BREWSTER, WILLIAM
(1560, Nottinghamshire, England-l0 April 1644, Plymouth, MA). Education: Matriculated, Peterhouse, Cambridge, England, but did not graduate. Career: Retainer to William Davison, ambassador to Holland, 1583-89; bailiff and postmaster, Scrooby, England, 1590-1608; printer, Leyden, Holland, 1609-19; church elder, Plymouth, New England, 1620-44.
Known to history as "Elder" Brewster, this Pilgrim exhibits in his career the importance in early Congregational history of learned and pious lay men and women. Brewster was born to a well-to-do English family and served for a time as secretary to William Davison, English Ambassador to Holland. With the death of his father in 1590 he became postmaster and bailiff of Scrooby, where he might have lived out a quiet life, esteemed by his neighbors, except that he was attracted to Puritanism.
Under James I, ministers whom Brewster admired were removed from office for their Puritan leanings. In support of their faith, Brewster hosted separatist meetings of like-minded Puritans, including William Bradford·, at his house. These dissenters feared oppression from the authorities and emigrated in 1608 to Holland, where Brewster supported himself as a printer and became ruling elder of a Puritan congregation. In 1619 he was one of the leaders of Pilgrim efforts to gain a charter for settlement in New England.
During the first winter in New England Brewster is credited with being one of the hardiest and most helpful of the settlers. John Robinson·, the Pilgrim pastor, did not immigrate from Holland. So Brewster was left as religious leader of the community. Lacking -formal training and ordination in the ministry, he "could not administer the sacraments, but he served in other ways as pastor. (The Pilgrims did not have a regular minister until 1629.) The fact that they survived religiously for almost a decade with lessons and prayer, but no sacraments, is an indication of the emphasis placed by early Congregationalists on preaching. The essence of religion was the word; lacking a regular minister, the Pilgrims were content to serve their God under the direction of Elder Brewster.
Bibliography
B: DARB. 65-66; SH 2. 264; NCAB 7. 30-31; DAB 3.29-30; Ashbel Steele, Chief of the Pilgrims: The Life and Time of William Brewster (Philadelphia. 1857); Dorothy Brewster, William Brewster of the Mayflower: Portrait of a Pilgrim (New York, 1971).
Known to history as "Elder" Brewster, this Pilgrim exhibits in his career the importance in early Congregational history of learned and pious lay men and women. Brewster was born to a well-to-do English family and served for a time as secretary to William Davison, English Ambassador to Holland. With the death of his father in 1590 he became postmaster and bailiff of Scrooby, where he might have lived out a quiet life, esteemed by his neighbors, except that he was attracted to Puritanism.
Under James I, ministers whom Brewster admired were removed from office for their Puritan leanings. In support of their faith, Brewster hosted separatist meetings of like-minded Puritans, including William Bradford·, at his house. These dissenters feared oppression from the authorities and emigrated in 1608 to Holland, where Brewster supported himself as a printer and became ruling elder of a Puritan congregation. In 1619 he was one of the leaders of Pilgrim efforts to gain a charter for settlement in New England.
During the first winter in New England Brewster is credited with being one of the hardiest and most helpful of the settlers. John Robinson·, the Pilgrim pastor, did not immigrate from Holland. So Brewster was left as religious leader of the community. Lacking -formal training and ordination in the ministry, he "could not administer the sacraments, but he served in other ways as pastor. (The Pilgrims did not have a regular minister until 1629.) The fact that they survived religiously for almost a decade with lessons and prayer, but no sacraments, is an indication of the emphasis placed by early Congregationalists on preaching. The essence of religion was the word; lacking a regular minister, the Pilgrims were content to serve their God under the direction of Elder Brewster.
Bibliography
B: DARB. 65-66; SH 2. 264; NCAB 7. 30-31; DAB 3.29-30; Ashbel Steele, Chief of the Pilgrims: The Life and Time of William Brewster (Philadelphia. 1857); Dorothy Brewster, William Brewster of the Mayflower: Portrait of a Pilgrim (New York, 1971).