William Brewster, A Pilgrim

            

My ancestor, William Brewster. A Christian, a husband, a father, and a leader of the Pilgrims. This is part of his biography.

He was married to Mary (m. ca 1592) and together they had six children: Jonathan, Patience, Fear, an unnamed child that died young, Love, and Wrestling. He died at Plymouth, MA on April 10, 1644.

According to Caleb Johnson's Mayflower History:

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 was removed as Secretary of State by Queen Elizabeth, Brewster worked himself into his father's postmaster duties and maintained Scrooby Manor. Brewster was instrumental in establishing a 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 moved 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, Edward Winslow, and others, began working a printing press and publishing religious books and pamphlets that 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.

End quote.

~Mayflower History   See also Pilgrim Hall

The Leiden church congregation decided to send a group of settlers to establish a colony to which others could eventually move to. Their pastor, John Robinson decided to stay behind with his flock, but they decided another leader, William Brewster ought to go with the group to the new colony. Brewster went and took Mary and Jonathan and his two youngest children, Love and Wrestling (Patience and Fear came later on the Ship Ann; Fear later married fellow Pilgrim, Isaac Allerton).  Brewster faithfully continued his work as a church elder for the rest of his life at Plymouth, MA. He died at 80 years gold. Of his worldly goods listed, a couple of chairs and several hundred books he owned were recorded. Below is a photo of one of the chairs as well as his chest.

    

Photos from Pilgrim Hall Museum

"Towards the end of the Pilgrims’ stay in Leiden, William Brewster operated a printing press. Between 1617 and 1619, this press, known informally today as the "Pilgrim press," printed and distributed controversial religious books. These books were banned by English law and had to be smuggled into the country."

 ~ Pilgrim Hall

Here is the "Brewster Bear" publishing imprint:

  

(Photo: wikipedia)

You can see Brewster's signature, although the Brewster Bear isn't used in this publication. Two Scriptural passages that speak to my heart because they reflect the grieved heart of those who aren't heeding biblical Truth.

"A Treaty of the Ministry of the Church of England" sub-title reads:

Wherein is Handled this Question, Whether it be to be Separated from Or Joyned Unto, which is Discussed in Two Letters, the One Writted for It, the Other Against It. : Whereunto is Annexed, After the Preface a Brief Declaration of the Ordinary Officers of the Church of Christ, and a Few Positions. : Also in the End of the Treatise, Some Notes Touching the Lordes Prayer, Seven Questions. : A Table of Some Principal Thinges Conteyned in this Treatise ... ~Source

Brewster was a Separatist: he separated from the Church of England because it was not biblical.

It was also noted about William Brewster:

""Mr. Allerton had married the daughter of their Reverend Elder, Mr. Brewster, a man beloved and honoured amongst them and who took great pains in teaching and dispensing the Word of God  unto them, whom they were loath to grieve or any way offend..." 

(William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation 1620-1647, ed. ;Samuel Eliot Morison (New York: Knopf, 1991), p. 218.)

~Pilgrim Hall Museum