Bradford is a town in Orange County, in the "Woodstock-Quechee" region that was settled before any grant, charter or patent existed to cover the land..

The town was originally referred to as Waitstown and Waits River Town after Joseph Wait, who had taken part in the 1759 Rogers' Rangers (an independent company of colonial militia, attached to the British Army during the French and Indian War) when they raided the St. Francis Indians in Canada. Joseph was with the group that returned, starving, by way of the Connecticut River.

When the town was officially patened in 1770, it was named Mooretown, after Sir Henry Moore, the Royal Governor of New York. After the Revolution, residents decided they no longer wanted the name to remind them of a royal governor, so they petitioned the Vermont Legislature to rename it Bradford.

Notable people from the area include: Private Miles DeForrest Andross, killed defending the Alamo; John Putnam Chapin, mayor of Chicago; Charles Edgar Clark, captain of the USS Oregon; Ned O'Gorman, a poet & educator; Albert Sleeper, 29th governor of Michigan; James Wilson, the first American globe maker; and Jay Wright, a poet.