Simon Bradstreet

Simon Bradstreet (baptized March 18, 1603/4 – March 27, 1697) was a New England merchant, politician and colonial administrator who served as the last governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Arriving in Massachusetts on the Winthrop Fleet in 1630, Bradstreet was almost constantly involved in the politics of the colony but became its governor only in 1679.

Quotes

Attributed

• Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God.
  • In 1684, the old Charter of Massachusetts was revoked. In 1686, Sir Edmund Andros was appointed by Charles II the military governor of all New England. On 18 April 1689, the people of Boston, tired of what they viewed as a tyranny, and emboldened by news of the overthrow of James II in England, rose up against and overthrew Andros. Then they escorted the elderly Bradstreet to the front of the Old State House, and proclaimed him governor under the old Charter, and there, according to the Official Report of the Debates and Proceedings in the State Convention: ... May 4th, 1853 (White & Potter, 1853), p. 502, he laid down this doctrine. Cf. John Bradshaw, "Rebellion to tyrants..."

External links

• A Book of New England Legends and Folk Lore (Roberts Bros., 1883), p. 426