I25379: Mary E. ALVIS (1853

Notes

William Brewster was one of the founders of the Separatist Church as Scrooby, England. He and his wife came to Plymouth Colony in 1620 on the Mayflower. Patience and Fear came on the Ann in 1623.

"William BREWSTER, a Pilgrim Father, was b. in Scrooby, England, 1560; d. in Plymouth, Mass., 16th Apr. 1644; lived at the Manor Hall, at the same house at which Cardinal WOOLSEY made his last stop on his way home after his banishment by Henry VIII; educated at Cambridge University, he entered the service of William DAVIDSON, Ambassador of Queen Elizabeth, in Holland; withdrew from the Church of England and established a Society of Separatists, which worshipped at his house. Owing to persecution he attempted to fly to Holland in 1607, but was apprehended and imprisoned at Boston, in Lincolnshire. He gained his liberty at much expense, and with some of his followers went to Leyden, where he opened a school for the teaching of English. He was so esteemed that he was chosen the spiritual guide of the Pilgrims who emigrated to America, sailing from Leyden 6th Sept. 1620, O. S.; and with him he brought his wife and children. It was upon the lid of his clothes chest that the political “Compact” was signed on board the “Mayflower” at Cape Cod, 11th Nov. 1620, O. S. At New Plymouth he preached very impressive sermons for nearly nine years. Though he had the care of the church, he could never be persuaded to administer the Lord's Supper. He was a member and chaplain of the first Military Company organized at Plymouth, under Captain Miles STANDISH, and served against the Indians in various expeditions. m. circa 1594, Mary (surname unknown)."

George Enregt Bowman (1860-1941) founded the Society of Mayflower Descendants and became the first editor of the Mayflower Descendant. A massive collection of genealogical data on Mayflower families is available and there is a Mayflower page up on the web. Passengers on the Mayflower with living descendants today are John Alden, Isaac Allerton, John Billington, William Bradford, William Brewster, Peter Brown, James Chilton, Francis Cooke, Edward Doty, Francis Eaton, Edward Fuller, Samuel Fuller, Stephen Hopkins, John Howland, Richard More, Degory Priest, Thomas Rogers, Henry Sampson, George Soule, Myles Standish, Richard Warren, William White and Edward Winslow. There are also American descendants of some of the members of the Mayflower crew but their descendants are not entitled to membership in the Society of Mayflower Descendants. John White of Virginia was one such crewman.

"Whereas William Brewster late of Plymouth, gent., deceased left only two sons surviving vizt. Jonathan the eldest and Love the younger and whereas the said William died intestate for ought can to this day appear," the two sons requested William Bradford, Edward Winslow, Thomas Prence and Myles Standish to assist them in coming to an agreement, and on 20 August 1645 a division was made. Jonathan Brewster was excused the debt he had owed to his father, except £4 "in consideration of the wintering of some cattle which the said Jonathan had the summering upon the division and for the diet of Isaack Allerton a grandchild of the said Will[ia]m which he had placed with his son Love to table and because he was the first born of his father we gave him his father's arms and also a two year old heifer over and above his part of the dividables of the said estate," and Love received his father's dwelling house. The lands were divided equally, except for a dispute over the lands at Duxbury, of which sixty-eight acres went to Jonathan (along with a "dwelling house which the said Jonathan had built on the said land by leave of his said father") and forty-three acres went to Love "and the reason wherefore we gave Love the less quantity was and is because the quality of Love's land in goodness is equal to the quantity of Jonathan's as we judge" [MD 3:27-30, citing PCLR 1:198-99; PCR 12:115-17].

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].
The quest for the identity of Mary, the wife of William Brewster, has attracted the attention of many genealogists, but as yet without a definitive result. For some time she had been thought to be Mary Wentworth, daughter of Thomas Wentworth of Scrooby, and in 1965 John G. Hunt presented his case in favor of this identity [TAG 41:1-5, 63], but this claim was rejected by Rubincam and others, and Hunt himself has now given up this position. He has, however, published a pamphlet claiming that she was a certain Mary Wyrrall, based on the appearance in a will of a bequest to "Mary Butho," which Hunt took to be a variant of Brewster resulting from a speech defect in the person dictating the will [John G. Hunt, Of Mary Brewster: The Identity of Mary, Wife of Elder William BREWSTER of the Mayflower Voyage of 1620 from Plymouth, England, to New Plymouth, New England (Bowling Green, Virginia, 1984)]. Eugene A. Stratton reviewed this volume negatively in 1985 [DSGRM 48:135-36], to which Hunt responded with a supplement to his pamphlet [Of Mary Brewster, part two (Bowling Green, Virginia, August 1985]. The maiden surname of Mary, wife of Elder Brewster, remains unknown. (Hunt has published other articles on various aspects of William Brewster's life which, as with all of Hunt's work, need to be used with caution: "`Master Williamson' of the Mayflower" [NGSQ 62:88-90]; "The Mother of Elder William Brewster of the Mayflower" [NEHGR 124:250-56]; "Mary Stubbe - A Connection of Elder William Brewster?" [NEHGR 128:288-90].)
A number of other children have been proposed for William Brewster. Jacobus in 1936 disposed of the claimed connections between William Brewster of Plymouth and Francis Brewster of New Haven and his son Nathaniel [TAG 12:199-210, 13:8-21, 113-116]. Mary Walton Ferris proposes a son Edward [Dawes-Gates 2:151].

BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE: Emma C. Brewster Jones published early in this century a serviceable genealogy of the family [The Brewster Genealogy, 1566-1907 ..., 2 volumes (New York 1908)]. Among the many versions of the family published in all-my-ancestor volumes the most complete is that of Mary Walton Ferris [Dawes-Gates 2:142-56].
The General Society of Mayflower Descendants published in 1995 the Brewster volume of its "in progress" series, prepared by Barbara Merrick.
Many biographies of William Brewster have appeared, but mostly of the filiopietistic school; an example from the nineteenth century is that written by Ashbel Steele: Chief of the Pilgrims: or The Life and Time of William Brewster ... (Philadelphia 1857). An exception is Dorothy Brewster, William Brewster of the Mayflower: Portrait of a Pilgrim (New York 1970).

^[S1484] ^[S1602] ^[S1602]

[39389]
DEATH: 16 Apr 1643

My Southern Family

Mary E. ALVIS

1853 - ____

ID Number: I25379

Sources

Elder William BREWSTER "the Immigrant"

ABT 1565 - 10 Apr 1644

ID Number: I5481

Notes

Sources

Hettie H. CLARK

ABT 1818 - Nov 1848

ID Number: I96133

Sources

Dr. Nathaniel Pendleton DANDRIDGE M.D.

ABT 1850 - ____

ID Number: I23009

Sources

AGNES FitzBrian FITZALAN

ABT 1300 - ____

ID Number: I35550

Sources

DONALD HANNA of Sorbie Castle

ABT 1544 - ____

ID Number: I73358

Notes

Sources

THOMAS HEREFORD of Bodenham

ABT 1395 - ____

ID Number: I48154

Sources

HICKERSON

ABT 1800 - ____

ID Number: I3111

Sources

Clay Jerry HUNLEY

Sarah LINDSAY

1788 - ____

ID Number: I79613

Sources

John Lewellyn MOORE

Margaret POWELL?

1642 - 4 May 1719

ID Number: I60754

Notes

Sources

Abigail SMITH

ABT 1660 - ____

ID Number: I64075

Notes

Sources