William Brewster

William Brewster was born about 1566 in or near Scrooby, Nottinghamshire, England; Pilgrim Hall Museum’s profile places his birth probably between 1560 and 1566 and records that his father was postmaster at Scrooby.⁠[1]

The family profile of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants places his birth between June 1566 and June 1567 and names his parents as William Brewster and Mary (Smith) (Simkinson) Brewster; on January 4, 1575, the Archbishop of York appointed his father receiver and bailiff of Scrooby Manor.⁠[2]

BritannicaEncyclopædia BritannicaEncyclopædia Britannica is a general English-language encyclopedia first published in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1768; the name also refers to its publisher, Chicago-based Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. (which presents itself as The Britannica Group). The print edition ended in 2012, and the company’s main businesses since then have been the online encyclopedia Britannica.com, digital education products for schools and libraries, and Merriam-Webster dictionaries.Open the full entry’s article gives his year of birth as 1567.⁠[3]

On December 3, 1580, at about the age of fourteen, William Brewster entered Peterhouse at Cambridge UniversityUniversity of CambridgeThe University of Cambridge is a university in Cambridge, England, United Kingdom. It gives 1209 as its founding date, is made up of Schools, Faculties, Departments and autonomous Colleges, and is a member of the Russell Group.Open the full entry; he did not take a degree.⁠[2][4]

Britannica’s article holds that he acquired his first Separatist ideas during his short time at Peterhouse.⁠[3]

After Cambridge he served as an assistant to William Davison, one of Queen Elizabeth I’s secretaries of state, and accompanied him on a diplomatic mission to Holland. William Davison fell from favor after the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots.⁠[1]

Britannica’s article dates his appointment as William Davison’s personal secretary to 1583; the profile of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants gives 1585 and adds that the Netherlands was then at war with Spain.⁠[3][2]

The Commonwealth Museum’s exhibit text relates that he stayed loyal to William Davison, believing him unfairly blamed, and suggests that this may have been a turning point in his life.⁠[5]

Britannica’s article states that disillusionment with diplomatic and court life and his father’s illness brought him back to Scrooby in 1589; the profile of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants has him back at Scrooby Manor by 1588.⁠[3][2]

Having earlier helped his father in the office, he was postmaster at Scrooby from 1590 until September 1607, responsible for the relays of horses on the post road.⁠[3]

He married Mary by 1593; their eldest son, Jonathan, was born at Scrooby on August 12, 1593.⁠[4]

From about 1602 neighbors began to worship at his home, the manor house, and in 1606 he joined them in organizing the Separatist church of Scrooby.⁠[3]

He worked with radical ministers such as Richard Clyfton to form the congregation and opened his home as a refuge and place of worship for like-minded recusants; the congregation became the nucleus of the Pilgrim church.⁠[1]

In 1607 he was discovered; he resigned as postmaster, collected his salary and left Scrooby, and he and others were summoned to court for religious disobedience.⁠[2]

The community’s first attempt to emigrate to Holland, in 1607, failed, and he and several others were jailed briefly.⁠[1]

After his release he emigrated successfully in 1608, going first to Amsterdam, and settled in Leiden in 1609. In Holland he became the congregation’s Elder, responsible for guiding and encouraging its members and at times for disciplining them. To support his family he taught English at the University of Leiden.⁠[1]

Britannica’s article states that he and John Robinson led the migration of 1608 and that at Leiden he was chosen “ruling elder” of the congregation.⁠[3]

On June 20, 1609, a child of his whose name is not recorded was buried at St. Pancras in Leiden.⁠[4]

Toward the end of the stay in Leiden, William Brewster prepared books for publication with the help of Edward WinslowEdward WinslowEdward Winslow (1595–1655) was a Mayflower passenger and one of the founders of Plymouth Colony, where he served three times as governor, handled the colony’s dealings with the Wampanoag leader Massasoit and repeatedly went to England as its agent. In his last years he served in Oliver Cromwell’s government, and he died on an expedition to the West Indies.Open the full entry, an experienced printer, and John Reynolds, and with the support of Thomas Brewer, an English religious exile and neighbor of John Robinson. From 1617 to 1619 the press printed and distributed controversial religious books, which were banned in England and therefore smuggled in. Several bear a “Brewster bear” device and are known as Brewster imprints or products of the “Pilgrim Press.”⁠[6]

He printed two books by David Calderwood that directly criticized King James I of England, and the English ambassador to Holland instigated a search for him and his press. He went into hiding; the authorities searched his house in Leiden and seized his printing type.⁠[6]

Britannica’s article dates the seizure to 1619: the authorities of the University of Leiden, acting at the request of the British ambassador, Sir Dudley Carleton, seized the type and arrested Thomas Brewer, while William Brewster escaped.⁠[3]

The Dutch authorities issued warrants for both men, but only Thomas Brewer was found, and he was sent back to England for trial.⁠[2]

In 1619, in London, he and Robert Cushman obtained a land patent from the Virginia Company on behalf of their associates.⁠[3]

When the congregation decided to move to North America, Pastor John Robinson stayed in Leiden with most of its members. In 1620 William Brewster sailed for Plymouth on the Mayflower with his wife, Mary, and his two youngest sons, Love and Wrestling.⁠[1]

Three other children, Jonathan, Patience and Fear, stayed in Holland. On November 11, 1620, Old Style (November 21, New Style), while the ship lay at anchor at Provincetown, he signed the Mayflower Compact.⁠[2][7]

Britannica’s article calls him the only university-trained member of the Plymouth community.⁠[3]

In the list of house lots first laid out in 1620, his lot lay on the south side of the street, next to that of John Goodman.⁠[4]

With no ordained minister present, he became the religious leader of Plymouth Colony; the Plymouth church had no regular minister until the 1630s.⁠[1][8]

As lay leader he preached to the congregation regularly. During the controversy over John Lyford, William BradfordWilliam BradfordWilliam Bradford (1590–1657) was a Mayflower passenger and the second and longest-serving governor of Plymouth Colony; his manuscript Of Plymouth Plantation is the most complete account of the Pilgrims and the colony’s early years.Open the full entry wrote that “our reverend Elder hath labored diligently in dispensing the Word of God to us.”⁠[4]

Britannica’s article holds that as senior elder he dominated the doctrines, worship and practices of the church; he was not a magistrate, but his close association with Governor William Bradford gave him a major part in civil as well as religious affairs.⁠[3]

Jonathan arrived on the Fortune in 1621, and Patience and Fear on the Anne in 1623. John Robinson died without being able to join the congregation at Plymouth.⁠[1][1]

In the division of land in 1623 he received six acres as a Mayflower passenger.⁠[4]

His wife, Mary, died at Plymouth on April 17, 1627.⁠[4]

In the division of cattle in 1627 he, Love and Wrestling were the first names in the fifth company, which also included Jonathan, Jonathan’s wife Lucretia and the grandchildren William and Mary.⁠[4][2]

In 1627 twelve “Undertakers,” eight from Plymouth and four from London, agreed to pay the colony’s debts in return for trade benefits; William Brewster was one of the eight from Plymouth, with William Bradford, John Howland, Myles StandishMyles StandishMyles Standish (c. 1584–1656) was a Mayflower passenger and the military leader of Plymouth Colony; a former soldier in Holland, he later helped found Duxbury and served many times as an Assistant to the governor.Open the full entry, Isaac Allerton, Edward Winslow, John Alden and Thomas Prence.⁠[9]

He appears in the 1633 list of Plymouth freemen and was assessed 1 pound 7 shillings in the tax lists of March 25, 1633, and March 27, 1634.⁠[4]

He was granted land in Duxbury on the Nook, a small peninsula in the southern part of the town, near Myles Standish’s farm. Francis Eaton sold him half of the eighty acres on the Nook that he had been granted in 1627, and Richard More, who had lived in his household, later received from him a twenty-acre parcel that included Eagle’s Nest Point.⁠[10]

Three of his children settled in Duxbury: Jonathan, Love and Patience; Love, after his marriage, lived on his father’s grant on the Nook.⁠[10]

After his move to Duxbury he continued to preach as before.⁠[4]

William Brewster died at Duxbury on April 10, 1644. William Bradford, writing in 1651, put his age at death at about eighty; Pilgrim Hall Museum’s profile gives it as 78.⁠[4][1]

William Bradford called his death a “mater of great sadness and mourning to them all.”⁠[2]

He left no will. The inventory of his estate, taken on May 18, 1644, came to 150 pounds and 7 pence, with no real estate included, and on June 5, 1644, administration was granted to Jonathan and Love.⁠[4]

The inventory lists his Latin and English books separately, nearly 400 titles in all, valued together at a little over 42 pounds 19 shillings; one entry, “7 sermons by W B,” may be his own sermon notes.⁠[4]

On August 20, 1645, Jonathan and Love, assisted by William Bradford, Edward Winslow, Thomas Prence and Myles Standish, agreed on a division of the estate: Jonathan, as firstborn, received his father’s arms and a two-year-old heifer, and Love his father’s dwelling house; of the land at Duxbury, Jonathan received sixty-eight acres with a house he had built with his father’s leave, and Love forty-three acres.⁠[4]

William Brewster and Mary had six children: Jonathan, Patience, Fear, Love, a child who died young and whose name is not recorded, and Wrestling.⁠[1]

Mary’s maiden name is unknown; the two identifications proposed in turn by John G. Hunt, Mary Wentworth and Mary Wyrrall, have not been accepted.⁠[4]

Jonathan married Lucretia Oldham at Plymouth on April 10, 1624, and died at New London, ConnecticutConnecticutConnecticut is a U.S. state in the New England region. Its capital is Hartford and its largest city is Bridgeport (2010 census). It entered the Union on January 9, 1788, as the 5th state, and had a population of 3,605,944 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry, on August 7, 1659. Patience, born about 1603, married Thomas Prence at Plymouth on August 5, 1624, and died at Plymouth in the epidemic of 1633. Fear, born about 1605, married the Mayflower passenger Isaac Allerton at Plymouth about 1626 and died at Plymouth about 1633.⁠[2]

Love, born about 1607, married Sarah Collier, daughter of William Collier, at Plymouth on May 15, 1634, and died, probably at Duxbury, between October 6, 1650, and January 31, 1650/1. Wrestling, born about 1611, died unmarried after 1627 and before 1651.⁠[2][4]

None of his own writings survive. Pilgrim Hall Museum’s profile holds that the inventory of his estate reflects his scholarship, love of learning and spirituality.⁠[1]

A chest that descended in the Brewster family is made of Norway pine and iron, 30 inches high, 50½ inches wide and 19 inches deep, and was probably made in Holland in the early seventeenth century; William Brewster is believed to have brought it from Holland to England on the Speedwell and to America on the Mayflower in 1620.⁠[2]

In 1937 the Duxbury Tercentenary Committee placed a marker on Marshall Street in Duxbury pointing to the site of his homestead, which the inscription describes as marked by “lilacs brought from Holland.”⁠[11]

The exhibit text of the Duxbury Rural & Historical Society relates that the lilacs at the homesite are said to have come over on the Mayflower; the exhibit includes objects found in an archaeological dig at the homesite.⁠[10]

William Bradford described him as “tenderhearted and compassionate of such as were in misery.” The Commonwealth Museum’s exhibit text judges that he gave up a privileged life for a small house in Plymouth and a reputation for warmth and integrity; the exhibit shows him as portrayed by an actor and notes that no accurate images from the period exist.⁠[5]

Britannica’s article calls him the real leader of the Plymouth church.⁠[3]

Pilgrim Hall Museum: Official website: https://www.pilgrimhall.org/ (opens in a new window).⁠[12]

General Society of Mayflower Descendants: Official website: https://themayflowersociety.org/ (opens in a new window).⁠[13]

Duxbury Rural & Historical Society: Official website: https://duxburyhistory.org/ (opens in a new window).⁠[14]