Abraham Bradley (1767–1838), a native of Litchfield, Connecticut, studied law there at Tapping Reeve’s law school, and then became a protégé of Postmaster General Timothy Pickering, who made Bradley a clerk in his department in 1791. As first assistant postmaster general from 1799, Bradley oversaw the general post office’s relocation the following year to Washington, D.C. He created an important map of the United States in 1796, with a second edition in 1804 that incorporated the Louisiana Purchase. Bradley was dismissed from his position in 1829 as part of the Jackson administration’s assertion of control over postal patronage (ANB description begins John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes, eds., American National Biography, 1999, 24 vols. description ends ; Charles S. Bradley, “The Bradley Family and the Times in which They Lived,” RCHS description begins Records of the Columbia Historical Society, 1895– description ends 6 [1903]: 130–6).