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JONATHAN BREWSTER, son of William Brewster and Mary Unknown
LUCRETIA OLDHAM
Jonathan Brewster was born on 12 August 1593 in Scrooby, Nottinghamshire; the record is found in a collection of Brewster family records, called the Brewster Book. [LHG] He died on 7 August 1659 in Connecticut and is buried in the old cemetery on Brewster's Plain in Norwich. [LHG] He married Lucretia Oldham of Derby on 10 April 1624 in Plymouth. This record, too, is found in the Brewster Book. [LHG]
Lucretia was baptized on 14 January 1600/1 in All Saints, Derby, Derbyshire. [GMB0] She was the sister of John Oldham. She died on 4 March 1678/9. [LHG]
Jonathan was a ribbon maker and exporter in Leiden. [EAS]
Jonathan came to New England after his father, in the Fortune, arriving at Cape Code on 9 November 1621. [OPP4]
Jonathan was on a 2 January 7 Charles [1631/2] tax list in Plymouth. [RPC3] He was a freeman in Plymouth in 1633. [RPC0] He was on a 24 March 1633/4 Plymouth tax list. [RPC1] Jonathan was on a 7 March 1636/7 list of freemen in Plymouth. [RPCK]
Jonathan, [his brother-in-law] Thomas Prence, John Alden and Myles Standish were among the first settlers of Duxbury. [OPP5] Jonathan was on a committee to approve those who wished to settle on the Duxbury side on 4 June 1638. [RPCT]
Jonathan was given the land he mowed the previous year in a land distribution on 14 March 1635. [RPCI] He was granted land in Duxbury on 4 June 1638. [RPCT] Mr. Jonathan Brewster was granted 100 acres on the west side of the mouth of the South River on 2 July 1638. [PRCW] He was branted 300 acres on 4 June 1645. [PC25]
Jonathan was on a jury at the 4/5 October 1636 Plymouth court. [RPCD] He was on a grand jury on 7 March 1636/7. [RPCK] Jonathan Brewster, gentleman, was on a grand inquest jury on 5 June 1638 and on 2 June 1640. [RPCV] He was a deputy for Duxbury on 1 June 1641, 7 June 1642, 27 September 1642, 10 October 1643, 5 June 1644 and 20 August 1644. [PC21]
Jonathan was often called upon to view, layout and divide land or to layout highways. [RPC4]
Jonathan was in charge of trading posts and was called upon to advise on trade policy. In 1635 he was in charge of a trading post in Connecticut on behalf of Plymouth Colony. [EAS] He was on a committee to determine trade policy for the colony on 1 October 1634 and on 7 March 1636/7 and a committee to advise on beaver trade on 7 June 1637. [PRC7] He was on a committee to consider the Kennebec trade on 3 March 1645/6. [PC20] In 1652 he had his own trading post in Connecticut and was censured by the local government, but allowed to keep it. [EAS]
Jonathan ran a ferry service. He was presented to the court for neglecting the ferry at North River and released on 5 March 1638/9. [PC09] He was again presented for neglicing the ferry on 1 December 1640. [PC22] On 1 June 1641 he was told to procure the North River horse boat from the bay by 1 July. [PC23]
Jonathan appears to have had some legal expertise. He acted as an attorney for John Hearker on 7 November 1641 and he was on a committee to prepare some laws to redress present and prevent future abuses on 4 June 1645. [PC24]
Jonathan moved to New London about 1649 and settled in the part that was later Norwich. [LHG] He was deputy to the General Court of the Colony of Connecticut in 1650, 1655, 1657 and 1658. [LHG]
Jonathan was a close friend of Governor John Winthrop, Jr. [EAS]
On 1 September 1656 he sent his widowed sister-in-law Sarah Brewster a letter saying that he and his family were resolved to return to England. He never did, but his sons William and John may have. [LHG]
Children of Jonathan Brewster and Lucretia Oldham:
i. William Brewster was born on 9 March 1625. [LHG] He married Mary Pelme (?) of London. [LHG]
William may have gone to England. [LHG]
ii. Mary Brewster was born on 16 April 1627. She married John Turner.
iii. Jonathan Brewster was born on 17 July 1629 in Plymouth. [LHG]
Jonathan may have gone to England. [LHG]
iv. Ruth Brewster was born on 30 October 1631 in Jones River. [LHG] She died on 30 April or 1 May 1677 in New Londonn. [LHG] She married first John Pickett of New London. [LHG] He died at sea, returning from Barbadoes. [LHG] Ruth married second Charles Hill, formerly of London, on 2 or 16 July 1668. [LHG] Charles was the son of George Hill of Barley, Derbyshire. [LHG]
v. Benjamin Brewster was born on 17 November 1633 in Duxbury. [LHG] He died in 1710. [LHH] He married Ann Darte the last day of February 1659/60, according to the Brewster Book. Ann may be the widow of Ambrose Dart of Boston. Ambrose married Ann, the daughter of William Addis of Cape Code on 24: 4m: 1653. [LHH]. She died in 1709. [LHH]
vi. Elizabeth Brewster was born on 1 May 1637. [LHG] She married first Peter Bradley of New London on 7 September 1653. [LHG] He died on 3 April 1662. [LHG] She married second Christopher Christophers. [LHG] He died on 23 July 1687. [LHG]
vii. Grace Brewster was born on 1 November 1639 in Duxbury. [LHG] She died on 22 April 1684 in New London. [LHG] She married Daniel Wetherell of New London on 4 August 1659. [LHG] Daniel, the son of Reverend William and Mary (Fisher) of Scituate, was born on 29 November 1630 in Maidstone, County Kent. [LHG]
viii. Hannah Brewster was born on 3 November 1641 in Duxbury. [LHG] She married Samuel Starr of New London on 23 December 1664. [LHG]
Hannah was living as Samuel's widow on 22 February 1687/8. [LHG]
References:
LHG. Lucy Hall Greenlaw, "Early Generations of the Brewster Family," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 53 (1899): 109–14.
GMB0. "The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620–1633, Volumes I-III," digitized books, AmericanAncestors, 227–30.
EAS. Eugene Aubrey Stratton, Plymouth Colony: Its History & People 1620–1691 (Salt Lake City: Ancestry, 1986), 250–1.
OPP4. William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation 1620–1647, edited and annotated by Samuel Eliot Morison (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001), editors note, 92.
OPP5. Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation, editors note, 253.
LHH. Greenlaw, "Early Generations of the Brewster Family," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 53 (1899): 284.
RPC3. Nathaniel Shurtleff, Records of the Colony of New Plymouth: Court Orders, vol. 1, 1633–1644 (Boston, William White, 1855), 9–11.
RPC0. Nathaniel Shurtleff, Records of the Colony of New Plymouth: Court Orders, vol. 1, 1633–1644 (Boston, William White, 1855), 3–4.
RPC1. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth: Court Orders, vol. 1, 1633–1644, 27–29.
RPC4. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth: Court Orders, vol. 1, 1633–1644, 14, 31, 55–57, 68, 108–9, 112–3, 144.
RPC7. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth: Court Orders, vol. 1, 1633–1644, 31, 52–54, 60–62.
RPCD. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth: Court Orders, vol. 1, 1633–1644, 44.
RPCI. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth: Court Orders, vol. 1, 1633–1644, 40–41.
RPCK. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth: Court Orders, vol. 1, 1633–1644, 52–54.
RPCE. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth: Court Orders, vol. 1, 1633–1644, 55–57.
RPCL. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth: Court Orders, vol. 1, 1633–1644, 60–62.
RPCM. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth: Court Orders, vol. 1, 1633–1644, 68.
RPCT. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth: Court Orders, vol. 1, 1633–1644, 85.
RPCV. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth: Court Orders, vol. 1, 1633–1644, 86–87, 154–6.
RPCW. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth: Court Orders, vol. 1, 1633–1644, 90–92.
PCO6. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth: Court Orders, vol. 1, 1633–1644, 108–9, 112–3, 144.
PCO9. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth: Court Orders, vol. 1, 1633–1644, 116–7.
PC20. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth: Court Orders, vol. 2, 1633–1644, 96.
PC21. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth: Court Orders, vol. 2, 1633–1644, 16, 40, 46, 63, 72, 75.
PC22. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth: Court Orders, vol. 2, 1633–1644, 5.
PC23. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth: Court Orders, vol. 2, 1633–1644, 8.
PC24. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth: Court Orders, vol. 2, 1633–1644, 66, 85.
PC25. Records of the Colony of New Plymouth: Court Orders, vol. 2, 1633–1644, 88.
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12-Jun-2020