Family History: Episode 1: William Brewster

Hey Family, I have been studying a bit about our family history and some of the cool characters that came before us to help make us as awesome as we are. I'm a little bit different about family history. I want to know the stories behind the name. I know for religious purposes it is important to find the names and get temple work done, but I really enjoy the stories. So I thought maybe it would be a good idea to restart this blog and we could do some family history stories that then could be saved or archived or printed off etc. Stories about mom, dad, grandparents would be cool just so that they are recorded. I have recently studied some of our further back relatives and thought that with us recently having celebrated Independence day, that I would share about one of our own founding father ancestors. William Brewster was a passenger on the Mayflower and the religious leader for the puritans in the New World.

William Brewster was born in 1568 in Scrooby, Nottinghamshire, England. While studying at Cambridge he became a religious reformist and entered the service of William Davison, who was held responsible for the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots. Davison was arrested, so William Brewster moved to Holland because the Dutch were more sympathetic to the reformists. He became one of the religious leaders of the separatists in Leiden, Holland. While there he teamed up with one Thomas Brewer to print, publish, and sale religious books in England. For this Thomas Brewer was arrested and William Brewster went into hiding for 2 years. During that time the puritans had secured enough money to procure the Mayflower. The puritans wanted William Brewster to be their religious leader on the journey and in the New World. William and his wife Mary and their two youngest sons Love Brewster and Wrestling Brewster were all on the Mayflower. They also were given charge over two other children that belonged to one Thomas More.

William Brewster lived to be 76 and was well loved by the pilgrims. He was their religious leader for nearly 24 years in the New World. He was granted some land in the Boston Harbor and four of the Islands are named after him. Clearly his efforts and desires for religious freedom helped establish this great country and it is pretty awesome to be a descendant of such a influential person.

You can read more about him and his life at these websites.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Brewster_(Mayflower_passenger)
http://mayflowerhistory.com/brewster-william/

Here is an excerpt from Jennie and Jessie's relative and political leader of the Pilgrims William Bradford.

Here is our line of ancestry to William Brewster