After a brief stay in Boston, Bradstreet made his first residence in Newtowne (later renamed
Cambridge), near the Dudleys in what is now
Harvard Square. In 1637, during the
Antinomian Controversy, he was one of the magistrates that sat at the trial of
Anne Hutchinson, and voted for her banishment from the colony. In 1639, he was granted land in
Salem, near that of
John Endecott. He lived there for a time, moving in 1634 to
Ipswich before becoming one of the founding settlers of
Andover in 1648. In 1666, his Andover home was destroyed by fire, supposedly because of "the carelessness of the maid". He had varied business interests, speculating in land, and investing with other colonists in a ship involved in the coasting trade. At the time of his death he owned more than of land in five communities spread across the colony. He was known to own two slaves, a woman named Hannah and her daughter Billah. Bradstreet was heavily involved in colonial politics. When the council met for the first time in Boston, Bradstreet was selected to serve as colonial secretary, a post he would hold until 1644. Bradstreet was also outspoken in opposition to the witch hysteria that infested his home town of
Salem, culminating in
numerous trials in 1692. He was regularly chosen as an assistant, serving on the council that dominated the public affairs of the colony, but did not reach higher office until 1678, when he was first elected deputy governor under
John Leverett. He was against military actions against some of the colony's foreign neighbors, opposing official intervention in
a French Acadian dispute in the 1640s, and also spoke against attacking the
New Netherland during the
First Anglo-Dutch War (1652–1654). , was thought for many years to belong to the Bradstreets. In the 20th century it was found to have been built in 1715, and is now called the
Parson Barnard House. Bradstreet was sent on a number of diplomatic missions, dealing with settlers, other English colonies, and the Dutch in
New Amsterdam. In 1650, he was sent to
Hartford, Connecticut, where the
Treaty of Hartford was negotiated to determine the boundary between the English colonies and New Amsterdam. In the following years he negotiated an agreement with settlers in
York and
Kittery to bring them under Massachusetts jurisdiction. The letter the committee drafted reiterated the colony's charter rights, and also included declarations of allegiance and loyalty to the crown. Bradstreet and
John Norton were chosen as agents to deliver the letter to London. Charles renewed the charter, but sent the agents back to Massachusetts with a letter attaching conditions to his assent. The colony was expected, among other things, to expand religious tolerance to include the
Church of England and religious minorities like the
Quakers. The agents were harshly criticized by hardline factions of the legislature, but Bradstreet defended the need to accommodate the king's wishes as the safest course to take. With Charles distracted by
war with the Dutch and domestic politics in the late 1660s, the issue lay dormant until the mid-1670s. Relations between colony and crown deteriorated when the king then renewed demands for legislative and religious reforms, which hardline magistrates again resisted. ==Governor==