Love Brewster, "Mayflower" Passenger

Love Brewster Mayflower Passenger, was born about 1611, in Leiden, Holland and died between 6 October 1650 and 31 January 1650/1, Duxbury, Plymouth Colony. His will was exhibited at the general court of New Plymouth on 4 March 1650.

Parents: 5th child of Elder William Brewster (ca. 1650-1643), Mayflower Passenger and Mary, his wife.

Married:

1. on 15 May 1634 at Plymouth Colony to Sarah Collier (1616-1691). She was the daughter of William Collier and Jane Clark. Widow Sarah Brewster married second to Richard Parke of Cambridge, who died 12 July 1665.

The 4 children of Sarah Collier and Love Brewster were:

1. Sarah, born ca. 1635, wife of Benjamin Bartlett Sr.
2. Nathaniel, called "eldest son," born ca. 1637, died 1676. Married, her name unknown; no children.
3. William, born ca. 1645, husband of Lydia Partridge.
4. Wrestling, husband of Mary.

Brief Biography

According to MayflowerHistory.com

Love Brewster was born in Leiden, Holland, to parents William and Mary Brewster. His father William was the Elder of the congregation, and in Leiden was a teacher of English and also published books on religion and theology (most of which were illegally sent into England).

At the age of about 9, he came with his father and mother on the Mayflower to Plymouth. He married Sarah Collier in Plymouth on 15 May 1634. Sarah was the daughter of William Collier, one of the investors, or Merchant Adventurers, an initial shareholder in the Plymouth Plantation. Love became a freeman (able to vote and hold land) in the Plymouth Colony on 2 March 1635/6, and was a volunteer to fight in the Pequot War of 1637, but Plymouth Colony's volunteers were not needed. He raised his family in the town of Duxbury, volunteered for the militia under Captain Myles Standish, and lived out his life in the town. His wife Sarah survived him for about thirty more years, dying on 26 April 1691.

"LOVE2 BREWSTER (William1) came in the ship Mayflower, in 1620, with his parents and brother Wrestling. He married at Plymouth, May 15, 1634 (O. S.), SARAH, daughter of William COLLIER,( + ) of Duxbury. Love Brewster died at Duxbury. In Governor Bradford's List of the Mayflower Passengers, referring to Elder Brewster's family, he says: "his son Love lived till this year. 1650. and dyed, ..." His will is dated October 6, 1650 (O. S.). (Plymouth Colony Probate Rec., vol. i. folio, 89.)( + ) His widow, Sarah, married after September 1, 1656, Richard Parke of Cambridge, Mass., who died there, in 1665. "The Plymouth Colony Records show that Sarah returned to Duxbury and was living there 2/12 March, 1679/80," and the following entry is recorded in the First Book of the Plymouth First Church Records, part iii. p. 22, dated 1691, under the heading "members dyed": "mris Sarah Parke, widow, April 26: in her 76th yeare." She died at Plymouth (Mayf. Des., ii. 115, iii. 192, iv. 128).

Love Brewster was admitted a freeman of the Plymouth Colony March 2, 1635-36; early removed from Plymouth to Duxbury and "devoted himself to the cultivation of the paternal acres in Duxbury, forming there with his father a family home, ... where, in due time, a portion of the estate became his own and his children's inheritance." Elder Brewster's house was included in the "portion of the estate," in which house Love and his family lived.

In 1637 Love Brewster's name appears among those who volunteered to serve in the Pequot War from the Colony of New Plymouth (Winsor's Hist. Duxbury, p. 90, and Peirce's Col. Lists, p. 84), and he was a member of Captain Myles Standish's Duxbury Company in the military enrollment of 1643 (Winsor's Duxbury 93; Peirce's Col. Lists, 75, and Genl. Reg. Soc. Col. Wars, 1899-1902, p. 576).

He was grand juryman from Duxbury in 1643 (Peirce's Col. Lists, 53), and in 1645 he was one of the proprietors of the extension to Duxbury, afterwards known as Bridgewater (Winsor's Duxbury, 348).

"A 1620 Mayflower passenger, he arrived with his parents William and Mary Brewster. He married Sarah Collier (PCR 1:30), daughter of William Collier, q.v., 15 May 1634. His children were Sarah Brewster, who married Benjamin2 Bartlett; Nathaniel, who married, but whose wife's name is not known; William, who married Lydia Partridge, daughter of George; and Wrestling, who married a Mary, whose maiden name is not known (NEHGR 53:113-14, 285). He named his wife and four children in his will dated 6 October 1650, inventory 31 January 1650/51 (MD 2:203)."

SOURCE: Plymouth Colony: History and People

LOVE BREWSTER'S WILL AND INVENTORY

From The Mayflower Descendant, vol. ii. pp. 203-06

Love Brewster's will and inventory are recorded in the Plymouth Colony Wills and Inventories, vol. i. folios 89, 90 and 91.

[89] The last Will and Testament of Love Brewster Deseassed exhibited at the generall Court holden at New Plym: the 4th of March 1650 upon the oath of Captaine Miles Standish

Witnesseth these psents that I Love Brewster of Duxburrow in New England and in the government of New Plym: being in pfect memory doe ordeaine & appoint this to bee my last will and Testamente And first my will is that if the lord shall please to take mee out of this life that my body bee buried in a decent mannor and that my funerall expences bee taken out of my whole estate; Next my will is; That all my Just and lawfull debts bee paied out of the Remainder of my said estate allso I give unto my Children that is to say Nathaniell Willam Wrasteling and Sara each of them a kettle and further my will is that my three sonns shall have each of them a peece that is to say a gun; allso I give and bequeath unto my beloved wife Sara Brewster all the Residue of my whole estate both goods and Chattles and land at Duxburrow for the bringing up of her and my Children the time of her life and after her desease I doe give the aforsaid lands to my eldest sonn and heire apparent Nathaniell Brewster and in Case god should take him away out of this life without Issew I give and bequeath the said lands at Duxburrow to my second sonn Willam Brewster and in like Case to my youngest sonn Wresteling Brewster; And for those books I have that my wife would destribute them to herselfe and Children at her descresion allso my will is and I doe by the same give unto my three sonns equally to bee devided amongst them all such land as is of right due to mee by Purchase and first coming into the land Which was in the yeare 1620 allso I doe make Constitute and appoint my beloved wife Sara Brewster sole executrix of this my last will and Testament in Witnes Wherof I have put to my hand and Seale this sixt of october 1650

Wittnes heerunto Love Brewster Myles Standish (seale)

SOURCE: Brewster Genealogy

Links

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Brewster
• http://www.mayflowerhistory.com/Passengers/LoveBrewster.php
• http://www.mayflowerhistory.com/PrimarySources/WillsAndProbates/Lov...
• https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/L5BC-FV2/love-brewster-1611-1651
• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6769443/love-brewster
• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6769446/sarah-brewster_park
• https://famouskin.com/family-group.php?name=42044+paget+brewster&ah...
• Ancestry.com. Colonial Families of the USA, 1607-1775 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016. Volume lll. “Brewster Family.” Page 79. AncestryImage
• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6769443/love-brewster
• https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Brewster-81