Mary Brewster
Sex: F
Individual Information
Birth: 24 Feb 1679 - Kingston, Plymouth Colony
Baptism:
Death: 17 Apr 1761 - Kingston, Massachusetts
Burial: in Kingston Ancient Burial Ground, Kingston
Cause of Death:
Parents
Father: Wrestling Brewster (Cir 1642-1696)
Mother: Mary Holland (1661-1742)
Spouses and Children
1. *Joseph Holmes (9 Jul 1665 - 26 Jun 1733)
Marriage: Cir 1696
Status:
Nathaniel Brewster
Sex: M
Individual Information
Birth: Cir 1639 - Plymouth, Plymouth Colony
Baptism:
Death:
Burial:
Cause of Death:
Parents
Father: Love Brewster (Abt 1607-1650) 1
Mother: Sarah Collier (1616-1691)
Patience Brewster
Sex: F
Individual Information
Birth: 1600-1603 - Scrooby, Nottingham
Baptism:
Death: Bef 12 Dec 1634 - Plymouth, Plymouth Colony
Burial: in Burial Hill, Plymouth
Cause of Death:
Parents
Father: Elder William Brewster (1566-1644) 2
Mother: Mary (Abt 1569-1627)
Spouses and Children
1. *Gov. Thomas Prence (1600 - 29 Mar 1673)
Marriage: 5 Aug 1624 - Plymouth, Plymouth Colony 2
Status:
Children:
1. Thomas Prence (Bef 1627- )
2. Rebecca Prence (1627-Bef 1651) 3
3. Hannah Prence (1628-Bef 1698) 4
4. Mercy Prence (1631-1711)
Notes
General:
Patience was a daughter of Elder Brewster.
Sarah Brewster
Sex: F
Individual Information
Birth: 1681 - Kingston, Plymouth Colony
Baptism:
Death: Bef 1718
Burial:
Cause of Death:
Spouses and Children
1. *Caleb Stetson (Est 1680 - )
Marriage: 4 Mar 1705 - Duxbury, Massachusetts
Status:
Children:
1. Barzillai Stetson (1711-1766)
Sarah Brewster
Sex: F
Individual Information
Birth: Cir 1635 - Plymouth, Plymouth Colony
Baptism:
Death: After 5 Mar 1668 - Plymouth, Plymouth Colony
Burial:
Cause of Death:
Parents
Father: Love Brewster (Abt 1607-1650) 1
Mother: Sarah Collier (1616-1691)
Spouses and Children
1. *Benjamin Bartlett (Bef 6 Jun 1633 - Aug 1691)
Marriage: 1654 - Duxbury, Plymouth Colony
Status:
Children:
1. Benjamin Bartlett (1658- )
Notes
Marriage Notes (Benjamin Bartlett)
Children
Benjamin BARTLETT b: 27 Jun 1658 in Duxbury,
Rebecca BARTLETT b: Bef 1663 in Duxbury,
Samuel BARTLETT b: Bef 1666 in Duxbury
(progers)
William Brewster
Sex: M
Individual Information
Birth: Est 1680 - Duxbury, Massachusetts
Baptism:
Death:
Burial:
Cause of Death:
Parents
Father: Deacon William Brewster (Cir 1642-1723)
Mother: Lydia Partridge (Cir 1650-1742)
Spouses and Children
1. *Hopestill Wadsworth (Est 1690 - )
Marriage: 20 May 1708 - Duxbury, Massachusetts 5
Status:
Deacon William Brewster
Sex: M
Individual Information
Birth: Cir 1642 - Plymouth, Plymouth Colony
Baptism:
Death: 3 Nov 1723 - Duxbury, Massachusetts
Burial:
Cause of Death:
Parents
Father: Love Brewster (Abt 1607-1650) 1
Mother: Sarah Collier (1616-1691)
Spouses and Children
1. *Lydia Partridge (Cir 1650 - 2 Feb 1742)
Marriage: 21 Jan 1672 - Duxbury, Plymouth Colony 6
Status:
Children:
1. William Brewster (Est 1680- )
Elder William Brewster
Sex: M
Individual Information
Birth: 1566 - Scrooby, Nottingham
Baptism:
Death: 16 Apr 1644 - Duxbury, Plymouth Colony
Burial:
Cause of Death:
Spouses and Children
1. *Mary (Abt 1569 - 17 Apr 1627)
Marriage: Abt 1592 - Scrooby, Nottingham 1
Status:
Children:
1. Brewster ( -1609)
2. Jonathan Brewster (1593-1659)
3. Patience Brewster (1600/1603-Bef 1634) 1
4. Fear Brewster (Cir 1605-Bef 1634)
5. Love Brewster (Abt 1607-1650) 1
6. Wrestling Brewster (Cir 1611-1627/1651)
Notes
General:
"Brewster, William (1567-10 Apr. 1644), a leader of the Pilgrims and of the Plymouth Colony, was born in England, the son of William Brewster and Prudence (maiden name unknown). His specific place of birth has not been determined. The first mention of a William Brewster is in the Scrooby parish records for 1571. At about that time his parents had moved to the Nottinghamshire village, where in 1575 William's father became bailiff and receiver of Scrooby Manor, a property held by the archbishop of York. Archbishop Edmund Grindal appointed the elder Brewster to the posts, and Archbishop Edwin Sandys continued him in office. In 1588 the elder Brewster also assumed the position of postmaster when the town was made a postal stop on the London to York road and, as required, operated a tavern for use of the post riders and other travelers. These positions made him one of the more affluent members of the small community and gave him the opportunity to provide a quality education for his son.
Brewster entered Peterhouse College in Cambridge as a pensioner on 3 December 1580, but he did not stay to receive a degree. Though there is no record of his activities at the university, it is likely that his religious views were refined if not shaped there. At that time Cambridge was in an uproar over the dispute between the Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity Thomas Cartwright, who advocated reforms in the church, and the future bishop John Whitgift, who defended the establishment and used his position as master of Trinity College to have Cartwright deprived of his position and forced from Cambridge. Brewster would also have met John Penry, who entered Peterhouse on the same day as did Brewster and who would be drawn and quartered in 1593 for his Separatist religious activities and criticisms of the established church. In 1583 Brewster entered the service of Sir William Davison, who was a member of the Elizabethan diplomatic service, and he accompanied Davison on missions to the Netherlands in 1584 and 1585. He returned to the simpler life of Scrooby to serve as his father's deputy after Davison was disgraced and the elder Brewster became ill in 1589. The following year his father died, and Brewster assumed the posts both of bailiff and postmaster. If his religious views were evident at this time, they must not have come to the attention of Archbishop Sandys, from whom he received his appointment. By 1593 he had married Mary (maiden name unknown). The couple would have six children.
Brewster was attracted to the views of the reforming clergy in the church, and in 1598 he was presented to the church authorities for repeating sermons to a conventicle of believers. Brewster does not seem to have been deterred and continued to use his influence to protect Puritan preachers. He was sympathetic and helpful to clergymen, such as Richard Clifton, who were deprived on account of the more rigid enforcement of church canons. He was one of those who organized a gathered congregation, which separated from the Church of England in 1606 and chose John Robinson as their pastor in 1607. The authorities pursued Separatists more energetically than they did nonseparating Puritans, and after Brewster and others were cited as Dissenters in December 1607, the Scrooby congregation left England and resettled in the Netherlands. They first located in Amsterdam. Disputes in that city's English Separatist community, which were precipitated by the Reverend John Smith, led the Robinson group to relocate in Leiden.
Robinson was irenic in temper and was not rigid in rejecting contact with nonseparating Puritans, an attitude that Brewster, who served as the congregation's ruling elder, readily endorsed. Brewster tutored students at the University of Leiden in English. He also labored as a printer of religious books by such authors as William Ames, Cartwright, and Robinson that were designed to be smuggled into England. One of the volumes Brewster printed expressed militant Presbyterian views and irritated King James to the point that an official complaint was lodged with the Dutch authorities. Brewster then closed the press and went into hiding. Undoubtedly he was concerned about the effect that any such attention might have on the congregation's plans to emigrate once again.
Worries about how the English community would be affected by the renewal of Dutch-Spanish conflict, which seemed imminent in the late 1610s, combined with concerns about the upbringing of their children and other factors had led the Robinson church to consider moving to the English colonies of the New World. Brewster had traveled to England in 1617, where he met with representatives of the Virginia Company (perhaps including Sir Edwin Sandys, the son of his former employer) and with Crown officials to negotiate details of the move. In the same year he joined with Robinson in drafting seven articles of faith to reassure the Virginia authorities. In keeping with Robinson's semiseparatism, the articles stated the congregation's recognition of the Church of England as a true church and accepted that Anglican institutions could convey saving grace.
In 1620 Brewster journeyed on the Mayflower to New England, where he and his fellow colonists established the Plymouth Colony. Because of his experience of Separatist church covenants and of drafting government papers, he is presumed to have had a large role in the drawing-up of the Mayflower Compact. Most of the members of the Leiden church remained behind with plans to migrate at a later date, and Robinson stayed with them. Deacon Brewster, therefore, was the only church officer in Plymouth from the arrival of the Pilgrims until 1629 and for much of the time after that. He conducted prayer services, led scripture readings, and preached twice on each Sunday but never administered the sacraments. Though Separatists reserved the administration of the sacraments to ordained ministers, Robinson had been asked if an exception could be made for Brewster. Robinson had indicated that it would not be proper, and Brewster concurred. In 1633 Brewster argued successfully against those who wished to retain Roger Williams as the congregation's teacher. Brewster feared that Williams would pursue the same course of rigid separatism espoused by Smith that had led to contention in Amsterdam. Indeed, following Williams's settlement in Salem, Massachusetts, his extreme insistence on religious purity did lead to schism and his eventual banishment from the Bay.
As one of the community's leaders and one of its more prosperous citizens, Brewster became one of the undertakers, who in 1627 assumed responsibility for the colony's debt to its English backers. Though he was often consulted by Governor William Bradford (1590-1657), he never sought or held political office. He died in Duxbury, Massachusetts, leaving a modest estate and a library of three hundred volumes.
Brewster was, next to Bradford, the most significant figure in the Plymouth Colony. Well educated and experienced in government, his advice to Bradford was invaluable. He alone held the Pilgrim church together during the early years of settlement, maintaining both its orthodoxy and its willingness to interact with nonseparating Puritans.
Bibliography
Biographical information on Brewster is in Dorothy Brewster, William Brewster of the Mayflower (1970); Mary B. Sherwood, Pilgrim: A Biography of William Brewster (1982); and Richard Greaves and Robert Zaller, eds., Biographical Dictionary of British Radicals in the Seventeenth Century (1982). See also George Willison, Saints and Strangers (1945), and George Langdon, Pilgrim Colony (1966). William Bradford's history, Of Plymouth Plantation, 1620-1647 (1856), has an extended appreciation of Brewster by his contemporary and friend. "
Francis J. Bremer
Citation:
Francis J. Bremer. "Brewster, William";
http://www.anb.org/articles/01/01-00102.html;
American National Biography Online Feb. 2000.
Copyright © 2000 American Council of Learned Societies. Published by Oxford University Press.
Wrestling Brewster
Sex: M
Individual Information
Birth: Cir 1642 - Duxbury, Plymouth Colony
Baptism:
Death: 1 Jan 1696 - Duxbury, Massachusetts
Burial:
Cause of Death:
Parents
Father: Love Brewster (Abt 1607-1650) 1
Mother: Sarah Collier (1616-1691)
Spouses and Children
1. *Mary Holland (15 Nov 1661 - 12 Nov 1742)
Marriage: 1678 - Duxbury, Plymouth Colony
Status:
Children:
1. Mary Brewster (1679-1761)
Wrestling Brewster
Sex: M
Individual Information
Birth: Cir 1611
Baptism:
Death: 1627-1651 - Plymouth Colony
Burial:
Cause of Death:
Parents
Father: Elder William Brewster (1566-1644) 2
Mother: Mary (Abt 1569-1627)
Notes
General:
"In his list of passengers on the Mayflower Bradford included "Mr. William Brewster, Mary, his wife, with two sons, whose names were Love and Wrestling" [Bradford 441]. In the accounting of 1651 we find that "Mr. Brewster lived to very old age; about 80 years he was when he died, having lived some 23 or 24 years here in the country. And though his wife died long before, yet she died aged. His son Wrestling died a young man unmarried. His son Love lived till this year 1650 and died and left four children, now living. His daughters which came over after him are dead but have left sundry children alive. His eldest son is still living and hath nine or ten children; one married who hath a child or two" [Bradford 444]." 7
Edward Brian
Sex: M
Individual Information
Birth: Est 1764 - of Harwich, Massachusetts
Baptism:
Death:
Burial:
Cause of Death:
Spouses and Children
1. *Deliverance Young (28 Sep 1764 - ) 8
Marriage: 1795 - Harwich, Massachusetts
Status:
Notes
General:
not seen in Harwich VR except for Intentions with Deliverance
Abigail Briant
Sex: F
Individual Information
Birth: Cir 1723 - Reading, Massachusetts
Baptism:
Death:
Burial:
Cause of Death:
Spouses and Children
1. *Isaac Stearns (10 Apr 1721 - Bef 13 Jan 1763)
Marriage: 27 Nov 1744 - Reading, Massachusetts 9
Status:
Tabitha Briant
Sex: F
Individual Information
Birth: 29 Sep 1685 - Reading, Massachusetts Bay 11
Baptism:
Death: 13 Dec 1758 - Lynn, Massachusetts 12
Burial:
Cause of Death:
Spouses and Children
1. *Samuel Stearns (12 Sep 1685 - 20 Dec 1759) 10
Marriage: 14 Apr 1725 - Reading, Massachusetts 13
Status:
Children:
1. Bethia Stearns (1742- )
2. Joseph Stearns (1742- )
3. Ruth Stearns (1734- )
Notes
General:
d/o AbrahamMarriage Notes (Samuel Stearns)
likely children, from Sutton VR p162:
Ruth, d/o Samuell of New Sherborn, bap 29 sep 1734
Bethia, bap 26 sep 1742
Joseph, bap 26 sep 1742
Abigail Brickmore
Sex: F
Individual Information
Birth:
Baptism:
Death:
Burial:
Cause of Death:
Spouses and Children
1. *Constant Hopkins (19 Jul 1822 - 1 Apr 1897) 14
Marriage: 26 Jun 1844 - Provincetown, Massachusetts
Status:
Notes
General:
she of St. George, ME
Rev 0 Bridge
Sex: M
Individual Information
Birth: Est 1820
Baptism:
Death:
Burial:
Cause of Death:
Notes
General:
Wellfleet minister in 1851. Unknown denomination, probably Methodist.
First name or initial unknown; middle initial O, or perhaps D.
From Wellfleet marriages, 2:66.
Anna Bridge
Sex: F
Individual Information
Birth: Est 1730 - Wenham, Massachusetts
Baptism:
Death:
Burial:
Cause of Death:
Spouses and Children
1. *John Lamson (11 Jun 1727 - )
Marriage: 5 Oct 1749 - Ipswich, Massachusetts 15
Status:
Children:
1. Josiah Lamson (1750- )
2. Anna Lamson (1752- )
3. Elizabeth Lamson (1754- )
4. John Lamson (1756- )
5. Abigail Lamson (1768- )
6. Eunice Lamson (1773- )
Martha A Bridge
Sex: F
Individual Information
Birth: 1842 - Gilson, New Hampshire
Baptism:
Death:
Burial:
Cause of Death:
Spouses and Children
1. *Reuben Higgins Newcomb (31 May 1841 - ) 16
Marriage: 9 Sep 1866 - Wellfleet, Massachusetts
Status:
Samuel J Bridge
Sex: M
Individual Information
Birth: 1 Jun 1809 - Boston, Massachusetts
Baptism:
Death:
Burial:
Cause of Death:
Notes
General:
"Bridge, Samuel J.; established the Bridge Medal Fund for Boys of the S. F. Grammar Schools, April 16, 1879; amount donated, $2000; he was then residing in Dresden, Maine, but was visiting S. F.; he was then 70 years old, having been born in Boston, Mass., June 1, 1809. A notice of his life and of the Fund he established is in Municipal Reports, 1878-79, pages 749-752. In S. F. from 1861 to 1869, Mr. B. was an appraiser in the Custom House, being Appraiser General the first two years. On Aug. 20, 1873, he presented to the State a portrait of Manuel Micheltorena, Mexican Governor of California, 1842-45. The correspondence is in Assembly Journal of 20th Session, pages 1128, 1129." Historical Abstract of San Francisco, 1897
http://www.sfgenealogy.com/sf/history/hbabs1.htm
Edmund Bridges
Sex: M
Individual Information
Birth: 4 Oct 1637 - Rowley, Massachusetts Bay
Baptism:
Death: Abt 24 Jun 1682 - Salem, Massachusetts Bay
Burial:
Cause of Death:
Spouses and Children
1. *Sarah Towne (Abt 1636 - 1703)
Marriage: 11 Jan 1660 - Topsfield, Massachusetts Bay 17
Status:
Notes
General:
Father: Edmund BRIDGES b: 1612 in EnglMarriage Notes (Sarah Towne)
Mother: Alice MILLINGTON
Children
Edmund BRIDGES b: 4 OCT 1660 in Topsfield Essex MA
Elizabeth BRIDGES b: 1662 in Topsfield Essex MA Poss
Benjamin BRIDGES b: Jan 2 1664/5 in Topsfield Essex MA
Mary BRIDGES b: APR 1667 in Topsfield Essex MA
Hannah BRIDGES b: 7 m:1669 in Salem Essex MA
Sarah BRIDGES b: 1672
Caleb BRIDGES b: 3 JUN 1677 in Salem Essex MA
Alice BRIDGES b: SEP 1680 in Salem Essex Co MA Bp
Julia A Bridges
Sex: F
Individual Information
Birth: 2 Oct 1829 - Massachusetts
Baptism:
Death: 1929 - Cambridge, Massachusetts
Burial: in Orleans Cemetery
Cause of Death:
Spouses and Children
1. *James Harvey Sparrow (5 Sep 1825 - 23 Dec 1880)
Marriage:
Status:
Notes
Marriage Notes (James Harvey Sparrow)
1880 US census, Cambridgeport, Mass.
JH Sparrow, 54, architect & builder
Julia A Sparrow, wife, 51, keeping house
James W Sparrow, son, 16, at school
Mary W Sparrow, dau, 12, at school;
Julia A Sparrow, dau, 8, at school
Julia A Bridges, motherL, 75, at home
all Mass.
Mary Whitmore Sparrow, wife of Rev George E Kinney, died Aug 1900 in Somerville, Mt Desert (Barnstable Patriot, 20 Aug 1900)
Sources
1. Harold E. Robinson, Robinson-Capen Family (Rootsweb. robby1943).
2. Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins. Immigrants to New England 1620-1633 (1995. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society. Great Migration Study Project.), 228.
3. Rootsweb.com, D.B. Robinson - haruspex.
4. Alice A. Lowe, Nauset on Cape Cod. A History of Eastham (1968. Eastham [MA] Historical Society), p 14.
5. George Ernest Bowman, "Aaron Soule's wife, Mary Wadsworth, and the marriags of five of her sisters" (1907. Mayflower Descendant, vol. 9:246-251).
6. Partridge Genealogy ([emailed page image of George and Sarah Partridge family page]).
7. Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins. Immigrants to New England 1620-1633 (1995. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society. Great Migration Study Project.), 229. [Bradford 444; see GDMNH 109, MD 43:13, Waterhouse Anc 67].
8. Town records of Wellfleet, Massachusetts (Wellfleet, Massachusetts.), 1:21. the children of Jonathan Young and Rebecca his wife.
9. Thomas W. Baldwin, Vital Records of Reading, Massachusetts, to the year 1850 (1912. Boston: NEHGS [online]), 447. .... Vital Records of Lynn, Massachusetts to the end of the year 1849. Vol. 2 Marriages and Deaths (1906. Salem, MA: Essex Institute [online]
http://ma-vitalrecords.org/MA/Essex/Lynn/), 356.
10. David Brown, "Dave Brown's Eexxtteennddeedd Family Plus" (Rootsweb file dave-brown).
11. Thomas W. Baldwin, Vital Records of Reading, Massachusetts, to the year 1850 (1912. Boston: NEHGS [online]), 35.
12. Vital Records of Lynn, Massachusetts to the end of the year 1849. Vol. 2 Marriages and Deaths (1906. Salem, MA: Essex Institute [online]
http://ma-vitalrecords.org/MA/Essex/Lynn/), 595.
13. Thomas W. Baldwin, Vital Records of Reading, Massachusetts, to the year 1850 (1912. Boston: NEHGS [online]), 447.
14. Marcia Briggs, Rootsweb file, unsourced.
15. Vital Records of Ipswich, Massachusetts, to the end of the year 1849 (http://ma-vitalrecords.org/MA/Essex/Ipswich/), 270. .... Vital Records of Wenham, Massachusetts, to the end of the year 1849 (http://ma-vitalrecords.org/MA/Essex/Wenham/), 141.
16. Town records of Wellfleet, Massachusetts (Wellfleet, Massachusetts.), 1:139. The children of Abner and Polly Newcomb.
17. Clarence Almon Torrey, New England Marriages Prior to 1700 (The Genealogical Publishing Company, Inc; Baltimore, Maryland; 1985).