Bradford, Andrew (1686-1742), was an American printer and newspaper publisher who established the first newspaper in Pennsylvania. He was the son of the English-born American printer William Bradford, the first person to set up a printing press in Philadelphia. Like his father, Andrew Bradford clashed with the colonial administrators in Philadelphia.
Bradford initially printed religious pamphlets and schoolbooks. In December 1719, he started the American Weekly Mercury, Pennsylvania’s first newspaper. It was the fourth newspaper published in the American Colonies, and the first published outside Boston. Bradford and Franklin later became rival newspaper publishers (see Franklin, Benjamin ). Through the pages of the Mercury and later publications, Bradford called for greater civil and religious liberties in the Quaker-dominated society of Philadelphia. The colonial authorities warned him to stop his criticism, then brought a court case against him and forced him to apologize.
Bradford taught his nephew William Bradford III as an apprentice in the 1730’s and then made him a partner. William Bradford III became a leading publisher and patriot during the Revolutionary War in America (1775-1783). Andrew Bradford was born in Philadelphia and died there on Nov. 24, 1742.
See also Bradford, William ; Bradford, William, III .
