In Memory of the Pilgrim Fathers: William Brewster (part 1)

Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry begins a new series about the Founding Fathers of Plymouth Colony, starting with Elder William Brewster. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.

Bronze Tablet, Scrooby Manor, England

In 1895 William Thomas Davis (1822-1907), a well-known historian, author, politician, and president of the Pilgrim Society, traveled to Scrooby, England, to set up a commemorative tablet to mark the site of Scrooby Manor – where the Pilgrim Church held its first meeting under leader William Brewster (c. 1566/67-1644), patriarch of the Pilgrims and their ruling elder.

Below is a 19^th-century photograph of Scrooby Manor, where William Brewster lived and served as postmaster, and where the early Separatists held some of their secret meetings. Photo courtesy of Caleb Johnson’s Mayflower History information site.

William Davis, a descendant of Mayflower passengers William White, Susanna Jackson, Stephen Hopkins, Elizabeth Fisher, John Howland, and Elizabeth Tilley, was devoted to preserving the history of the Pilgrims and their scions.

William, born to William and Joanna (White) Davis, married Abby Burr Hedge, born to Thomas and Lydia C. (Goodwin) Hedge, and left descendants.

He authored many articles and books on the topics of Plymouth and Pilgrim history, such as Ancient Landmarks of Plymouth and Plymouth Memories of an Octogenarian.

Here is the story of the Scrooby Manor commemorative tablet Davis set up, as reported in the New York Herald.

This article reports:

In Memory of the Pilgrim Fathers.

Handsome Tablet Erected in England by the Plymouth Pilgrim Society.

London, Sept. 5, 1895. — W. T. Davis, of Plymouth, Mass., who sailed today on the steamer Gallia for Boston, succeeded in accomplishing the mission confided to him by the Pilgrim Society of Plymouth.

Some time ago the Plymouth Pilgrim Society determined to permanently mark the spot where the movement that culminated in the voyage of the Mayflower was organized on English soil, and a handsome bronze tablet, measuring 24 by 29 inches, was made, bearing the following inscription:

“This tablet is erected by the Pilgrim Society of Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States of America, to mark the site of the ancient manor house where lived William Brewster from 1588 to 1608, and where [in 1606] he organized the Pilgrim Church, of which he became ruling elder, and with which, in 1608, he removed to Amsterdam, in 1609 to Leyden, and in 1620 to Plymouth, where he died April [10], 1644.”

Mr. Davis brought this tablet to England a few weeks ago. Nothing whatever remained of Scrooby Manor House. Close to its site, however, a substantial farmhouse was located, and Mr. Davis attached the plate to the heavy masonry wall of the farmhouse.

Below is a photo of the Brewster tablet taken by Heather Wilkinson Rojo of Nutfield Genealogy while she was in Scrooby on a tour.

Here’s an article by the Aberdeen Daily News about William Brewster and Scrooby Manor.

This article reports:

Pilgrim Worthy of Honor

Elder Brewster Gave up Much When He Abandoned His Home for a Great Principle.

Gone is the ancient pear tree, and no trace remains of the mulberry tree planted by Cardinal Wolsey, under the welcome shade of which Sir Edwyn Sandys sat in the long summer days of 1573 at Scrooby Manor, but Pilgrims in England in 1920 need not neglect to raise their hats to the memory of Elder Brewster at his one-time home, because special arrangements have been made for escorting parties to the haunts of Pilgrim Fathers during the tercentenary year. All the Fathers made great sacrifices, but one will be tempted to think that William Brewster made perhaps more than most when one sees the ruins of his palatial home he left. Traces of the moat still exist, and some of the great carved beams can be found in stables and cowsheds nearby. The size of the house can be realized when it is remembered that it was large enough to shelter Margaret Tudor [daughter of King Henry VII of England and sister of Henry VIII] and her entire retinue on her royal procession to Scotland.

Below is an image of the manor from Homes and Haunts of the Pilgrim Fathers, published in 1920.

Brewster Saved Pilgrims

William Bradford, in his historical account Of Plymouth Plantation, praises Elder Brewster for his selfless devotion to the sick and dying in the early days of the Plymouth Colony.

Bradford notes that Brewster [and Myles Standish] was:

“A rare example and worthy to be remembered… yet the Lord so upheld these persons, as in this generall calamity they were not at all infected either with sicknes, or lamnes.”

Brewster remained healthy by divine providence while he comforted and nursed the remaining Pilgrims. Many descendants can be grateful.

A Few Brewster Relics of Interest

According to “New England Begins: The Seventeenth Century,” a catalog of an exhibition held at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in 1982, William du Pont loaned a rare silver spoon with a fig-shaped bowl that was brought over from England by Brewster.

After his death in April 1644, an inventory of Brewster’s material goods was taken in May by Miles Standish and John Doane, including:

“1 silv’ beaker & a spoone valued at one pound, five shillings, six pence.”

Another spoon was discovered on Brewster’s property known as “The Brewster Lilacs,” included in his landholdings in Duxbury, Massachusetts, originally comprised of 80 acres on Standish Shore.

The spoon, along with many other artifacts, was recovered during an archaeological dig overseen by Craig Chartier of the Plymouth Archaeological Rediscovery Project in 2012. Also check out Sturgis Library Archives Archaeological Artifacts Collection MS. 149.

The property housed generations of Brewsters, and the name “Lilacs” comes from the prominent tree on the property.

Below is a photo of a marker stone of William Brewster’s homestead erected in 1937 by Duxbury Tercentenary Committee, courtesy of Historical Marker Database.

This historical marker reads:

“Site of Elder William Brewster’s homestead, N. 85 W. 420 ft., marked by lilacs brought from Holland.”

I am waiting for a reply on a Brewster desk which was owned by C. C. Coffin, who gifted it in his will. View Brewster’s chest and chair at Pilgrim Hall Museum.

More coming…

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Note on the header image: “Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor,” by William Halsall, 1882. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.