Edward III and the Brewsters of Virginia

Question

John Knapp, father of the Puritan gateway Judith Knapp, had a 1st cousin, Mirabel Poley, who was descended from Edward III on her mother's side.

She married a William Brewster, previously married to Anne Clopton.  He was bailiff, constable and gamekeeper at Castle Hedingham in Essex for the Earl of Oxford.

According to Burke, William had 2 sons called William, one by each wife.

https://archive.org/details/b24877876_0002/page/338

According to a later pedigree by Crisp, which I haven't seen, one of those sons, born 1562, became a keeper of prisoners (mostly Jesuits).  The ref given is Visn. of England and Wales, Notes, Vol X, p.160.

According to John G Hunt, who compared the handwriting, the jailer was the same William Brewster who sailed with Capt John Smith in 1607 and was killed by Indians later the same year.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/4247341?read-now=1&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Mirabel Poley and her husband had a daughter Anne Brewster, who had 3 husbands, the middle one being Sir Thomas Seckford or Sackford.

And according to Douglas Richardson, Mirabel Poley was the ancestor of a Thomas alias Sackford Brewster, of Surry County VA.

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=8JcbV309c5UC&pg=RA1-PA507

But no source cited.  Same note in RA Vol. 3 p. 351.

This Thomas/Sackford Brewster doesn't seem to have a profile, which probably means he doesn't have any descendants.

All I can find is that he went with Edward Bland on the expedition that opened up North Carolina.

https://archive.org/details/discoveryofnewbr00blan/page/n7

Anybody know any more?  Especially, how this Sackford Brewster connects?  Seems like he must have been a great-nephew of William who died in 1607.  And which wife was that William's mother?

Incidentally, John G Hunt lived in Virginia.  It seems to have been the Virginia Brewsters who led to his interest in Brewster matters generally.  In fact the Brewster of Jamestown 1607 had previously been placed as a son of Mayflower Brewster and his wife, whoever she was, though it turns out the two pioneering namesakes were about the same age.

Comments

Sackford witnessed a bunch of other people's deeds as "Sack Brewster".  In 1655 he married Elizabeth Watkins, probably a widow, as "Thomas alias Sackford Brewster to Sackford Hall in the County of Suffolk, Gent", it says here

https://books.google.com/books?id=WCH_7LB7ItgC&pg=PA12

What he could have had to do with Sackford Hall is a mystery.  But he was a long way away.

There was a Zachariah Brewster and an Anthony Sackford Brewster in Surry Co. at the same period.  Unless somebody thought Sack was short for Zachariah.

Sack died in 1669.

I'm starting to wonder if he was really Thomas Sackford alias Brewster.  Anne Brewster's 2nd husband Thomas Sackford died in 1610.  She remarried in 1614 and they had 1 daughter before she died in 1616, probably about 40-45.  Perhaps she had a son while between husbands.  Or perhaps that's just fanciful.

Answer 1

I have had my y-DNA tested and I match the Elder William Brewster line based on the participants of the Brewster Surname DNA Project.

In the project are three distinct haplogroups, roughly corresponding to three known Brewster "families." My family is clearly descended from Elder William Brewster through son Jonathan's side, and there's another group descended through son Love's side. Elder William had three sons, Wrestling did not marry and has no recorded descendants. He had two daughters, both of whom married and stayed in New England.

A second haplogroup, at least in the US, belongs to descendants of Reverend Nathaniel Brewster of Long Island. This includes the famous Revolutionary War spy Caleb Brewster.

A third haplogroup seems to be more Scottish and Irish and is particularly prevalent in Canada. Sir David Brewster, the scientist, is part of this group.

Now, it is clear from y-DNA that every tested Brewster of Elder William Brewster's haplogroup (I-M253) is descended from him, which means no tested Brewster with a known pedigree could be from a brother or cousin of his. Were there likely I-M253 Brewsters who were cousins of the Pilgrim? Absolutely. Can we find their descendants today? Not to my knowledge.

One historical mystery concerning "Southern" Brewsters has been solved with y-DNA. My 8th great-grandfather, Ebenezer Brewster (b. 1703), left his wife around 1729 and had several more children afterward with at least one, probably more women. Ebenezer and at least two sons lived in Tazewell, Virginia and that Brewster line has continued through this day. By dint of y-DNA, I match descendants of these other sons (my 7th-ggf Charles was "legitimate"). This mystery was solved only about a decade ago, and so there may well be other Brewster lines in the Virginia area that derive from him and not a Jamestown Brewster.

Still, I would love to see any and all male Brewsters test y-DNA to help build up evidence to help sort these interesting historical mysteries.

Comments

my Ebenezer BREWSTER had a son James BREWSTER whom lived in Tazewell county, Virginia. 

 I'd love to swap information on those families