Wrestling Brewster, "Mayflower" Passenger

http://www.mayflowerhistory.com/Passengers/WrestlingBrewster.php

'Wrestling Brewster

Wrestling is found living May 22, 1627. He is dead by 1644 at the time of his father's will William Bradford wrote in his list of Mayflower passengers that Wrestling, "died a young man unmarried."

Wrestling 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 6, he came with his father and mother on the Mayflower to Plymouth. He was alive during the 1627 Division of Cattle at Plymouth, where he is listed in the household of his father William. He is not mentioned again in any other record, and at William Brewster's death in 1644 he is not listed in the will or estate inventory, so he must have died at some time in the interim.

[James Savage, Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England]

WRESTLING, Plymouth, youngest s. of the gr. Elder, b. prob. at Leyden, in Holland, came with [p.247] his f. in the Mayflower, d. (a young man unm.) bef. his f. says Gov. Bradford, but Caulkins, in Hist. of Norwich, 115, refers to an idle tradit. that makes him ancest. of Sir Christopher Brewster of our days. Sir Christopher perhaps may descend from a gr.s. of the Elder, and youngest s. of Love, wh. rec. this name, prob. sev. yrs. after d. of his uncle. In a very agrcea. Memoir of the Life and Time of Elder Brewster, by Rev. Ashbel Steele, Phila. 1857, the author too easi. assum. that this s. of the great Elder was of Portsmouth 1629, and built up his case on three piles of fictitious paper: The first, a forged deed of 6 Dec. 1629 (h. fell on Sunday), of d. in Portsmouth, that was not so call. bef. May 1653, but always Strawberry Bank, with prob. false grantor and witnesses, and writ. in language of one hundred and fifty yrs. later use; next, a fabricat. fam. rec. whereby it is shown, that Wrestling B. was m. 1630 to E. S. had s. John, b. 20 Jan. 1631, and daur. 3 May 1636, nam. Love Lucretia!!! and the w. d. in childbed, thirty-eight yrs. after (perhaps the ch. had it liv. would have seem. to require double name, and so been bapt. Mephistophiles Beelzebub); that E. S. the w. is call. d. of Augustine Story, one of the illustrious grantees in the more ambitious forgery of the Wheelwright deed of all New Hampsh. from the IN made also on Sunday in an earlier mo. of the same yr. and little more than eight yrs. after Wrestling came over the Atlantie, with his f.; and the third fountain of evidence is from many, near. all spurious, accounts of business transactions, wh. by patient investigat. are found to be almost wholly fanciful. In his new Ed. Mr. Steele will, no doubt, correct those childish fictions of the last century.

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References

• 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 claims Wrestling Marcus Erula Story, with children John & Love Lucretia.
• GEDCOM Source Wrestling Brewster unknown
• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/59277021/wrestling-brewster
• GEDCOM Source Mayflower Births and Deaths, Vol. 1 and 2 Ancestry.com Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 1,3718::0