Person:Jonathan Brewster (3)

Jonathan’s name was recorded in the Leyden records several times. 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.

Jonathan arrived at Cape Cod on the Fortune 9 November 1621, and Lucretia came over on the Anne with her brother, John Oldham, arriving about 10 July 1623. It was the murder of fiesty John Oldham that precipitated King Phillip's War. Jonathan was also 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.” Jonathan served as a military commissioner in the Pequot War in 1637, 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 several terms as Deputy to the General Court of Plymouth Colony in 1639, and from 1641 through 1644.

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. Then, as the master of a small trading vessel, he plied the coast from Plymouth to Virginia. This was evidently unprofitable, according to a letter written by Roger Williams to John Winthrop, Jr.:

“Sir, (although Mr. Brewster write me not a word of it) yet in private I am bold to tell you that I hear it hath pleased God greatly to afflict him in the thorne of his life: He was intended for Virginia, his creditors in the Bay came to Portsmouth and unhung his rudder, carried him to the bay, where he was forced to make over house, land, cattle, and part with all to his chest. Oh how sweet is a dry morsel and a handful, with quietness from earth & heaven.”

This statement about his misfortune appears to be verified by Plymouth Colony Deeds Vol 2:24 which notes that John Holland & Hopestill Foster of Dorchester, merchants, sold to William Paybody 80 acres of meadow granted to them by “Jonathan Brewster ye elder of Duxburrow by vertue of his writing and deed bearing date fifteenth day November Anno Domo 1648,” which involved all “his dwelling house, out house, Barnes, Stables, orchyrds, gardens, Land, Meddow & pastures.”

Removing to Connecticut, he settled on land granted him as follows:

“ April 1650, I, Unquas, Sachem of Mauhekon, doe give freely unto Jonathan Brewster of Pequett, a tract of land, being a plaine of arable land, bounded on the south side with a great Coave called Poccatannocke, on the north with old Poccatuck path that goes to the Trading Coave, &c. For, in consideration thereof, the said Jonathan Brewster binds himself and his heirs to keep a house for trading goods with the Indians.”

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. He was “clarke” of the Town of Pequitt (New London) in September 1649, Deputy to the General Court of the Colony of Connecticut, 1650, 1655, 1656, 1657, and 1658, and served as Assistant to the Town in 1657.

On 1 September 1656, Jonathan “resolved for Old England,” according to a letter written to his sister-in-law, Sarah Brewster, widow of Love Brewster. However, he did not return to England. He died intestate at New London in 1659, having deeded all of his property to his son, Benjamin, and his son-in-law, John Pickett, in 1658. John Pickett relinquished his rights to the property on 14 February 1661/2, and provided that his “mother-in-law, Mrs. Brewster, the late wife of his father, Mr. Jonathan Brewster, shall have a full and competent means out of the estate during her life, from the said Benjamin Brewster at her own dispose freely and fully to command at her own pleasure.”

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 people, Jonathan, his son Benjamin, and Benjamin’s great-grandson Jabez Fitch, Jr. The book has been of inestimable value to the Brewster family.