She was born Ann Dudley, second child of Dorothy York and Thomas Dudley. Her parents(who were gentry) were married in Northampton in 1603. It was in this same town in 1612, Ann Dudley was born. No baptismal record of her birth exists, but the year was made known in one of her poems dated 1632, in which she referred to herself aas being "twice ten years old".
Her father, Thomas Dudley an "intellectual" . He did not go to university, but he asociated all his life with University men. Throughout his whole life he proved himself to be adapt at many callings-financial manager, historian soldier, poet, husband, father-callings which prepared him to be vital in the planning and organizing of the Massachusetts Bay Company in the year 1628 and 1629, and in governing Massachusetts as a secretary, magistrate and governor. In 1620 Dudley began working as a steward for a friend's cousin, Theophilus, the third world Earl of Linclon. The Dudley family moved to the Earl's estate in Linconshire.
When it came time to learn Grammar and school subjects, Anne Dudley did not do so in school. Instead she was educated by her father and she made use of the Earl's Library, reading Roman , Greek, English classics and the Bible. In addition, she was taught by the tutors that Earl had hired for his own children.
By the age of 14, Anne Dudley was living through political upheavals that had serious and immediate consequences for her family. In 1627, her father was accused of harboring a fugitive and risked being arrested for failure of not loaning money to the king. At 16 years old, Anne Dudley married Simon Bradstreet during a period of near Civil War and a period of planning for escape from persecution. In 1930, she, her husband, and her parents emigrated to Massachusetts on the ship The Arabella, along with Governor John Wintrop. These non comformist puritans later formed the Massachussetts Bay Colony.
The Arabella landed in Salem in June. The husbands and fathers left to prepare the Charlestown while the women remained behind. During the first year many died but fortunately all the Bradstreets and Dudleys survived, in the spring of 1631, they moved up the Charles River to Cambridge. (Now occupied by Harvard University)
In 1632, Anne Dudley wrote her first (recorded) poem titled "Upon a fit of sickness". The poem was written during the winter. In 1633, she gave birth to the Bradstreets' first child Samuel ( who later died). Three years later, the Dudleys' moved to Ipswich followed by the Bradstreets. It was here that her literary production fully matured.
Ten years after arriving, life was still one that was full of danger, privation and discomfort. This was so especially for Anne since she was frequently ill and always anticipated dying. Yet, she continued to write poetry. Her poetry served as being both the expression of and creation of a source, or reservoir, or in her own words a "store". She wrote poetry through rough times, poor health and even the demands of taking care of a household which included five children.
Anne wrote poems for her family, and for everyone else around her. Being modest, she never wanted her work to be published. Her husband's brother however, recognized the quality of her work and took them to London with him and secretly published them. The "Tenth Muse Lately Sprung up in America" was published in 1950 and was an immediate sucess.
Anne Bradstreet was very important infact she was the first woman to be recognized as an accomplished New World poet. Her works includes the poems "The Four Ages Of Man", "The Four Elements", "The Four Humors of Man", "The Prologue", "The Flesh and the Spirit", "Farewell Dear Babe", "A Weary Pilgrim", "Upon The Death of One of Her Children", and "A Dialogue between Old England New" among many others. Most of her works display a recurring. Theme of conflict dedication to this life is dedication to the next; flesh vs spirit; doubt vs faith; sin and death.
Besides her poetry, there is little evidence about Anne Bradstreet's life in Massachusetts. In her lifetime she and her family moved several times to remote location wherever her husband could accumulate more property, and political power. Her marriage to her husband produced eight surviving children ( in the space of ten years). After her death Bradstreet at age 60, her poems were ignored for the next two hundred (200) years. Attention was not given to her work until they were rediscovered by feminist in the 20th century.