The BREWSTER Family of Bentley cum Arksey, Yorkshire, Scrooby, Nottinghamshire, Leiden, South Holland,
the Netherlands
and Plymouth, Plymouth, MA

 

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WILLIAM BREWSTER 1 of Bentley cum Arksey m. Maude Man
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WILLIAM BREWSTER 2 (d. 1590) of Scrooby m. Mary Smythe
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ELDER WILLIAM BREWSTER 3 (d. 1664) of Scrooby, Leiden and Plymouth m. Mary Unknown
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JONATHAN BREWSTER (1593 - 1659) m. Lucretia Oldham
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PATIENCE BREWSTER (d. 1634) m. Gov. Thomas Prence

 
MARY BREWSTER (m. 1645), wife of John Turner
   


Generation 1

WILLIAM BREWSTER 1 OF Bentley cum Arksey

Parents: Unknown

William married Maude, the sister of Christopher Man. [Ref]

He was taxed in 1524 at Bently cum Arksey. [Ref]

Children of William Brewster and Maude Man:

  1. William Brewster 2 died in 1590. He married Mary (Smythe) Simkinson.
  2. Henry Brewster was vicar at Sutton on Lound, Nottinghamshire. [Ref] He married Agnes Unknown. [Ref] She was buried on 15 Mar 1597/8 in Sutton on Lound. [Ref]

Generation 2

WILLIAM BREWSTER 2 (d. 1590) of Scrooby

Parents: William Brewster 1 and Maude Man [Ref]

William died in 1590. [Ref] He married first Mary, the daughter of William Smythe of Stainforth, Hatfield, sister of John Smyth, alderman of Hull and widow of John Simkinson of Doncaster. [Ref] He married second Prudence, who may have been Prudence Perkins or the widow of a man named Perkins. [Ref]

He was probably the William Brewster who, along with Thomas and John Simkinson of Doncaster, witnessed the will of his supposed uncle Christopher Man.

Children of William Brewster and Mary Smythe:

  1. William Brewster 3 was born about 1566/7, probably in Scrooby, Nottingham, England. He died in Apr 1664. He married Mary Unknown.

Children of William Brewster and Prudence Unknown:

  1. James Brewster died in 1613. [Ref] He matriculated at Cambridge in 1582 and succeeded his uncle Henry as vicar at Sutton on Lound. [Ref]
  2. Prudence Brewster possibly married Robert Peck of Everton, Nottinghamshire. [Ref] Their children Robert and Anne were the wards of their supposed uncle William. [Ref]
  3. John Brewster. [Ref]

Generation 3

ELDER WILLIAM BREWSTER (d. 1664) of Scrooby, Leiden and Plymouth

Parents: William Brewster 2 and Mary (Smythe) Simkinson [Ref]

William Brewster was born about 1566/7 [Ref] probably in Scrooby. He died in Apr 1664. [Ref] He married Mary Unknown. She died on 17 Apr 1627 in Plymouth. [Ref] It is not known who Mary was; see the Great Migration Project for a discussion. [Ref]

Letters of Adminstration on his estate were granted to his sons Jonathan and Love on 5 Jun 1644. [Ref] His estate amounted to £150.0.07, including £42.19.11 of English and Latin books. He possessed 63 volumes in Latin and between three and four hundred volumes in English.[Ref]

William entered Peterhouse College, Cambridge, on 3 Dec 1580, but did not graduate. [Ref]

As a young man, William served as assistant to Queen Elizabeth's secretary of state William Davison. [Ref] When Davison was made scapegoat and imprisoned for the execution of Mary Quen of Scots, William returned home to Scrooby. [Ref]

William succeeded his father as postmaster in Scrooby, a tiny town near Austerfield - where William Bradford was born - in northern Nottinghamshire. [Ref] The Scrooby Separatists met at William's house. [Ref] He went to Leiden with the Separatists and established a printing press there which he ran with the assistance of Edward Winslow. [Ref] In 1618 Brewster and Winslow published a religious tract criticising King James and his bishops. [Ref] The King sent his agents to Leiden to arrest them and William was forced into hiding. [Ref]

William and Mary sailed on the Mayflower. [Ref] He was the religious leader of Plymouth Colony.

William Brewster received six lots on the south side of the brook to baywords in the 1623 Plymouth cattle division. [Ref] William, his wife Mary, and his children Love and Wrestling were in lot five of the 22 May 1627 Plymouth cattle division. [Ref]

The relations between the Plymouth colonists and the Adventurers became fraught as the colonists indebtedness to the Adventurers grew. In 1627 eight leading men of Plymouth joined four Adventurers in London in undertaking responsibility for the repayment of the entire debt in return for certain monopolies granted to them by other colonists. These eight men, who along with the four Adventurers called Undertakers, included William Brewster, Edward Winslow, Miles Standish, William Bradford, John Howland, John Alden, Isaac Allerton and Thomas Prence. [Ref]

On 2 Jan 1632/3 and on 2 Jan 1633/4 the General Court asked the colonists to pay taxes, in grain or the equivalent. [Ref][Ref] William was assessed relatively high taxes in both years. [Ref]

In his will, dated 30 Jul 1633, Samuel Fuller the Elder left Mr William Brewster 'my best hat and band, wch I never wore.' [Ref]

He is in the Duxbury section of the 1643 list of those between 16 and 60 able to bear arms in Plymouth Colony. [Ref]

Children of William Brewster and Mary Unknown:

  1. Jonathan Brewster was born on 12 Aug 1593 in Scrooby. He died on 7 Aug 1659 in New London. He married Lucretia Oldham.
  2. Patience Brewster was born about 1600 probably in Scrooby. She died in 1634 in Plymouth. She married Thomas Prence.
  3. Fear Brewster was born about 1606 probably in Scrooby. She died before 12 Dec 1634 in Plymouth. She married Isaac Allerton after 10 Jul 1623 in Plymouth. She, along with her sister Patience, may have died of influenza or small pox, both of which ravaged the Indians and English in 1634. [Ref] She came to Plymouth in 1623 on the Ann. [Ref] She married Isaac Allerton, the brother of Sarah Allerton, about 1626. [Ref]
  4. Child Brewster was born probably about 1609 in Leiden and died there on 20 Jun 1609. [Ref]
  5. Love Brewster was born about 1611 probably in Leiden. He died between 6 Oct 1650, when his will was dated [Ref] and Jan 1650/1. He married Sarah Collier on 15 May 1634 in Plymouth. [Ref] He mentions his wife Sarah in his will. [Ref] He left 30 books. [Ref]
    He is in the Duxbury section of the 1643 list of those between 16 and 60 able to bear arms in Plymouth Colony. [Ref]
  6. Wrestling Brewster was born about 1614 probably in Leiden. He died before 1644.

Generation 4

JONATHAN BREWSTER (1593 - 1659)

Parents: Elder William Brewster 3 and Mary Unknown

Jonathan Brewster was born on 12 Aug 1593 in Scrooby. [Ref] He died on 7 Aug 1659 in New London. He married Lucretia Oldham on 10 Apr 1624 in Plymouth. [Ref] Lucretia was baptised on 14 Jan 1601 at All Saints, Derby, Derbyshire. [Ref] She died in Mar 1679. [Ref]

Jonathan Brewster was a ribbon weaver. [Ref] He arrived in New England in Nov 1921 on the Fortune. [Ref] He received a lot of land beyond the fort to the wood to the west in the 1623 Plymouth land division. [Ref] Jonathan and Lucretia were in lot five of the 22 May 1627 Plymouth cattle division. [Ref] On 2 Jan 1632/3 the General Court appointed Jonathan to a committee to assess taxes on the colonists, payable in grain or the equivalent. [Ref][Ref] He was assessed relatively high taxes both that year and the next. [Ref] He is in the Duxbury section of the 1643 list of those between 16 and 60 able to bear arms in Plymouth Colony. [Ref] Jonathan Brewster, Military Commissioner of Duxbury, was a soldier in the Pequot War of 1637-8. [Ref] He is in the Duxbury section of the 1643 list of those between 16 and 60 able to bear arms in Plymouth Colony. [Ref]

Children of Jonathan Brewster:

  1. Mary Brewster married John Turner.
  2. Benjamin Brewster died on 10 Sep 1710. [Ref] He married Anne Dart [Ref, p. 45] in Feb 1659. [Ref]
    some descendants of Benjamin Brewster
  3. Ruth Brewster married Jonathan Pickett. [Ref, p. 421] She died on 30 Apr 1677 in New London. [Ref, w. Charles] She married first John Pickett. [Ref, p. 421] She married second Charles Hill, the son of George of Derby in Derbyshire, England, on 16 Jul 1668 in New London. [Ref, wid. John Pickett]
    some descendants of Ruth Brewster

PATIENCE BREWSTER (d. 1634)

Parents: Elder William Brewster 3 and Mary Unknown

Patience Brewster was born about 1600, probably in Scrooby. She died in 1634 in Plymouth. [Ref] She married Gov. Thomas Prence in Aug 1624 in Plymouth. She came to Plymouth in 1623 on the Ann. [Ref]

Both small pox and influenza ravaged the Indians and the English in 1634. [Ref]

Generation 5

MARY BREWSTER (m. 1645)

Parents: Jonathan Brewster and Lucretia Oldham

Mary Brewster married John Turner on 10 or 12 Nov 1645. [Ref]

References

Anderson, Robert Charles, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633, Vol. 1-3, Boston, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995.

Ballou, Hosea Starr, "Dr. Thomas Starr, Surgeon in the Pequot War and his Family Connection," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 89, 1935, 172- .

Court Records, Laws and 17th Century Texts, Plymouth Colony Archive Project, http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/users/deetz.

Cushman, Henry, "Memoir of Isaac Allerton," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 8, 1854, 265.

Cutter, William Richard, Genealogical and Family History of the State of Connecticut: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Founding of a Nation, New York: Lewis Publishing co., 1911.

Davis, Albert Henry, History of the Davis Family, New York, T. A. Wright, 1888.

Dexter, Henry, "The True Date of Elder Brewster's Death," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 18, 1864, 18.

Editors, "Items from the City Records at Leyden," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 15, 1861, 30 - 32.

Hamlin, David, "First Settlers of Eastham, Mass.," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 6, 1852, 41-46, 167-170, 234-.

Hunt, John G., "The Mother of Elder William Brewster of the Mayflower," in Gary Boyd Roberts, ed., English Origins of New England Families, Second Series, v. I., selected from the NEHGR, Baltimore, Genealogical Publishing Co., 1985.

Philbrick, Nathaniel, Mayflower, Viking, New York, 2006.

Shurtleff, Nathaniel B., "List of Those Able to Bear Arms in the Colony of New Plymouth 1643," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 4, 1850, 255-259.

Shurtleff, Nathaniel B., "Plymouth Colony Rates," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 4, 1850 252-3.

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

Whittemore, Henry, Genealogical Guide to the Early Settlers of America, Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, 1967. Online: Ancestry.com.

Winsor, Justin, "Abstract of the Earliest Wills in the Probate Office, Plymouth," New England Historical and Genealogical Register, various issues.