BORN: About 1566/vicinity of Scrooby, Nottinghamshire, England
DIED: April 10, 1644/Plymouth Colony

William Brewster was born at Scrooby, Nottinghamshire, England, probably between 1560 and 1566. His father held the office of postmaster at Scrooby. As a young man, Brewster attended Cambridge University but did not graduate. He then served as an assistant to William Davison, one of Queen Elizabeth I’s secretaries of state, accompanying him on a diplomatic mission to Holland. After Davison fell from favor (due to the execution of Mary Queen of Scots), Brewster returned to Scrooby and succeeded his father as postmaster.

William Brewster was one of the original members of the religious Separatist congregation at Scrooby that became the nucleus of the Pilgrim church. Along with radical ministers such as Richard Clyfton, Brewster was crucial in the movement to create the congregation, opening his home as a place of refuge and worship for like-minded recusants. Eventually their meetings were discovered, forcing them to flee to the more tolerant Netherlands.

The community first attempt to emigrate to Holland in 1607 failed, and Brewster and several others were jailed for a short time. He was released and successfully emigrated in 1608, first to Amsterdam, then settling in Leiden in 1609.

In Holland, Brewster became the congregation’s Elder – a person recognized for wisdom and authority, and responsible for the carriage, encouragement, and 

sometimes discipline of the congregation.  To support his family, he taught English at the University of Leiden and with Edward Winslow and Thomas Brewer began a printing press, publishing religious books and tracts that were sometimes illegally smuggled into England. By 1618 the English had discovered the source of these pamphlets and with the cooperation of Dutch authorities, the press was seized. Thomas Brewer was arrested and imprisoned but Brewster escaped and went into hiding.  Learn more about the “Pilgrim Press.”

When the congregation determined to move to a colony in North America, it was decided that Pastor John Robinson would remain with the majority of the members in Leiden. In 1620, Elder Brewster voyaged to Plymouth with his wife, Mary and youngest two children, Love and Wrestling. In the absence of an ordained minister, he became the much-loved and respected religious leader of Plymouth Colony.

William and Mary Brewster had six children: Jonathan, Patience, Fear, Love, an unnamed child who died young, and Wrestling. Love and Wrestling Brewster arrived in Plymouth with their parents on the Mayflower. Jonathan Brewster followed over on the Fortune in 1621, and the Brewster girls, Fear and Patience, joined the family in Plymouth in 1623, arriving on the ship Anne. Mary Brewster died a few years after the family was reunited in Plymouth.

Brewster continued in his position as church elder throughout the rest of his life in early Plymouth. John Robinson died before being able to follow the congregation there. None of Brewster’s own writings survive but he left behind a library of hundreds of titles, many religious. He passed away in 1644 at the age of 78.

William Brewster died without a will. However, the inventory of his estate attests to his scholarship, his deep love of learning and his spirituality.