Jonathan Brewster (1593 - 1659)

Born 12 Aug 1593 in Scrooby, Nottinghamshire, England

Ancestors

Husband of Lucretia (Oldham) Brewster — married 10 Apr 1624 in Plymouth, Plymouth Colony, New England

Descendants

Died 7 Aug 1659 at age 65 in Norwich, New London, Connecticut

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Jonathan Brewster was related to a passenger on the Mayflower. Join: Mayflower Project Discuss: mayflower

Biography

Jonathan Brewster was born August 12, 1593 in Scrooby, Nottinghamshire, England to Elder William Brewster and his wife. [See profile Brewster-4 for discussion of William and his disputed wife.]

Jonathan moved with his parents and siblings in 1608 to Leyden (Leiden) in Holland to escape religious persecution. There he supposedly married his first wife whose name is not known.^[1] The source has been determined to not pertain to Jonathan Brewster. ^[2]

Jonathan’s name was recorded in the Leyden records several times. He was a ribbon weaver. He became a Dutch citizen 30 June 1617. He was a witness to the reading and signing of the will of Thomas Brewer and his wife Anna Offley on 7 December 1617. He also was a witness to the betrothal banns of John Reynolds entered 28 July 1617 and to the betrothal banns of Edward Winslow entered 27 April 1618. Styled “Lintwercker” or ribbon maker, he lived in Pieterskerhof while in Holland.

When the family came to America on the Mayflower in 1620. Jonathan stayed behind in Holland. [Some say he stayed to be "with his first wife who with their infant son died. See entry for disputed wife/child below.] Jonathan came to America in 1621 on the ship Fortune, joining his parents, William and Mary, at Plymouth Colony.

Jonathan Brewster and Lucretia Oldham of Darby were married in Plymouth, New England, 10 Apr 1624.

Jonathan was one of the men who undertook to discharge the debts of Plymouth Colony. A freeman in 1633, he was active in the settlement of the town of Duxbury, incorporated 7 June 1637. Records indicate that he served as a surveyor, laid out highways, practiced as an attorney, and was styled a “gentleman.” He served as Deputy to General Court 1639, 1641, 1643-1644. He was on a committee to raise forces during the Narragansett Alarm of 1642, and was a member of Captain Myles Standish’s Duxbury Company in 1643. He served as a military commissioner in the Pequot War of 1637. In 1638, Jonathan Brewster established a ferry service to transport passengers and cattle across the North River. In 1641, he sold this to Messrs. Barker, Howell and others. He also practiced as an attorney and was the master and owner of a coasting vessel plying as far south as Virginia.

Sometime before Sept 1649 Jonathan moved to Connecticut, being appointed town clerk of Pequot (New London), and obtained a grant of land from the Mohegan Sachem, Uncas, in that town. By Nov. 30, 1652 a large tract, still known as Brewster's Neck, from the Mohegan tribe was confirmed to him from which he operated a trading post with the Indians. (Brewster Book, by Milton Terry, 1985)

Because Jonathan set up a trading post without the authority of the local government, he was censured, but the deed was confirmed by the town on 30 November 1652.

Jonathan Brewster died on August 7, 1659 in New London, Connecticut, ^[3] at the age of 65 and Lucretia died twenty years later. Both Jonathan and Lucretia are buried in Brewster Cemetery, Brewster's Neck, Preston, Connecticut, where a monument has been erected to their memory by their descendants.

Jonathan Brewster left an invaluable legacy to the Brewster family known as "The Brewster Book," a record in his own handwriting of the deaths of his mother and father, the birth dates of each of his children, and the marriage dates of his daughters, Mary and Ruth, his son, William, as well as his own birth and marriage dates. He apparently began the record after the marriage in Plymouth of his daughter, Mary, to John Turner in 1645, perhaps after he moved to Connecticut, leaving Mary and his grandchildren behind in Plymouth Colony, but before the date of his second entries, which follow the 1651 marriage of his son William. All of the entries in this book were contemporary and made by three persons, Jonathan, his son Benjamin, and Benjamin’s great-grandson Jabez Fitch, Jr. The book has been of inestimable value to the Brewster family. It is online at The Mayflower Descendant, Volume 1, p 1 (in TAG), membership required.

This publication lists Patience, Fear, unnamed child d 1609, Love, and Wrestling as his siblings. What this means is that there is primary source iron clad proof and if you want to join the Mayflower Society, it is through one of these children.

Wife and Children

Jonathan Brewster married Lucretia Oldham, originally of Derby on 10 April 1624 in Plymouth their eight children were:

• William Brewster (born March 9, 1625)
• Mary Brewster (born April 16, 1627)
• Jonathan Brewster, Jr. (born July 17, 1629)
• Ruth Brewster (born October 3, 1631)
• Benjamin Brewster (November 17, 1633 - September 14, 1710)
• Elizabeth Brewster (born May 1, 1637)
• Grace Brewster (November 1, 1639 - April 22, 1684)
• Hannah Brewster (born November 3, 1641)

Research Notes

Did Jonathan marry in Holland?

The Mayflower Society has published biographies of the Mayflower Passengers as they prepare for the 2020 anniversary of the voyage. The profile on William Brewster includes a note about his son Jonathan. Citing Mayflower Quarterly magazine [MQ 51:161-67, 52:6-16, 57-63], it appears that Jonathan did not marry and have a child while they were in Holland. The records cited for that have been determined to not apply to Jonathan Brewster.

Disputed Wife & Child

The following is no longer accepted as part of Jo0hathan Brewster's biography!
Jonathan Brewster supposedly married Betje Rabnitz as a very young man in Holland, and they had: An "unknown" named child - unknown Brewster who died young in Leyden. See Research Notes - this is disputed by Mayflower Society.

Sources

1. ↑ More recent sources have noted that there is no documentation for this wife and their still born child
2. ↑ William Brewster, his wife and children at AmericanAncestors.org
3. ↑ Merrick, Barbara Lambert, p. 39, Mayflower Families in Progress, William Brewster of the Mayflower and his Descendants for Four Generations, General Society of Mayflower Descendants, Plymouth, MA., Revised Third Edition, 2006

• Wikipedia: Fortune_(Plymouth_Colony_ship)
• Wikipedia: Passengers_of_1621_Fortune_voyage
• Jones, Emma C. Brewster. The Brewster Genealogy, 1566-1907:a record of the descendants of William Brewster of the "Mayflower." ruling elder of the Pilgrim church which founded Plymouth colony in 1620 (The Grafton Press, New York, 1908) Page 11
• Brewster, William The Brewster Book, Vol 1, page 1 Mayflower Descendant: A Magazine of Pilgrim Genealogy and History. Boston, MA: Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1899- . (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2010)
• Benton, Charles Edward, Ezra Reed and Esther Edgerton: Their Life and Ancestry (A.V. Haight Company, 1912) Page 34
• Merrick, Barbara Lambert, and edited by Scott Andrew Bartley, Mayflower Families through Five Generations, The Descendants of Elder William Brewster Part 1, (General Society of Mayflower Descendants, Plymouth, MA., 2014), pp 39
• Find A Grave memorial #11415606
• The Mayflower Descendant (Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants) Vol. 1, Pages 7-8
• >Bowman, George Ernest. "Jonathan's Brewster Family Record", The Mayflower Descendant (Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants, Boston, 1934) Vol. 32, Page 2
• Caulkins, Frances Manwaring. History of Norwich, Connecticut: From Its Possession by the Indians to the Year 1866 (Friends of the Author, New London, 1874) Page 211
• The Family Record: Devoted for 1897 to the Sackett, the Weygant and the Mapes Families, and to Ancestors of Their Intersecting Lines Publisher C. H. Weygant, 1897 page 144
• Stark, Charles. Groton, Conn., 1705-1905 (Palmer Press, Stonington, Conn., 1922) Page 66
• Brewster Book, Milton Terry, 1985
• http://www.geni.com/people/Jonathan-Brewster/6000000003086853185
• Rootsweb : Ancestors and Friends, Individual page for Jonathan Brewster (Link via Wayback Machine at Archive.org, capture date 12 Mar 2023.)
• http://www.magma.ca/~mmackay/wc02/wc02_293.html
• http://www.carlcarlsson.com/JonathanBrewster.htm
• Avery, John. History of The Town of Ledyard, 1650-1900 (Noyes & Davis, Norwich, Conn., 1901) Page 116
• Hotten, John Camden, The Original Lists Of Persons Of Quality (John Camden Hotten, 1874) Page xxviii
• Windsor Historical Society: Founders’ Series: Jonathan Brewster, Adventurer and Alchemist