The Bradbury family is an old family in England. Some say the Bradbury and True Ancestries with their Allied Lines are recorded back to Charlemagne who was born in the year 747 and was the King of France and the Holy Roman Emperor of the West, and even further back to Clovis the Riparian, Frankish King of Cologne, who was living in AD 420. Although we have not examined the records ourselves, some books date the records back to the year 1400 where a Robert de Bradbury was living at Ollerset in the parish of Glossop in Derbyshire. Eight generations after his birth, we find our immigrant ancestor, Thomas Bradbury, who was baptized in Wicken Bonant, a small parish in the County of Essex, England, on 28 February 1610-11; died in Salisbury, MA, 16 March 1694-95; son of Wymond and Elizabeth (Whitgift) Bradbury; married in Ipswich, MA, circa 1636, Mary Perkins, baptized in Hillmorton, Warwichshire, England, 3 September 1615, died in Salisbury, MA, 20 December 1700, daughter of John and Judith (Gater) Perkins.

Thomas Bradbury's mother, Elizabeth (Whitgift) Bradbury, was born in England in March of 1574 and was the daughter of William and Margaret (Bell) Whitgift of Clavering, Essex, England. She was a niece of John Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury, who placed the crowns on the heads of King James I and Queen Anne during their Coronation ceremonies. Also, she was the niece of Ann Bell, wife of Sir Ferdinando Gorges. Sir Ferdinando was granted by the King large tracks of land in southern Maine and southern New Hampshire. He sent his grand nephew, Thomas Bradbury, who was our immigrant ancestor, to New England in 1634 as his agent. In this capacity, Thomas drew up some of the earliest deeds in both states.

Thomas Bradbury was a leader of his community for over fifty years. He was made "freeman" in May of 1640 and was chosen schoolmaster in 1652 at the salary of 20 pounds, half paid in corn. "In 1641, he had been appointed by the General Court Clerk of the Writs, for Salisbury (MA), with the functions of a Magistrate to Execute all sorts of legal processes in that place. He was Deputy for many years and a Commissioner for Salisbury empowered to act in all criminal cases and bind over offenders where it was proper, to higher courts, to take testimony upon oath and to give persons in marriage. He was required to keep records of all his doings. If the parties agreed to that effect, he was authorized to hear and determine cases of every kind and degree without the intervention of a jury. The towns north of the Merrimack River and all beyond, now within the limits of New Hampshire, constituted the County of Norfork and Thomas Bradbury, for a long series of years, was one of its Commissioners and Associate Judges. From the first, he was conspicous in military matters having been commissioned by the General Court in 1648 Ensign of the Training Band of Salisbury, MA. He rose to its Command and in the later portion of his life was universally spoken of as Captain Thomas Bradbury. All along, the records of the General Court for half a century demonstrated the estimation in which he was held; various important trusts and special services requiring integrity and ability being from time to time committed to him...." (this information is from Upham's work on the Salem Witchcraft.) We found it in the book compiled by Charles Wesley True, Jr., Some Henry True Descendants on the Frontier, p. 25. Captain and Mary Bradbury were second on the list of Salisbury, MA, church members in 1687. At his death, he left 5 pounds for the use of the poor of the town, the first record of the town having been the recipient of a public bequest. This information was taken from a paper titled Salisbury Earliest Settlers by John Q. Evans read at a meeting of the Town Improvement Society held at Salisbury, MA, 17 June 1896.

Mary (Perkins) Bradbury, wife of Thomas Bradbury, was tried and convicted (but not executed) for the crime of witchcraft on 9 September 1692, in Salem, MA. Among the other ancestors of mine, Margaret (Stevenson) Scott, widow of Benjamin Scott, was tried, convicted, and executed for the crime of witchcraft on 22 September 1692, in Salem, MA, and Rebecca (.....) Chamberlain, wife of William Chamberlain of Billerica, MA, died in prison in Cambridge, MA, on 26 September 1692, having been confined there during "the witchcraft delusion" which spread from Salem Village to Andover, Haverhill, Reading, Lexington, Chelmsford, and Billerica, MA. The witchcraft delusion created a reign of terror. No one felt safe. One would suppose that the accusers were generally of the uneducated classes but they were of all classes as were the unfortunate people who were accused. "The most eminent citizens of Essex County, noted for intelligence and lifelong purity, were arrested and dragged to prison, tried and condemned on the most unreliable evidence, and executed in the most brutal manner. Finally the imprisonments, torturings, and executions rose to such a height as to be no longer endurable, and a sudden revulsion of feeling put a stop to the whole infamous business. There was no execution after September 22, 1692, and a general jail delivery of all the accused took place the May following" Charles Wesley True, Jr., Henry True Descendants in Texas. Within the space of about three months, nineteen persons were tried, convicted, and executed on "Gallows Hill." Elsewhere, in Europe and England, people were accused, tried, condemned, and executed for being witches. In England, alone, more persons were executed in a single county, than in all the colonies of New England.

The delusion took hold of the minds of men and women regardless of their education and social standings, even to the mind of the Royal Governor of Massachusetts, Sir William Phips, and to the mind of the most learned minister in the colonies at that time, Cotton Mather. The Governor, permitted the persecutions to proceed until his wife was accused of witchcraft. After that, he interfered to stay the executions of such innocents.

Mary (Perkins) Bradbury and five other woman were tried and condemned for witchcraft on 9 September 1692. Mary and one of the other women, Dorcas Hoar, were not executed with the others on the following September 22nd. The reasons for their stay of execution, if ever recorded, have been lost to us but much has been written about their trial. Mary was charged even though her husband was a prominent man in the colony. "It seems strange to us that an aged person, whose whole life according to the testimony of her neighbors had been one of charity and kindness, of piety and acts of good will, should have been condemned for witchcraft (and on such unsubstantial evidence as) because 'physick' would not 'work', or butter became rancid at sea, or storms disable a vessel and caused it to leak, or a captain had visions of a woman while at sea, and men had seen a 'blue' boar." Charles Wesley True, Jr., Some Henry True Descendants on the Frontier, p. 25. Other testimony accused her of bewitching John Carr so that he became crazed and prematurely died.

At her trial, Mrs. Bradbury was defended by Major Robert Pike, uncle by marriage, and answered the charges declaring her innocence, her husband bore testimony on her behalf, and her minister, James Allin, and members of the Pike family gave testimony of her good character. The testimony of John Carr's brother, William, in Mary's defense, went to show that his brother, John, fell in love with Jemima True, but the proposed match was opposed and broken off by young Carr's father on account of his youth. John became melancholy and at times insane. William stated that he took care of his brother in his last illness and his brother died peaceably and quietly, and never spoke anything of the harm of Mrs. Bradbury or anyone else. One hundred and eighteen of Mary's acquaintances, consisting of both men and women, some having known her for fifty years, gave evidence of her good, peaceful, and Christian life. I imagine it took great courage in such perilous times to sign this declaration and was pleased to note that over a dozen of our own ancestors signed in her behalf.

"The Salem trials doubtless exhibit a remarkable phase of human psychology. They furnish food for thought respecting the occasional vagaries of the mind, and in the degree of aberration to which it is subject through the influence of prevailing notions or popular enthusiasm. It may not again take precisely this form of temporary madness, but it is not yet beyond the reach of being led widely astray on many subjects of human experience and social intercourse or social laws." Charles Wesley True, Jr., Some Henry True Descendants of the Frontier, p. 26.

More information about the Salem Witchtrials, including complete transcripts of surviving documents, may be found at Witchcraft in Salem Village, a web site maintained by the Danvers (MA) Archival Center.

Thomas and his wife Mary (Perkins) Bradbury had eleven children, all born in Salisbury, MA, except for the eldest:

• Wymond, b. in Ipswich, MA, 1 April 1637; m. Sarah Pike, daughter of Major Robert Pike.
• Judith, b. 2 Oct. 1638; m. Caleb Moody.
• Thomas, Jr., b. 28 Jan. 1640/1.
• Mary, b. 17 March 1642/3; m. John Stanyan.
• Jane, b. 11 May 1645; m. Henry True.
• Jacob, b. 17 June 1647; died in Barbados, unmarried.
• William, b. 15 Sept. 1649; m. Rebecca (Wheelwright) Maverick.
• Elizabeth, b. 7 Nov. 1651; m. Rev. John Buss.
• John, b. 20 April 1654.
• Ann, b. 16 April 1656; d. 1659.
• Jabez, b. 27 June 1658; d. 1677.