| Notes |
- He moved with his family to Leiden, Holland in 1608, where he became a merchant and a ribbon maker. Unlike his brothers Love and Wrestling, he stayed behind when the Mayflower sailed; he arrived at Cape Cod on the Fortune in November 1621. In 1630 he and his family moved to Duxbury, where he became a trader, working the coast as far south as Virginia. In 1635-36 he was in Windsor, Connecticut. In 1649 he settled in the New London area, where he spent the rest of his life.
From Kristen Wands, at the Windsor Historical Society site:
During his time in Windsor, Brewster began corresponding with John Winthrop, Jr., with whom he shared an interest in alchemy. Brewster had an alchemical laboratory in his home at Brewster's Neck. In 1656, he believed he was close to discovering the universal cure, a common goal among alchemists. He shared the progress of his experiments with Winthrop, saying, "I ffeare I shall not live to see it finished, in regard partly of the Indianes, who I feare will raise warres; and also I have a conceite that God sees me not worthy of a blessing by reason of my manifold miscariadges." Brewster worried not only that his life might be in jeopardy, but also that some accident would upset his experiments, which needed to sit undisturbed for years at a time. Typically Puritan, he worried that he was not Christian enough to receive the divine alchemical secrets he sought. Writing that he trusted Winthrop with his research more than his own children, Brewster promised he would "shortly write all the whole worke in few words, plainly ... & sealle it vp in a littel box, & subscribe it to your selfe... that if it please God I should suddainly be taken away, you may call for it." Ultimately, it appears Brewster's experiments were unsuccessful. His letters to Winthrop, however, provide a fascinating window into the minds of our New England forefathers.
While Jonathan Brewster's encounters with Native Americans do not seem to have affected his alchemy, later events suggest he was right to be nervous about his family's safety. In early March of 1659, while Brewster was away in Hartford, "12 [Narragansett] Indians came suddainly out of the bushes" surrounding Brewster's farm, and ran toward Mrs. Brewster, who was working in a field with one Mohegan and two English servants. Seemingly to shield her from the attack, the Mohegan ran toward "Mrs. Brewster, and held fast about hir, the other Indians pulled him by force from hir and presently killed him and cutt of his hand and fledd away." Apparently, the Narragansetts were upset that Brewster had been supplying his Mohegan allies with firearms, and the attack, which resulted in the death of the Mohegan servant, was in retaliation. Though no member of Brewster's family was physically harmed, the incident was a tremendous fright to all of the English settlers in the region.
When Brewster's death came, it was the result of an illness rather than an act of violence. He passed away in August of 1659, at 66 years of age. He was buried in Brewster's Neck Cemetery, which is all that remains of the family's home and trading post there.
Jonathan Brewster (1593-1659) = Lucretia Oldham (1600-1678)
Benjamin Brewster (1633=1710) = Ann Addis (1628-1709)
William Brewster (1669-1728) = Patience (d. 1740)
Patience Brewster (b. 1699) = Matthew Dewolfe (1697-1783)
Edward Dewolfe (1735-1790) = Elizabeth (d. 1787)
Edward Dewolfe (1768-1835) = Sarah Bill (1768-1854)
Charles De Wolf (1794-1870) = Betsy Putnam (1794-1881)
John Archelous De Wolf (1833-1901) = Louise Doty (1835-1879)
Ida Corinne De Wolf (1863-1944) = LaFayette Waterbury (1864-1931)
Ledora May Waterbury (1885-1959) = Harry Ross Hubbard (1886-1975)
Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (1911-1986)
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Nielsen Hayden genealogy
1593 - 1659 (65 years)
[1, 2, 3]