Elder William Brewster

M, #12864, b. Jan 24, 1567, d. Apr 10, 1644
Relationship10th great-grandfather of Malcolm Kenyon McKown Jr.
Pedigree
Father*Archbishop William Brewster b. circa 1534, d. Aug 10, 1590
Mother*Mary Smythe b. circa 1535, d. circa 1569

Family

Mary Wentworth b. circa 1570, d. Apr 17, 1627
Children

Chronological Events

Birth*Jan 24, 1567 Elder William Brewster was born on Jan 24, 1567 at Scrooby, Nottinghamshire, England, United Kingdom. 
 He was the son of Archbishop William Brewster and Mary Smythe. 
Marriage*circa 1591 Elder William Brewster married Mary Wentworth circa 1591 at Nottinghamshire, England, United Kingdom.1 
Emigration*1620 Elder William Brewster emigrated in 1620 from England, United Kingdom. He was accompanied by his wife, Mary Brewster, and his sons, Love Brewster and Wrestling Brewster. 
Immigration*1620 He immigrated in 1620 to Plymouth, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States; arriving on the Mayflower. 
Death*Apr 10, 1644 He died on Apr 10, 1644, at age 77 at Plymouth, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. 
Burial*Apr 11, 1644 He was buried on Apr 11, 1644 at Burial Hill Cemetery, Plymouth, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States, Find A Grave Memorial# 16195888.2 
Book Excerpt* 
William Brewster was a leader of the Pilgrims, who established Plymouth Colony. The town of Brewster, Barnstable, MA was incorporated Febr 19, 1803 and was named for Elder William Brewster. In England he studied briefly at Peterhouse College, Cambridge 1580-1583, the only Pilgrim Father to have some university training. He was postmaster and baliff-receiver at Scrooby, England 1590-1607. A member of the local gentry in Scrooby, Yorkshire, he helped organize a separatist religious congregation in 1606 and financed its move to Holland in 1608; removed his family to Amsterdam and later to Leyden, Holland where he tutored 1609-1616 and was ruling Elder 1616-1619. His influence with the Crown was instrumental in winning the approval of the Virginia Company for the proposal to resettle the congregation in America, and he was one of the few original Scrooby separatists who sailed on the Mayflower in 1620. As the church's ruling elder in Leyden and then in Plymouth, Brewster shared with William Bradford and Edward Winslow in the leadership of the Pilgrim enterprise. He arrived at Plymouth, MA, 11 Nov 1620 , aboard MAYFLOWER with wife and two sons, Love and Wrestling. The rest of his children stayed behind and came over later.

William Brewster was born about 1566, the son of William Brewster. He was educated in both Greek and Latin and spent some time at Cambridge University, although he never completed a full degree. He went into the service of William Davison, then Secretary of State, while his father back home maintained a position as the postmaster of Scrooby, Nottinghamshire. Under Davison, Brewster first traveled to the Netherlands. After Davison's departure as Secretary of State, Brewster worked himself into his father's postmaster duties and maintained Scrooby Manor. Brewster was instrumental in establishing the small Separatist church with Richard Clyfton, and they often held their meetings in the Manor house. Brewster and the others were eventually found and forced out, and fleeing prosecution and persecution they headed to Amsterdam in 1608, and moving to Leiden, Holland in 1609. Brewster became the church's Elder, responsible for seeing that the congregation's members carried themselves properly, both helping and admonishing them when necessary.

In Leiden, Brewster working with Thomas Brewer became working a printing press and publishing religious books and pamphlets which were then illegally conveyed into England. Brewster also employed himself teaching University of Leiden students English. By 1618, the English authorities were onto him and his printing press, and had the Dutch authorities in pursuit of him. Thomas Brewer was arrested and held in the University of Leiden's prison, but Brewster managed to evade the authorities and went into hiding for a couple years.

When the Leiden church congregation decided to send the first wave to set up and establish a colony that everyone could eventually move to, their pastor John Robinson decided to remain behind in Leiden with the majority of the congregation, intending to come later. The smaller group that went on the Mayflower desired the next highest ranking church official, Elder Brewster, go with them; so he agreed. He brought his wife Mary and two youngest children, Love and Wrestling, on the Mayflower with him.

Brewster continued his work as Church Elder throughout his life at Plymouth Colony. His wife Mary died in 1627, and he never remarried. He lived to be nearly 80 years old, dying in 1644. Shortly after he died, William Bradford wrote a short but concise biography of Brewster, just a couple pages, in his history Of Plymouth Plantation.

The Mayflower Compact
As the ruling elder and only university trained passenger on the Mayflower, it is likely that William Brewster drafted the Mayflower Compact, the first constitution written and adopted in North America.

William Brewster was the Reverend Elder of the Pilgrim's church at Plymouth, since their pastor John Robinson remained behind in Leyden, Holland with the majority of the congregation which planned to come to America at a later time. Brewster was a fugitive from the King of England, because he had published a number of religious pamphlets while in Leyden which were critical or opposed the tenets of the Church of England. He had been a member of the Separatist church movement from its very beginning, and was the oldest Mayflower passenger to have participated at the First Thanksgiving, in his early fifties.

SOURCES:
Barbara Lambert Merrick, Mayflower Families in Progress: William Brewster for Four Generations, (Plymouth: General Society of Mayflower Descendants 1994).

Henry M. Dexter, "The True Date of Birth and Death of Elder Brewster," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 18(1864):18-20.

Lucy Hall Greenlaw, "Early Generations of the Brewster Family," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 53(1899):109-115.

John G. Hunt, "William Brewster, Gent. of Virginia," The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 75(1967):407-409.

John G. Hunt, "Master Williamson of the Mayflower," National Genealogical Society Quarterly 62(1974):88-90.

John G. Hunt, "The Mother of Elder William Brewster of the Mayflower," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 124(1970):250-251.

Mary B. Sherwood, Pilgrim: A Biography of William Brewster (Falls Church, Virginia: Great Oaks Press, 1982).

Eugene Aubrey Stratton, Plymouth Colony: Its History and Its People, 1620-1691 (Ancestry Publishing: Salt Lake City, 1986).

Charles Edward Banks, English Ancestry and Homes of the Pilgrim Fathers (Baltiore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1929).

William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation, ed. Samuel Morison (New York: Random House, 1952).3
 

Citations

  1. [S802] Site - Ancestry.com, online at http://www.ancestry.com
  2. [S58] Gravestones - Death Cert, Find-A-Grave, BillionGraves.
  3. [S805] Site - One World Tree (SM), online at http://www.ancestry.com