cautionary towns, 1585, and of the fall of Davison which was early in 1587, are the first dates that can be said to be firmly established in the history of the life of Brewster. A conjecture only, or rather a probable inference, can be made as to the time of his birth ; for Bradford elsewhere tells us that "their reverend elder, our dear and loving friend, died on the 16th of April, 1644, being near fourscore years of age if not all out."36 This would carry back his birth to about the year 1564, which would make him only twenty-three at the time of Davison's fall. But 1560 is probably nearer the truth: for Morton, in his New England's Memorial, speaks of him as being eightyfour at the time of his death, which he places in 1643, not 1644; and Morton was the nephew of Bradford, and had papers of his now lost.

Nottingham

His affiliation is also a point not yet ascertained. We have already had occasion to observe Brewsters of that there was a William Brewster assessed shire. to the Subsidy of 1571 in the township of Scroobycum-Ranskill. This could not be the William Brewster of whom we are speaking, but it might very well be his father. There was also a Henry Brewster 36 Young, p. 61.

contemporary with the elder William, who was the vicar of Sutton-upon-Lound or Sutton-cum-Lound, to which Scrooby was ecclesiastically annexed. There was also a James Brewster who succeeded Henry in the living of Sutton. So that it is clear that there was a family of Brewsters inhabitants of this part of Nottinghamshire in the Tudor reigns; for we cannot doubt that William Brewster stood in some kind of relationship to the three persons of the name, although that relationship does not at present rest on sufficient evidence. We have no register of baptisms for that period at Scrooby, and the register of Sutton, though it contains much that relates to James Brewster, has nothing whatever that touches on Willliam; nor are any wills of these Brewsters known at York or Southwell.

The name of Brewster, which is of the same obvious origin with the surname Brewer, is one of those which might originate in many different places, and is therefore not to be looked upon as binding all those who inherited it in the bonds of consanguinity. The best of the name were in Essex and Suffolk; and we find in the Visitation of Lincolnshire, 1634, that a Thomas Brewster, who was indisputably of the family in Essex, was then settled at Burwell in that county. But this

throws no light on the early connections of the Brewsters who were settled at and about Scrooby. Yet the fact that James Brewster, the vicar of Sutton, married a lady of a Suffolk family affords one of those distant and uncertain intimations which often prove to the genealogical inquirer but one of those pale lights which are said sometimes to beguile the traveller in unfrequented wilds. Whether a complete investigation of the history of the Brewsters in the counties of Suffolk and Essex, where they have long occupied a conspicuous and most respectable position, would comprehend within their natural alliances these Nottinghamshire Brewsters, can neither be

affirmed nor denied: but certain it is that

The Suffolk and Essex Brewsters.

when no proof and no suggestion of probability is to be found in all that Mr. Jermyn or Mr. Davy, the two Suffolk genealogists, have collected concerning the family, it can only be by very persevering research indeed, or by some most fortunate accident, such as the discovery of letters which may have passed between them, that the connection will ever be shown. We are beyond the reach of parish registers, and no Visitation Book or Inquisition will here assist us.

It is however a fact worthy our notice, that there

was community of opinion as well as of surname between the emigrant to America and the Brewsters in Suffolk. Of this the continued existence of the little Independent chapel at Wrentham, which was built by one of the Brewsters of Suffolk after the restoration for a congregation of Separatists, is an obvious proof. In correspondence with this is another fact, that Francis Brewster of Wrentham was nearly connected by marriage with two of the most eminent Puritan ministers of the time of King Charles the First, Edmund Calamy and Matthew Newcomen, two of the Smectymnuus,37 and that his son Robert Brewster was a member of one of Cromwell's Parliaments. The Brewsters of the county of Suffolk were a family of coat armour bearing a chevron ermine between three silver étoiles on a sable field,-stars breaking through the darkness of night; a suitable device for the American Brewster. Whoever desires to know more of the Brewsters of Suffolk will find

37 I derive this fact from the Harl. MS. 6071, fol. 491, a singular but neglected volume of genealogy. It has no author's name, nor does the catalogue give us any information on that point: but it is clearly an autograph of Matthias Candler, a Puritan divine, of whom Dr. Calamy gives an account, in which he speaks of his fondness for curious historical inquiry.

abundant gratification by referring to the papers of Mr. Jermyn and Mr. Davy, recently added to the treasures of the British Museum, and to No. 1560 of the Harleian collection of manuscripts.

Brewster must have been a man of some position by birth to have obtained an appointment in Davison's service. His residence in the family of Davison may of itself account for his original leaning to the Puritan party for Davison was eminently a Puritan himself, one of the more reflective and philosophical, we may believe, of the party, extending his views, as Brewster did, beyond the mere ceremonies,

Origin of Brewster's

to the great principles which ought to Puritanism. govern men in the management of ecclesiastical affairs, and in their dealings with each other respecting them. I know not that we have decided evidence of what were Davison's opinions on these points or what his own religious practice may have been. There was possibly another influence working on Brewster while he lived with Davison: George Cranmer, another of Dávison's assistants or servants, being fond of theological and ecclesiastical studies, having been a pupil of Hooker and assisting him in his work on Ecclesiastical Polity. He also lived much with Sir Edwin