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Elder William Brewster (1567 - 1644), was a Pilgrim colonist leader and preacher who came from Scrooby, in north Nottinghamshire and 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.
Origins
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 fifteen years from around 1580. With this post went that of postmaster, which was a more important one than it might have been in another village, which had not been situated on the Great North Road as Scrooby then was.
William junior studied briefly at Peterhouse, Cambridge before entering the service of William Davidson in 1584. In 1585, Davidson went to the Netherlands as an ambassador to the States-General. In 1586 he was appointed assistant to Queen Elizabeth's Secretary of State until Davidson lost the queen's favour in 1587.
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. By the 1590s, Brewster's brother, James, was a rather rebellious Anglican priest, vicar of the parish of Sutton and 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.
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, the group was arrested at Scotia Creek, in 1607 but Brewster and others left from The Humber in 1608. In 1609, he was selected as ruling elder of the congregation.
In Leiden, the group managed to make a living. Brewster taught English and later, printed and published religious books for sale in England, though they were proscribed there. In 1619, the printing type was seized by the authorities under pressure from the English ambassador 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 advisor 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 until his death in April 1644.
Descendants
There are many notable descendants of William Brewster including William Howard Taft, Zachary Taylor, Roger Nash Baldwin,Katharine Hepburn, [Robert E. Berwster], [Sarah Cochrane], [John P. Brewster], and [Robert C. Brewster].
