Bradley Divine was born around 1818 in New York. He married Ann Dorothy Mason, and they had at least four children: Nina, born around 1847; Martha, born around 1848; Isabel, born around 1851; and Winfield, born around 1853. They lived in Fallsburg, New York, and he worked as a farmer. By 1850, he owned $2,000 of real estate. He probably supported the Whig Party, and he named his youngest son after 1852 presidential candidate Winfield Scott. He "deserted" the family in the late 1850s, and he died in 1877.