Page:The works of Anne Bradstreet in prose and verse.djvu/19

 �INTRODUCTION.

���NNE BRADSTREET, distinguished as the earHest poet of her sex in America, was the daughter of Governor Thomas Dudley, and the wife of Governor Simon Bradstreet, two of the principal founders of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay. The ancestry of that branch of the Dudley family to which Mrs. Bradstreet belonged is now simply a matter of conjecture. Many attempts have been made to trace it, but without success.* "There is a tradi- tion among the descendants of Governor Dudley, in the eldest branch of the family," says Mr. Moore, " that he was descended from John Dudley, Duke of Northumber- land, who was beheaded 22 February, 1553." f Mrs. Bradstreet seems to have shared this belief, if we may judge from the following verses from her " Elegy upon Sir

Boston: Published by the Author. 1S48. N. E. Hist. Gen. Register, Vol. x. p. 133. — "The Sutton-Dudleys of England, and the Dudleys of Massachu- setts." By George Adlard. New York : 1S62. — " The Herald and Gene- alogist," Vol. ii. London : 1S65. pp. 409-426, and 494-499.
 * " The Dudley Genealogies and Family Records." By Dean Dudley.

t Lives of the Governors of New Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay. By Jacob Bailey Moore. New York : 1846. p. 273

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