William Brewster (pilgrim)

William Brewster
An imaginary likeness of William Brewster. There is no known portrait of him from life.
Born	William Brewster c. 1560 Scrooby, Nottinghamshire or Doncaster, Yorkshire, England
Died	April 10, 1644 (aged 83–84) Duxbury, Massachusetts, USA
Nationality	English Subject
Known for	Pilgrim
Religion	Separatist
Spouse(s)	Mary Brewster
Children	Jonathan Brewster Patience Brewster Prence Fear Brewster Allerton Love Brewster Wrestling Brewster
Parents	William Brewster Mary Smythe

Elder William Brewster (c. 1560 or 1566 – April 10, 1644) was a Pilgrim colonist leader and preacher born in Doncaster, England and raised in Scrooby, in north Nottinghamshire, who reached what became the Plymouth Colony in the Mayflower in 1620. He was accompanied by his wife, Mary Brewster, and his sons, Love Brewster and Wrestling Brewster. Son Jonathan joined the family in November 1621, arriving at Plymouth on the ship Fortune, and daughters Patience and Fear arrived in July 1623 aboard the Anne.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Origins 1.2 Dissent 1.3 Emigration 1.4 Children 2 Places and things named after Brewster 3 Notable descendants 4 References 4.1 Notes 4.2 Further reading 5 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Origins

He was born probably at Doncaster, Yorkshire, England, circa 1566/1567, although no birth records have been found, ^{[1][2][3][4][5]} and died at Plymouth, Massachusetts on April 10, 1644 around 9 or 10pm.^{[1][2][3][4][5]} He was the son of William Brewster and Mary (Smythe) (Simkinson) and he had a number of half-siblings. His paternal grandparents were William Brewster and Maud Mann. His maternal grandfather was Thomas Smythe.

Scrooby Manor was in the possession of the Archbishops of York. Brewster's father, William senior, had been the estate bailiff for the archbishop for thirty-one years from around 1580. With this post went that of postmaster, which was a more important one than it might have been in a village not situated on the Great North Road, as Scrooby was then.

William Junior studied briefly at Peterhouse, Cambridge before entering the service of William Davison in 1584.^[6] In 1585, Davidson went to the Netherlands to negotiate an alliance with the States-General. In 1586, Davison was appointed assistant to Queen Elizabeth's Secretary of State Francis Walsingham, but in 1587 Davison lost the favour of Elizabeth, after the beheading of her cousin (once removed) Mary, Queen of Scots.

[edit] Dissent

Cambridge was a centre of thought concerning religious reformism, but Brewster's time in the Netherlands, in connection with Davidson's work, gave him opportunity to hear and see more of reformed religion. While, earlier in the sixteenth century, reformers had hoped to amend the Anglican church, by the end of it, many were looking toward splitting from it. (See Brownist).

On Davidson's disgrace, Brewster returned to Scrooby. There, from 1590 to 1607, he held the position of postmaster. As such he was responsible for the provision of stage horses for the mails, having previously, for a short time, assisted his father in that office. By the 1590s, Brewster's brother, James, was a rather rebellious Anglican priest, vicar of the parish of Sutton cum Lound, in Nottinghamshire. From 1594, it fell to James to appoint curates to Scrooby church so that Brewster, James and leading members of the Scrooby congregation were brought before the ecclesiastical court for their dissent. They were set on a path of separation from the Anglican Church. From about 1602, Scrooby Manor, Brewster's home, became a meeting place for the dissenting Puritans. In 1606, they formed the Separatist Church of Scrooby.

[edit] Emigration

Restrictions and pressures applied by the authorities convinced the congregation of a need to emigrate to the more sympathetic atmosphere of Holland, but leaving England without permission was illegal at the time, so that departure was a complex matter. On its first attempt, in 1607, the group was arrested at Scotia Creek, but in 1608 Brewster and others were successful in leaving from The Humber. In 1609, he was selected as ruling elder of the congregation.

Initially, the Pilgrims settled in Amsterdam, and worshiped with the Ancient Church of Francis Johnson and Henry Ainsworth. Offput by the bickering between the two, though (which ultimately resulted in a division of the Church), the Pilgrims left Amsterdam and moved to Leiden, after only a year.

In Leiden, the group managed to make a living. Brewster taught English and later, in 1616-1619, printed and published religious books for sale in England though they were proscribed there, as the partner of one Thomas Brewer. In 1619, the printing type was seized by the authorities under pressure from the English ambassador Sir Dudley Carleton and Brewster's partner was arrested. Brewster escaped and, with the help of Robert Cushman, obtained a land patent from the London Virginia Company on behalf of himself and his colleagues.

In 1620 he joined the first group of Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower on the voyage to North America. When the colonists landed at Plymouth, Brewster became the senior elder of the colony, serving as its religious leader and as an adviser to Governor William Bradford.

As the only university educated member of the colony, Brewster took the part of the colony's religious leader until a pastor, Ralph Smith, arrived in 1629. Thereafter, he continued to preach irregularly until his death in April 1644.

Brewster was granted land amongst the islands of Boston Harbor, and four of the outer islands (Great Brewster, Little Brewster, Middle Brewster and Outer Brewster) now bear his name. In 1632 Brewster received lands in nearby Duxbury, and removed from Plymouth to create a farm in Duxbury.^[7]

Brewster died in 1644 and was likely buried in Plymouth, possibly upon Burial Hill; however his place of burial is unknown.^{[1][2][3][4][5][8]}

[edit] Children

Sometime before 1593, in England, William Brewster married someone by the name of Mary, whose maiden name and parentage have not yet been proven; it has been speculated that it could be either Wyrall or Wentworth, but there is no compelling evidence for either assumption.^{[1][2][3][4][5]} She was probably born in England circa 1568-1569. She 'dyed at Plymouth, Massachusetts on April 17, 1627.' (Brewster Book).* Bradford says that, though she died ' long before' her husband, 'yet she dyed aged,' but by her affidavit of 1609 she was less than sixty years of age and it is probable that her ' great & continuall labours, with others crosses, and sorrows, hastened it (t. a. old age) before y* time.'^[9]

The children of William and Mary were:

• Elder Jonathan Brewster (August 12, 1593 - August 7, 1659) married Lucretia Oldham of Derby on 10 April 1624,^{[4][10][11][12][13]} and were the parents of eight children:
• Patience Brewster (c. 1600 - December 12, 1634)^[4] married Gov. Thomas Prence of Lechlade, Gloucestershire, 4 children
• Fear Brewster (c. 1606 - before 1634)^[4] so called because she was born at the height of the Puritans' persecution. Married Isaac Allerton of London, 2 children.
• Unnamed child was born, died and buried in 1609 in Leiden, Holland.^[4]
• Love Brewster was born in Leiden, Holland about 1611 and died between October 6, 1650 and January 31, 1650/1, at Duxbury, Massachusetts.^[4][14][15] At the age of about 9, he traveled with his father, mother and brother, Wrestling, on the Mayflower to Plymouth, Massachusetts. He married Sarah Collier in Plymouth, Massachusetts on May 15, 1634. Love and Sarah were the parents of 4 children:
• Wrestling Brewster was born in 1614 in Leiden, Holland; was living in 1627, died unmarried before the 1644 settlement of his father's estate.^[4]

[edit] Places and things named after Brewster

• Great Brewster Island
• Little Brewster Island
• Middle Brewster Island
• Outer Brewster Island
• Brewster, Massachusetts
• Brewster Chair

[edit] Notable descendants

Elder Brewster's descendants number in the thousands today. Some of his notable descendants include;

• Isaac Allerton Jr.,^{[16][17][18][19][20][21][22]} the son of Mayflower Pilgrim Isaac Allerton and Fear Brewster and a grandson of Elder Brewster. He was a 1650 graduate of Harvard College and was a merchant in Colonial America; first in business with his father in New England, and after his father's death, in Virginia. He was a Burgess for Northumberland County and a Councillor of Virginia.
• Roger Nash Baldwin,^[23][24] was one of the founders of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
• Moses Yale Beach,^[25] was an American inventor and publisher who started the Associated Press.
• Nora Stanton Blatch Barney,^[26][27][28] a suffragist, and was the first American woman to earn a degree in civil engineering. She was a granddaughter of Henry Brewster Stanton and Elizabeth (Smith) Cady Stanton and wife of Lee De Forest, an American inventor.
• Harriot Eaton Stanton Blatch,^[26][27][28] was a notable American writer and suffragist and the daughter of pioneering women's rights activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Henry Brewster Stanton.
• Lindy Boggs, is a United States political figure who served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and later as ambassador to the Vatican. She was the first woman elected to Congress from Louisiana. She was also a permanent chairwoman of the 1976 Democratic National Convention^[29]
• Bishop Benjamin Brewster,^[30][31][32] was the Episcopal Bishop of Maine and Missionary Bishop of Western Colorado.
• Benjamin Brewster,^[33][34][35] was an American industrialist, financier, and one of the original trustees of Standard Oil.
• Benjamin Harris Brewster,^{[citation needed]} was an attorney and politician who served as United States Attorney General from 1881 - 1885.
• Daniel Baugh Brewster, was a Democratic member of the United States Senate, representing the State of Maryland from 1963 until 1969. He was also a member of the Maryland House of Delegates from 1950-1958, and a representative from the 2nd congressional district of Maryland in the United States House of Representatives from 1959-1963
• David Brewster,^[36][37] is an American journalist.
• Diane Brewster,^[38][39][40] was an American television actress.
• James Brewster,^[41][42][43] was an American coachbuilder, active from 1810-1937. He and his company were immortalized in Cole Porter's hit musical “Anything Goes”
• Janet Huntington Brewster,^[44][45] was an American philanthropist, writer, radio broadcaster and relief worker during World War II in London. She was the wife of Edward R. Murrow, an American broadcast journalist
• John Brewster, Jr.,^[46] a prolific, deaf itinerant painter who produced many charming portraits of much of Maine's elite society of his time, especially their children.
• Jordana Brewster,^[44][45][47] (born April 26, 1980) is an American actress, and granddaughter of Kingman Brewster, Jr.
• Kingman Brewster, Jr.,^{[44][45][48][49]} was an educator, president of Yale University, and American diplomat.
• Oliver Brewster^[50][51][52] (b. 1708), who was married to Martha Wadsworth Brewster, a notable 18th-century American poet and writer. She is one of only four colonial women who published volumes of their verse before the American Revolution and was the first American-born woman to publish under her own name.
• Ralph Owen Brewster, ^{[53][54][55][56]} was an American politician from Maine, who was a Republican member of the United States Senator from Maine from 1941 until 1952.
• Julia Child,^[57] American entrepreneur and chef of French and French-influenced cuisine
• Bob Crosby, ^[58]was an American dixieland bandleader and vocalist, best known for his group Crosby and the Bob-Cats.
• Harry Lillis Bing Crosby,^[58] was an American singer and actor.
• Edward Bridge “Ted” Danson III, is an American actor best known for his role as central character Sam Malone in the sitcom Cheers, and his role as Dr. John Becker on the series Becker.^[59]
• Charles Gates Dawes, was an American banker and politician who was the 30th Vice President of the United States. For his work on the Dawes Plan for World War I reparations he was a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He served in the First World War, was U.S. Comptroller of the Currency, the first director of the Bureau of the Budget, and, in later life, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom.
• Howard Brush Dean III,^[60] is an American politician and physician from the U.S. state of Vermont.

• Allen Welsh Dulles,^[61][62] was the first civilian and the longest serving (1953–61) Director of Central Intelligence (de facto head of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency) and a member of the Warren Commission.
• Avery Robert Dulles,^[61][62] was a Jesuit priest, theologian, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and served as the Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society at Fordham University from 1988 to 2008.^[63] He was an internationally known author and lecturer.
• John Foster Dulles,^[61][62] served as U.S. Secretary of State under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1959.
• Richard Gere,^[64] is an American actor.
• Katharine Hepburn,^[42][65][66] was an American actress of film, television and stage.
• Brewster Jennings,^[33][34][35] was a founder and president of the Socony-Vacuum company, which became, in 1955, the Standard Oil Company of New York (Socony), which would later become Mobil Oil, and then merged to become part of ExxonMobil.
• George Trumbull Ladd,^[67][68][69] was an American philosopher and psychologist.
• Oliver La Farge,^[70][71][72] was an American writer and anthropologist, best known for his 1930 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Laughing Boy.
• John Lithgow,^[73] American actor and philanthropist
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,^[74][75] was an American educator and poet
• Seth MacFarlane,^[76] is an American animator, composer, writer, producer, actor, voice actor, and creator of Family Guy
• George B. McClellan,^{[61][77][78][79]} Civil War general, Governor of New Jersey, Democratic opponent of Abraham Lincoln in the 1864 United States presidential election
• Jan Garrigue Masaryk,^[61][62] was a Czech diplomat and politician and Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia from 1940 to 1948.
• Samuel Eliot Morison, an Rear Admiral, United States Naval Reserve and an American historian, noted for producing works of maritime history that were both authoritative and highly readable. A sailor as well as a scholar, Morison garnered numerous honors, including two Pulitzer Prizes, two Bancroft Prizes, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
• Robert Noyce,^[36][37] nicknamed "the Mayor of Silicon Valley", was the inventor of the integrated circuit or microchip.
• Sarah Palin,^[80] is an American politician, author, speaker, and political commentator who served as the Governor of Alaska from 2006 until she resigned in 2009. She was the Republican nominee for Vice President of the United States in 2008.
• Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, ^[71][72]1785–1819) an officer in the US Navy. He served in the War of 1812 against Britain, and earned the title "Hero of Lake Erie."
• Matthew Calbraith Perry, ^[71][72](1794–1858) was the Commodore of the U.S. Navy who compelled the opening of Japan to the West with the Convention of Kanagawa in 1854.
• James Leonard Plimpton,^{[10][11][12][13][81][82]} an American inventor who is known for changing the skating world with his patented roller skates in 1863. He also opened some of the earliest roller skating rinks in New York City and Newport, Rhode Island.
• Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. (born May 8, 1937) is an American novelist based in New York City and noted for his dense and complex works of fiction. His best known novels are: V. (1963), The Crying of Lot 49 (1966), Gravity's Rainbow (1973), and Mason & Dixon (1997).^[83]
• William Blaine "Bill" Richardson III,^[84] is a Democratic politician and the current Governor of New Mexico.
• Cokie Roberts,^[85] is an American Emmy Award-winning journalist and bestselling author.
• John Davison "Jay" Rockefeller IV,^[86][87] has served as a Democratic U.S. Senator from West Virginia since 1985.
• Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller,^[86][87] was the 41st Vice President of the United States, the 49th governor of New York, a philanthropist, and a businessman.
• Brewster Hopkinson Shaw, Jr.,^[88] is a retired U.S. Air Force colonel and former NASA astronaut.
• Henry Brewster Stanton,^{[89][26][27][28]} was a 19th century abolitionist and social reformer. He was married to Elizabeth Cady Stanton, an American social activist, abolitionist, and leading figure of the early woman's movement.
• David Souter,^[90] is a former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
• Adlai Ewing Stevenson III,^[61][62] is an American politician of the Democratic Party. He represented the state of Illinois in the United States Senate from 1970 until 1981.
• Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr.,^[91] the publisher of The New York Times and chairman of the board of its owner, The New York Times Company.
• Zachary Taylor,^{[92][93][94][95][96]}was an American military leader and the 12th President of the United States.
• Sarah Knox Taylor,^[95][97] the daughter of General Zachary Taylor, later President of the United States, and the wife of Jefferson Davis President of the Confederate States of America.
• Henry Bradford Washburn, was an explorer, mountaineer, photographer, and cartographer. He established the Boston Museum of Science, served as its director from 1939-1980, and from 1985 until his death served as its Honorary Director (a lifetime appointment).
• Stuart Taylor Wood,^{[92][93][94][95]} CMG, served as the ninth Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, from March 6, 1938 to April 30, 1951.
• Sewall Green Wright,^{[98][42][99][100]} was an American geneticist known for his influential work on evolutionary theory.

[edit] References

• Burt, Daniel S. The Chronology of American Literature: America's Literary Achievements from the Colonial Era to Modern Times New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2004. ISBN 978-0618168217
• Cottrell, Robert C. Roger Nash Baldwin and the American Civil Liberties Union New York: Columbia University Press, 2000 ISBN 0231119720
• Fitch, Noel Riley. Appetite for Life: The Biography of Julia Child; New York: Doubleday, 1999.
• Giddins, Gary. Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams - The Early Years 1903 - 1940, Volume 1. Publisher Back Bay, 2002, ISBN 0316886459.
• Hughes, Thomas Patrick. American ancestry: giving the name and descent, in the male line, of Americans whose ancestors settled in the United States previous to the Declaration of independence, A.D. 1776, Volume 11; Publisher J. Munsell's sons, 1898
• Jones, Emma C. Brewster. The Brewster Genealogy, 1566-1907: a Record of the Descendants of William Brewster of the "Mayflower," ruling elder of the Pilgrim church which founded Plymouth Colony in 1620. New York: Grafton Press. 1908
• Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. Evangeline, a Tale of Acadie: Issue 40 of Sesame booklets; BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2008. ISBN 0554476029.
• Merrick, Barbara Lambert. William Brewster of the Mayflower and His Descendants for Four Generations Barbara Lambert Merrick, compiler, Published by General Society of Mayflower Descendants, Revised 3rd Edition. 2000.
• Newport Historical Society. Items of interest concerning Oliver Hazard Perry in Newport, and Newport in the War of 1812. Newport. Newport Historical Society, 1913
• Roberts, Gary Boyd. Genealogies of Connecticut Families: From the New England Historical and Genealogical Register Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1983. ISBN 9780806310305
• Steele, Ashbel. Chief of the Pilgrims: or, The life and time of William Brewster, ruling elder of the Pilgrim company that founded New Plymouth, the parent colony of New England, in 1620 J.B. Lippincott, 1857.
• Schmidt, Gary D. A Passionate Usefulness: The Life and Literary Labors of Hannah Adams. University of Virginia Press, 2004. ISBN 0813922720
• Roberts, Jeremy. Zachary Taylor: Presidential leaders ;Publisher Twenty-First Century Books, 2005. ISBN 0822513978
• Wright, R.W.Biographical record: Yale University. Class of 1842 R.W. Wright, compiler, Published by Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor, Printers, 1878

[edit] Notes

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Brewster, William.

[edit] Further reading

• The Brewster Genealogy, 1566-1907: a Record of the Descendants of William Brewster of the "Mayflower," ruling elder of the Pilgrim church which founded Plymouth Colony in 1620. by Emma C. Brewster Jones, New York: Grafton Press. 1908
• Life Visits the Mayflower Descendants New York: Published by Time, Inc., Nov 29, 1948. ISSN 0024-3019
• 'Brewster, William' in the American National Biography (2000) and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004).
• Mary B. Sherwood, Pilgrim: A Biography of William Brewster (1982)
• Richard Greaves and Robert Zaller, eds. Biographical Dictionary of British Radicals in the Seveneeth Century (1982)
• Dorothy Brewster, William Brewster of the Mayflower (1970)
• Barbara Lambert Merrick, compiler, William Brewster of the Mayflower and the Fifth Generation Descendants of his son Love². Mayflower Families in Progress. (2003)
• Dowsing, J. Places of the Pilgrim Fathers Sunrise Press, London.

[edit] External links

• The Elder William Brewster Society, A Pilgrim Lineage Society
• Society of Mayflower Descendants in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
• Genealogy of William Brewster
• Clara Endicott Sears A descendant of Elder William Brewster
• "Of Plymouth Plantation" by Gov. William Bradford

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.