Allen line: Jonathan Brewster 1593-1659 Immigrant

I haven't written about Jonathan Brewster before now because I wrote about his somewhat famous father, Elder William Brewster earlier, and my feeling was that the father kind of outshines the son.  I may be wrong about that.  Jonathan Brewster is a fascinating man in his own right, and he was almost a Mayflower ancestor, arriving on the Fortune in November of 161.  But let's start at the beginning 

Jonathan was born August 12, 1593 to William and Mary (last nae still uncertain) Brewster in Scrooby, Nottinghamshire, England.  By the time he was born, his parents were already ardent Puritans and Separatists, and it was after his father had been jailed and released for his religious beliefs that the Pilgrims fled to Amsterdam and then Leiden, Holland (The Netherlands).  Jonathan accepted citizenship there in 1617 and may have planned to make his life there.

 However, he married and his wife and baby died, and that convinced Jonathan to join his family in New England.  (It's possible that he had already been planning to come, of course).  It should be noted that not every genealogist believes that there was a first marriage.  It would be interesting to know but that fact isn't essential to the rest of our story.  In Leiden, Jonathan supported himself and any family he may have had by ribbon making, which was a craft that several of the Pilgrims were practicing.  He probably didn't have a real occupation in England, given that he was 17 years old when he went to Holland, and jobs were not plentiful for Separatists in England.  Possibly he was a day laborer. 

About three years after coming to New England, Jonathan married Lucretia Oldham, daughter of William and Philippa Sowter Oldham on April 10, 1624.  By this time, Jonathan may already have been trading with the natives on an informal basis.  Later, he became a trader and was allowed to set up a trading post in what became Connecticut. 

We know that Jonathan had quite an education, or at least read widely, because one of his other interests was alchemy.  He is mentioned several times in the book "Prospero's America" by Walter W. Woodward.  The book is more of the story of John Winthrop Jr and his study of alchemy, but Jonathn is mentioned several times there as having correspondence with Winthrop, as is William White, our ancestor on the Holbrook side  Alchemy could probably be thought of as an attempt by Christians to learn the secrets of nature in order to use them for profit and also to prepare the world for the Second Coming, which would only happen when the world was good enough.  If an individual alchemist was good enough and pious enough, worked very hard and studied constantly, God might provide him with the clues needed to understand all of nature, and incidentally, to make gold out of base metals  Not every alchemist was trying to find gold.  Some concentrated on making medicines with minerals as their base, as opposed to herbal medicines.  I don't know how much Jonathan was involved in any of these particular ventures, but he does seem to have been involved with an iron works that Winthrop had developed.

I've found indications that Jonathan also served as surveyor, as a deacon or/an an elder in the church, in military service during the Pequot War, as a deputy to the General Court and as an assistant to the governor of Connecticut (don't know which governor).  He was also an attorney, and was styled "Gentleman".  Probably about 1649 but possibly earlier, he moved his family to Pequot, which became New London, and served there as town clerk  He was censured for setting up an Indian trading post without permission but in 1652 the deed from the Indian sachem to Jonathan was approved and he was allowed to continue the trading post.  All in all, Jonathan was a busy man.

John and Lucretia had at least 8 children together, the last born in 1641 in Duxbury, Plymouth Colony.  He died August 7, 1659 at Norwich, New London, Connecticut and is buried at Brewster's Neck, Preston, Connecticut.  I haven't yet found a copy of his will, but I would expect that it would show a considerable net worth since I know he had debts owed him of hundreds of pounds at one time  There is much more to be found, or to be learned, about Jonathan and his story deserves to be found and told.  He was a remarkable man. 

The line of descent is

Jonathan Brewster-Lucretia Oldham
Hannah Brewster-Samuel Starr
Thomas Starr-Mary or Mercy Morgan
Mary Starr-John Chester
Thomas Chester-Sarah Eldridge
Bathsheba Chester-Jonathan Havens
Betsy (Elizabeth Chester) Havens-John Starr
John Havens Starr-Clarissa Falley
Harriet Starr-John Wilson Knott
Edith Knott-Edward Allen
Richard Allen-Gladys Holbrook
Their descendants