Material: Fraxinus Americana (American white ash)
Made in Plymouth Colony, 1630-1670
Descended in the Brewster family

Pilgrim Hall has had this chair since the early 1830s when it was donated by the Brewster family of Duxbury.

It is believed to have belonged to William Brewster (c1566-1643), who was the spiritual leader of the colony and one of its most educated members.

At the time of his death, Elder Brewster had one chair worth 4 shillings, and another worth 1 shilling.

While the inventory does not describe the most expensive chair, the value of 4 shillings is comparable to the value of the two “great wooden chairs” mentioned in William Bradford’s inventory, worth an average of 4 shillings.

Along with the very similar Bradford chair, this chair is one of the earliest chairs made in America. We know the Brewster chair was made here rather than in England because the species of ash is native to America.

The Brewster Chair and the Bradford Chair are related to other turned chairs with board seats found in Boston and Charlestown. As chairs are seldom signed, researchers have to make an educated guess as to who made them. Researchers examine documents, including probate inventories, to see who was a woodworker. Then they match the woodworkers and where they lived to the chairs and where they were found. Researchers identified a craftsman named John Eddy (1595-1684) who came to Plymouth from Kent in 1630 and soon moved to Watertown, west of Boston. The places Eddy worked correspond to the location of this group of chairs.