Of Plymouth Plantation

Of Plymouth Plantation is a journal that was written over a period of years by William Bradford, the leader of the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts. It is regarded as the most authoritative account of the Pilgrims and the early years of the colony which they founded.

The journal was written between 1630 and 1651 and describes the story of the Pilgrims from 1608, when they settled in the Dutch Republic on the European mainland through the 1620 Mayflower voyage to the New World, until the year 1647. The book ends with a list of Mayflower passengers and what happened to them which was written in 1651.

Bradford's original manuscript disappeared during the American Revolutionary War, when British troops occupied the Boston church where it was held. It eventually resurfaced in the Bishop of London's library at Fulham Palace, and was brought back into print in 1856. In 1897, Senator George Frisbie Hoar started a dispute over the ownership of the manuscript. The bishop's Consistorial and Episcopal Court of London ordered for a photographic copy of the manuscript's records to be made for the court, and for the original to be delivered to the Governor of Massachusetts. The manuscript was presented to the Governor during a joint session of the legislature on May 26, 1897. Since that time, the manuscript is kept in the State Library of Massachusetts. In June 1897, the state legislature ordered publication of the history with copies of the documents associated with the return.