life

Simon Bradstreet was baptized on March 18, 1603/4 in Horbling, Lincolnshire, the second of three sons of Simon and Margaret Bradstreet. His father was the rector of the parish church, and was descended from minor Irish nobility. With his father a vocal Nonconformist, the young Simon acquired his Puritan religious views early in life. At the age of 16, Bradstreet entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He studied there for two years, before entering the service of the Earl of Lincoln as an assistant to Thomas Dudley in 1622. There is some uncertainty about whether Bradstreet returned to Emmanuel College in 1623–1624. According to Venn, a Simon Bradstreet attended Emmanuel during this time, receiving an M.A. degree, but genealogist Robert Anderson is of the opinion that this was not the same individual. During one of Bradstreet's stints at Emmanuel he was recommended by John Preston as a tutor or governor to Lord Rich, son of the Earl of Warwick. Rich would have been 12 in 1623, and Preston was named Emmanuel's master in 1622.

Bradstreet took over Dudley's position when the latter moved temporarily to Boston in 1624. On Dudley's return several years later, Bradstreet then briefly served as a steward to the Dowager Countess of Warwick. In 1628 he married Dudley's daughter Anne, when she was 16.

In 1628, Dudley and others from the Earl of Lincoln's circle formed the Massachusetts Bay Company, with a view toward establishing a Puritan colony in North America. Bradstreet became involved with the company in 1629, and in April 1630, the Bradstreets joined the Dudleys and colonial Governor John Winthrop on the fleet of ships that carried them to Massachusetts Bay. There they founded Boston, the capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.