Mary (Perkins) Bradbury
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Mary (Perkins) Bradbury (bef. 1615 - 1700)

Mary Bradbury formerly Perkins
Born before in Hillmorton, Warwickshire, Englandmap
Ancestors ancestors
Wife of — married about May 1636 in Salisbury, Essex , Massachusetts Bay Colonymap
Descendants descendants
Died after age 85 in Salisbury, Essex, Province of Massachusetts Baymap
Profile last modified | Created 21 Sep 2010
This page has been accessed 17,927 times.
The Puritan Great Migration.
Mary (Perkins) Bradbury migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640).
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Contents

Biography

Notables Project
Mary (Perkins) Bradbury is Notable.

Origins and Baptism

Mary Perkins, daughter of John Perkins Sr. and Judith Gater,[1] was baptized on 3 Sept 1615 in Hillmorton, Warwickshire, England[2][3][4] at Saint John the Baptist Church.[5]

Immigration to America

Mary Perkins of Hillmorton, Warwickshire is listed as a passenger aboard the "Lyon",[2] along with: Mr. John Perkins and Mrs. Judith Perkins, John Perkins Jr., Elizabeth Perkins, Thomas Perkins and Jacob Perkins. The "Lyon", William Pierce, Master, departed from Bristol, England December 1, 1630 with 'about twenty passengers and two hundred tons of goods.' This was the same ship that brought the Rev. Roger and Mrs. Mary Williams to America, along with the John Throckmorton and Edmond Once families and William Parke.[6] The passage was stormy and lasted 67 days. They arrived at Nantasket on February 5, 1631 and on the 6th anchored in Boston.[3][7] The family settled first at Boston and removed to Ipswich in 1633.[2][3][7]

Marriage and Children

Mary Perkins married Thomas Bradbury[1][8] by 1637 (their eldest child was born in Salisbury in Apr 1637),[2][4] probably in Ipswich, Massachusetts.[3] Mary and Thomas had eleven children, as follows:[7][9]

  • Wymond, b.1 Apr 1637, m. Sarah Pike;
  • Judith, b. 2 Oct 1638, m. Caleb Moody;
  • Thomas, b. 28 Jan 1640/1, d. unmarried;
  • Mary, b.17 Mar 1642/3, m. John Stanyan;
  • Jane, b.11 May 1645, m. Henry True;
  • Jacob, b.17 Jun 1647, d.12 Mar 1669 in Barbados;
  • William, b.15 Sep 1649, m. Rebecca (Wheelwright) Maverick;
  • Elizabeth, b. 7 Nov 1651, m. John Buss;
  • John, b. 20 Apr 1654, d.24 Nov 1678, unm.;
  • Ann, b.16 Apr 1656, d.1659;
  • Jabez, b.27 Jun 1658, d.28 Apr 1677.

Accused of Witchcraft

Mary (Perkins) Bradbury was accused of witchcraft in the Salem Witch Trials

Mary (Perkins) Bradbury was tried for witchcraft in July 1692. She was defended by Major Robert Pike. Accounts of her case tell of the high esteem in which she was held:

Her husband's testimony was as follows:

"We have been married fifty-five years, and she has been a loving and faithful wife unto me unto this day. She hath been wonderful laborious, diligent and industrious in her place and employment about the bringing up of our family which have been eleven children and four grandchildren. She was both prudent and provident, of a cheerful spirit, liberal and charitable. She being now very aged and weak, and grieved under afflictions, may not be able to speak much for herself, not being so free of speech as some others might be. I hope her life and conversation among her neighbors has been such as gives a better or more real testimony than can be expressed by words."[10]

One hundred and eighteen of her friends signed a statement commending her good character:

She was a lover of the ministry in all appearance, and a diligent attender upon God's holy ordinances, being of a courteous and peaceable disposition and carriage, neither did any of us (some of whom have lived in the town with her above fifty years) ever hear or know that she had any difference or falling out with any of her neighbors, man woman or child, but was always ready to do for them what lay in her power, night and day, though with hazard of her health and other danger.[10][11]

Rev. James Allen, her pastor, said:

I, having lived nine years at Salisbury in the work of the ministry, and now four years in the office of pastor, to my best notice and observation of Mrs. Bradbury, she hath lived according to the rules of the gospel amongst us; was a constant attender upon the ministry of the word, and all the ordinances of the gospel; full of works of charity and mercy to the sick and poor; neither have I seen or heard anything of her unbecoming the profession of the gospel.[10][12]

"The evidence against her was as scant as it was nonsensical. She was convicted with four others who were hanged in September, 1692. Mrs. Bradbury's execution was postponed, why we know not, but the delusion passed and her life was spared."[10]

Death

Mary Bradbury died on 20 Dec 1700 in Salisbury, Essex County, Massachusetts[3][9][13] and was buried at Salisbury Colonial Buying Ground.[14]

Mary died testate, her will was dated 17 Feb 1695/6 (see attached), with probate opened on 16 Jan 1701, Probate case #2999.[15]

Massachusetts Remediation

  1. 17 October 1710, Convictions Reversed, The General Court of Massachusetts Bay, An act, the several convictions, judgments, and attainders be, and hereby are, reversed, and declared to be null and void.[16]
  2. 17 Dec 1711, Compensation to Survivors, Governor Dudley, GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY, approved compensation to such persons as are living, and to those that legally represent them that are dead [For Mary Bradbury, £20][16]
  3. 28 Aug 1957, No Disgrace to Descendants, General Court of Massachusetts, ...such proceedings, were and are shocking, and the result of a wave of popular hysterical fear of the Devil in the community, and further declares that, as all the laws under which said proceedings...have been long since abandoned and superseded by our more civilized laws, no disgrace or cause for distress attaches to the said descendants or any of them by reason of said proceedings.[17]
  4. 31 Oct 2001, Additional Victims Included, Massachusetts Senate and House of Representatives in General Court, AN ACT RELATIVE TO THE WITCHCRAFT TRIAL OF 1692, chapter 145 is hereby further amended by adding Bridget Bishop, Susannah Martin, Alice Parker, Margaret Scott and Wilmot Redd.[18]

Sources

  1. 1.0 1.1 Early New England Families, 1641-1700. (Original Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2013. By Alicia Crane Williams, Lead Genealogist.) Access online at AmericanAncestors.org with NEHGS membership. Profile of John Perkins, page 1.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Anderson, Robert Charles, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633. Boston: NEHGS, 1996-2011. (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2010). Vol. 3, page 1432 (John Perkins).
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Ferris, Mary Walton, ‘’Dawes-Gates Ancestral Lines: A Memorial Volume Containing the American Ancestry of Rufus R. Dawes’’. Accessed online at HathiTrust. Vol. 1, page 484, 486.
  4. 4.0 4.1 Davis, Walter Goodwin, The Ancestry of Dudley Wildes, 1759-1820, of Topsfield, Massachusetts. Accessed online at Hathitrust. Page 87-89.
  5. Hillmorton Parish Register - Baptisms, 1611-1616, 15th line, 1615.
  6. Banks, Charles Edward, "The Planters of the Commonwealth: A Study of the Emigrants and Emigration in Colonial Times, 1620-1640." Genealogical Publishing Company, Inc., Copyright 1930, 2006. Page 92-93: Passengers on the Lyon.
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 Perkins, George Augustus, ‘’The Family of John Perkins of Ipswich, Massachusetts’’. (Salem, MA: G.A. Perkins, 1889), accessed at Archive.org. Pages 1-7.
  8. NEHGR, "Some Notices of the Family Perkins in America." The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1847-. (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, NEHGS, 2001-2018). Vol. 10 (Jul 1856) p.213.
  9. 9.0 9.1 Anderson, Robert Charles, The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England 1634-1635. Boston: NEHGS, 1996-2011. (Online database: Ancestry.com, Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.). Vol. 1, page 379.
  10. 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Cutter, William Richard. Historic Homes and Places and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of Middlesex County Massachusetts. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1908. Access online at GoogleBooks. Vol. 2, p.613.
  11. A list of the signatories and additional sources can be found at the profile of one of the petitioners, Isaac Morrill
  12. Lapham, William Berry, "Bradbury Memorial. Records of Some of the Descendants of Thomas Bradbury, of Agamenticus (York) in 1634, and of Salisbury, Mass. in 1638." Portland ME: Brown, Thurston, 1890. Access online at Archive.org. Pages 63-66.
  13. Topsfield Historical Society, Vital records of Salisbury, Massachusetts to the end of the year 1849 (Topsfield, MA: Topsfield Historical Society, 1915)Deaths p. 530. "Bradbury, Marey, wid. Capt. Tho[mas], Dec. 20, 1700. N. CT. BK."
  14. Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/38426363/mary-bradbury: accessed February 14, 2024), memorial page for Mary Perkins Bradbury (1614–20 Dec 1700), Find A Grave: Memorial #38426363, citing Salisbury Colonial Burying Ground, Salisbury, Essex County, Massachusetts, USA; Maintained by Linda Mac (contributor 47062703).
  15. "Essex, Massachusetts Probate Records, 1648-1840." Ancestry.com, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 1997, Provo, UT, USA: probate 16 Jan 1701.
  16. 16.0 16.1 Upham, Charles Wentworth. Salem Witchcraft : with an Account of Salem Village, and a History of Opinions on Witchcraft and Kindred Subjects. (1867) v2, page 480.
  17. https://www.mass.gov/doc/resolves-of-1957-chapter-145/download
  18. https://malegislature.gov/Laws/SessionLaws/Acts/2001/Chapter122

See Also:

  • Wikidata: Item Q6779107, en:Wikipedia help.gif
  • Wikipedia: Mary Bradbury
  • Find A Grave: Memorial #38426363 Salisbury Colonial Burying Ground
  • The Salem Witchcraft Papers (SWP No. 016) Mary Bradbury
  • Ancestry.com. New England, Salem Witches and Others Tried for Witchcraft, 1647-1697. [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000. Accused 1692.
  • Ancestry.com. "[ Ancestry Record pili354 #726187 US and Canada Passenger and Immigration Lists, 1500's - 1900's]." Arrival 1631 at Boston MA.
  • Banks, Charles Edward. History of York, Maine. Reprint of 1931-35 by Baltimore, Regional Pub. Co., 1967. Accessed on HathiTrust Volume 1, Volume 2.
  • Davis, Walter Goodwin. Massachusetts and Maine Families in the Ancestry of Walter Goodwin Davis. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1996.
  • Filby, P. William, ed. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s. Farmington Hills, Michigan, USA: Gale Research, 2012.
  • Kirk, Marshall K., "A Probable Royal Descent for Thomas Bradbury of Salisbury, Massachusetts." The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Vol. 27 (Jan 2007) p.36.
  • Little, Thomas George. Genealogical and Family History of the State of Maine. Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1909.
  • Lowell, Delmar Rial. The Historic Genealogy of the Lowells of America from 1639 to 1899. Rutland, Vermont: The Tuttle Company, 1899.
  • The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. The Whitgift-Bradbury Family, Mary Perkins, Daughter of John and Judith Perkins of Ipswich. Boston, Massachusetts: The New England Historic Genealogical Society. Vol. 23, 1869.
  • Perkins, Thomas Allen, comp. Jacob Perkins of Wells, Maine and His Descendants 1583 - 1936. Haverhill, Massachusetts; Record Publishing Company, 1947.
  • “The Witchcraft Trial of Mary Perkins Bradbury.” GenealogyMagazine.com. Accessed April 11, 2020. https://www.genealogymagazine.com/witchcraft-trial/.
  • Threlfall, John Brooks. The Ancestry of Thomas Bradbury and his wife Mary (Perkins) Bradbury of Salisbury, Massachusetts. Published by the author, 1988.
  • Warwickshire County Record Office. Hillmorton, Warwickshire Parish Register. Warwick, England; Warwickshire Anglican Registers.
  • NEHGS Register, Volume 161. page 36; Salisbury Marriages.
  • Warwickshire Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials 1535-1812: Baptized Hillmorton, Warwickshire September 3, 1615
  • New England Marriages prior to 1700; Second Torrey Supplement, page 11




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Comments: 6

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According to the Salem Witch Museum, she has a notable descendant (not mentioned on her Wikipedia page), Ray Bradbury.
posted by Stephanie Ward
edited by Stephanie Ward
I am a direct descendant of Mary Perkins 10 generations back.

Sharon Mills Ostwald. Relationship Diagram from My Heritage site. Mary Bradbury's relation to me: Direct ancestor (10 generations) Here's how: 1. Vera Ellen Mills is the mother of Sharon Kay Mills Ostwald 2. Charles Monroe Seneff is the father of Vera Ellen Mills 3. Sarah Ellen Seneff is the mother of Charles Monroe Seneff 4. Hiram Emery is the father of Sarah Ellen Seneff 5. Philomela Emery is the mother of Hiram Emery 6. Lucy Webber is the mother of Philomela Emery 7. Honorable Judge & Presbyterian Deacon John Bradbury is the father of Lucy Webber 8. Rev. WYMOND Bradbury, Jr. is the father of Honorable Judge & Presbyterian Deacon John Bradbury 9. Wymond Bradbury is the father of Rev. WYMOND Bradbury, Jr. 10. Mary Bradbury is the mother of Wymond Bradbury

posted by Sharon Ostwald
Hello Profile Managers!

We are featuring this profile in the Connection Finder this week. Between now and Wednesday is a good time to take a look at the sources and biography to see if there are updates and improvements that need made, especially those that will bring it up to WikiTree Style Guide standards. We know it's short notice, so don't fret too much. Just do what you can.

Thanks!

Abby

posted by Abby (Brown) Glann
The following was received through the private message system, but really belongs here:

"...can you add the following:

His grave stone is in the Salisbury Colonial Burying Ground #190 next to his wife Mary Perkins #189 Someone (about year 1915) Scratched the names of Mary Perkins and Thomas Bradbury on Pieces of the stones. The problem is that the map at the site that they provide, has got the stones reversed, so the scratched stones are reversed. These two stones lie flat on the ground and have been run over by the lawn mower, and therefore are now in many pieces. The death date of Mary Perkins should be 1700 not 1694 when she was condemned as a witch.


Thanks.

Thomas Bradbury 9th great grand son."