Biography of Anne Bradstreet

Anne Dudley was born in Northampton, England, in the year 1612 to Dorothy Yorke and Thomas Dudley. At the age of 16, Anne was married to Simon Bradstreet, a 25 year old assistant in the Massachusetts Bay Company. Anne and her family immigrated to America in 1630 on the Arabella, one of the first ships to bring Puritans to New England in hopes of setting up plantation colonies. It was hard for Anne to adapt to the colony life. Her paralysis did not limit her passion for life and she and her husband still managed to make a home for themselves, and raise a family. Simon’s job kept him traveling a lot and to keep herself busy, Anne would educate herself as well as her kids with her father’s collection of books. From these books, she learned a lot about religion, science, history, and poetry. She secretly began to write poetry for herself as well as a close circle of family and friends. Her brother-in-law, John Woodbridge, had secretly copied Anne's work, and would later bring it to England to have it published in 1650. Her poetry was habitually based on her life experience, and her love for her husband and family. She died on September 16, 1672, in Andover, Massachusetts, at the age 60.


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