William Brewster
William Brewster was the spiritual leader of the Separatists, known to posterity as the Pilgrims. He was a religious scholar and trained doctor who wanted to reform the extremes of the Anglican Church, which led to his fleeing to more open minded Holland in 1608. His departure from England was achieved without the permission of the King, making it illegal, and he became in effect an exile from the nation of his birth. In Holland he supported himself and his family by teaching English to the Dutch students at Leiden School and by the writing and publishing of pamphlets which criticized the Anglican Church and presented the arguments of the Separatists.
When the Separatists began preparations for the trip to Virginia Brewster was involved in the negotiations until a particularly critical tract he published aroused the ire of King James, and Brewster was forced into hiding to avoid arrest. Where he concealed himself remains a matter of conjecture, with some suggesting he hid in plain view in Cambridge while the King’s agents looked for him in Leiden. Brewster was not clerical, he was a lay person of high repute and his absence during the negotiations with the Merchant Adventurers and other investors was keenly felt by the Separatists. He returned to the Leiden Congregation shortly before the voyage of the Mayflower.
Brewster, despite not being a member of the clergy, was the only member of the Mayflower Company to have been educated at the university level, and as such became the spiritual leader of the colony. This role increased with the early death of their Deacon, John Carver, in the spring of 1621. Brewster served as the minister, or preacher, at all religious services held by the Separatists until about 1629, when the first ordained minister arrived at the colony. Brewster continued to preach in a diminished role after that, and retained his position as both a spiritual leader and guide to the colony’s leaders.
For his services and out of respect for his position, several of the islands which define Boston Harbor were granted to him by colony leaders and bear his name today. Great Brewster, Little Brewster, Middle Brewster, and Outer Brewster were granted to him, as well as a plot in Duxbury, where he chose to live in 1632. Two of the More children were under his charge, Mary, who died in the first winter in the Mayflower, and the ultimately successful Richard More, who lived with the Brewster family until the age of 14, when he became employed by Isaac Allerton.
As one of the more influential members of the Plymouth Colony, many place names around the region of Massachusetts Bay bear his name, including the town of Brewster in Massachusetts. Another Brewster, in Nebraska, was also named for him. Brewster was the spiritual and moral leader of the colony for almost 25 years, offering guidance and support to both the colony’s government and its settlers, and was the undoubted leader of the harvest feasts which we celebrate today as Thanksgiving. Brewster died in 1644 at his farm in Duxbury and was buried at Plymouth’s Burial Hill.