The first home of the Bradfords in Plymouth was at Town Square where now stands the Bradford block. About 1627-8 they moved, for a part of the year, to the banks of the Jones River, now Kingston, a place which had strongly appealed to Bradford as a good site for the original settlement when the men were making their explorations in December, 1620. William, Joseph and Mercy were born to inherit from their parents the fine characters of both Governor and Alice Bradford, and also to pass on to their children the carved chests, wrought and carved chairs, case and knives, desk, silver spoons, fifty-one pewter dishes, five dozen napkins, three striped carpets, four Venice glasses, besides cattle and cooking utensils and many books. That the Governor had a proper “dress suit” was proved by the inventory of “stuffe suit with silver buttons and cloaks of violet, light colour and faced with taffety and linen throw.” As Mistress Bradford could only “make her mark,” she probably did not appreciate the remarkable collection, for the times, of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Dutch and French books as well as the studies in philosophy and theology which were in her husband’s library. There is no doubt that the first and second generations of girls and boys in Plymouth Colony had elementary instruction, at least, under Dr. Fuller and Mrs. Hicks as well as by other teachers. Bradford, probably, would also attend to the education of his own family. The Governor’s wife has been accredited with “labouring diligently for the improvement of the young women of Plymouth and to have been eminently worthy of her high position.”[95] She was the sole executrix of her husband’s estate of £1005,—a proof of her ability. Sometimes her cheerfulness must have been taxed to comfort her husband, as old age came upon him and he fell into the gloomy mood reflected in such lines as these:[96] “In fears and wants, through weal and woe, A pilgrim passed I to and fro; Oft left of them whom I did trust, How vain it is to rest in dust! A man of sorrows I have been, And many changes I have seen, Wars, wants, peace, plenty I have known, And some advanc’d, others thrown down.” When Mistress Alice Bradford died she was “mourned, though aged” by many. To her memory, Nathaniel Morton, her nephew, wrote some lines which were more biographic than poetical, recalling her early life as an exile with her father from England for the truth’s sake, her first marriage “To one whose grace and virtue did surpasse, I mean good Edward Southworth whoe not long Continued in this world the saints amonge.” With extravagant words he extols the name of Bradford,—“fresh in memory Which smeles with odoriferous fragrancye.” This elegist records also that, after her second widowhood, she lived a