William Brewster (Presbyter)

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Portrait of William Brewster
William Bradford's copy of the Mayflower Treaty

William Brewster (* around 1566 probably in Scrooby , England; † April 10, 1644 , buried in Plymouth ) was an English church elder of the separatist congregationalists on board the Mayflower (1620) and one of the leading figures in the Plymouth Colony .

Living in England and the Netherlands

William Brewster was most likely born in Scrooby, Nottinghamshire, England in 1566 . After a brief study at Cambridge , he worked as a secretary to a wealthy citizen and then, like his father, as a senior postal clerk. He was elected the highest church elder of the separatist congregationalist community in Scrooby and emigrated with them to the Netherlands in 1609 , first to Amsterdam , later to Leiden , in order to avoid persecution by the Anglican state church . Brewster worked there as an English teacher for university students. After he and Edward Winslow had sharply attacked King James I and the Anglican bishops in a pamphlet , they narrowly escaped arrest. When the opportunity arose to found their own colony in North America , some of the Separatists returned to England for a short time in 1619 and set out to cross the Mayflower in 1620 . The Laie Brewster, as the church elder, was the spiritual leader of this group because Pastor John Robinson , who had previously led the congregation, had remained in the Netherlands. Brewster was one of the writers and signatories of the Mayflower Treaty .

Life in the Plymouth Colony

As the only one of the Pilgrim Fathers with a university education, Brewster retained the responsibility of leading the church until 1629 when Pastor Ralph Smith, newly immigrated from England, took it over. Brewster and his family made a living as farmers. He was also an advisor to long-time Governor William Bradford . Brewster died on April 10, 1644; he was buried in Plymouth in what is now Massachusetts . People who dealt with him described him as pious, educated, warm-hearted, and helpful. The congregation appreciated that he avoided lengthy theological treatises in most of his sermons.

Brewster's historical significance was that he was instrumental in laying the foundations for democratic self-government (self-rule) in North America .

literature

  • Barbara Lambert Merrick: William Brewster of the Mayflower and His Descendants for Four Generations. Barbara Lambert Merrick, compiler (Published by General Society of Mayflower Descendants, Revised 3rd Edition. 2000)
  • Clifton E. Olmstead: History of Religion in the United States. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1960, Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 60-10355
  • Nathaniel Philbrick : Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War. Viking, New York, NY 2000, ISBN 0-670-03760-5 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Barbara Lambert Merrick: William Brewster of the Mayflower and his Descendants for Four Generation , p. 1.
  2. ^ Clifton E. Olmstead: History of Religion in the United States. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ 1960, pp. 66-67
  3. ^ Nathaniel Philbrick: Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War. Viking, New York NY 2000, p. 46
  4. ^ Nathaniel Philbrick: Mayflower , p. 18.
  5. ^ Nathaniel Philbrick: Mayflower , pp. 16-18.
  6. ^ Nathaniel Philbrick: Mayflower , p. 25
  7. ^ Clifton E. Olmstead: History of Religion in the United States , p. 66.
  8. ^ Clifton E. Olmstead: History of Religion in the United States , p. 67.
  9. ^ Nathaniel Philbrick: Mayflower , p. 125
  10. ↑ Clifton E. Olmstead: History of Religion in the United States, pp. 66-67.
  11. ^ Nathaniel Philbrick: Mayflower , p. 18.
  12. ↑ Christopher Fennell: Plymouth Colony Legal Structure . ( http://www.histarch.uiuc.edu/plymouth/ccflaw.html ). 1998.
  13. ↑ M. Schmidt: Pilgrim Fathers . In Religion in Past and Present , 3rd edition, Volume V, Tübingen 1961, column 384
  14. ^ Clifton E. Olmstead: History of Religion in the United States , pp. 9-10.
  15. ↑ Horst Dippel: History of the USA . Beck, Munich 2007.
personal data
SURNAME Brewster, William
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English church elder, passenger on the Mayflower and one of the first colonists in the New World
DATE OF BIRTH around 1566
PLACE OF BIRTH Scrooby , England
DATE OF DEATH April 10, 1644
Place of death Plymouth