Brewster, William (1567?-1644), a spiritual leader of Plymouth Colony, was a founder of the Congregational Church in America. Brewster was born near Scrooby, England, and studied at Cambridge University.
In 1583, Brewster was employed by one of Queen Elizabeth I’s ministers of state, Sir William Davison. Brewster traveled to the Netherlands in the 1580’s but returned to Scrooby when Elizabeth unjustly imprisoned Davison for the beheading of Mary, Queen of Scots in 1587. For 17 years, Brewster served there as bailiff and postmaster. He became a leader of a group of Separatists, with whom he escaped to the Netherlands in 1608. He served there as a ruling elder and a printer, publishing religious books that displeased King James I of England. In 1620, Brewster came to America on the Mayflower. He became the chief spiritual leader because Plymouth often had no pastor. Brewster died on April 10, 1644.
