Brewster – the man behind the name
[As many Budleigh Salterton readers of this blog have learnt, the name of our sister-town on Cape Cod has nothing to do with the brewing industry. The town was named in honour of Elder William Brewster ( left ), one of the leaders – or elders – of the group of Pilgrim Fathers who emigrated to America in 1620 on the Mayflower . Born between 1560 and 1566 in Scrooby, Nottinghamshire, Brewster studied at Cambridge University, and was later employed as a minor civil servant to William Davison, one of Queen Elizabeth I's secretaries of state. Having returned to Scrooby after Davison fell from favour he became one of the original members of the religious Separatist congregation that became the nucleus of the Pilgrim church. The group’s first attempt to emigrate to Holland in 1607 landed Brewster and several others in prison, but he succeeded in the following year, working as a printer in Leiden. Eventually, persecution of the group in Holland forced Brewster and others to emigrate to Ame...