(1567–1644). The Puritan views that made William Brewster one of the leaders of the Pilgrims were acquired while he was a student at Cambridge University, in England. In the service of William Davison, England's ambassador to Holland, he made several trips to that country. Later, he returned to his home village of Scrooby to take over the office of “post.” His duties involved sending mail, keeping the inn, and supplying horses for the post roads. He and his wife, Mary, had five children—named Jonathon, Love, Wrestling, Patience, and Fear. Instead of conforming to the Church of England, a group of people formed a Separatist church at Scrooby and met secretly for devotions in the Brewster manor house. Brewster, an elder in the congregation, was imprisoned with several others before they all fled to Holland in 1608. Brewster supported his family by teaching English and printing religious books that had been outlawed in England. He helped obtain a patent from the London Company for land in Virginia, but chance took him with his 102 exiles to Cape Cod instead. Brewster was one of the leaders of Plymouth Colony until his death in April 1644. (See also ‘Mayflower'; Plymouth, Mass.) |