William Brewster (Mayflower passenger)
William Brewster ( * ca 1566 probably in Scrooby, England, † April 10, 1644, buried in Plymouth) was a church elder of the Separatist Congregationalists aboard the Mayflower (1620 ) and one of the leading figures in the Plymouth Colony.
Life in England and the Netherlands
William Brewster was most likely born in 1566 in Scrooby in the English county of Nottinghamshire. After a short study at Cambridge, he worked as a secretary for a wealthy citizen and then as his father as a senior postal official. He was elected to the top of the separatist church elders Kongregationalistengemeinde in Scrooby and emigrated with this in order to escape persecution by the Anglican state church in 1609 in the Netherlands, first to Amsterdam, then to suffering. There Brewster worked as an English teacher for students of the University. After he and Edward Winslow sharply attacked in a pamphlet King James I and the Anglican bishops, they narrowly escaped arrest. When the opportunity arose to start their own colony in North America, returned a portion of the separatists in 1619 for a short time to England and broke 1620 for passage aboard the Mayflower. The layman Brewster served as a church elder as pastor John Robinson, who had previously directed the church had remained in the Netherlands, the spiritual leader of this group. Brewster was one of the authors and signatories of the Mayflower Treaty.
Life in Plymouth Colony
As the sole of the Pilgrim Fathers with a university education Brewster kept the task of leading the congregation until they took over in 1629 the newly immigrated from England Pastor Ralph Smith. Brewster and his family earned their living as farmers. He was also an advisor to the long-term Governor William Bradford. Brewster died on April 10, 1644; He was buried in Plymouth in present-day Massachusetts. People who had to do with him, described him as a pious, educated, warm and helpful. The community appreciated it that he avoided lengthy theological treatises in most of his sermons.
Brewster's historical significance was that he worked in a manner essential to the foundation of democratic self-government ( self-government, self -rule ) in North America.