Who Was Daniel Burr, an Executor of the Will of Pelham Founder Thomas Pell?

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Daniel Burr served with John Bankes as an Executor of the Last Will and Testament of Pelham Founder Thomas Pell.  Moreover, in his will, Thomas Pell left to Daniel Burr the following:

"all my horses & horse colts wch. I have in New England & in ye Territoryes of ye Duke of Yorke / I except my Mares and Mare Colts wch. I doo not give him. I except my saddle gelding, wch. my heire is to have if he come over otherwise Daniel Burr is to have him. Daniell Burr is to take ye Horse Flesh as they Run wth. out any further delivery."

In addition, Pell bequeathed to Abigail Burr, "ye wife of Daniell Burr" the following:  

"ye best bed in my house in Fairfield & Boulstis, wth. Two Blancoates & a Rug & Dormink suite of curtains six cushions, Two paire of sheets, six chairs, The Brewing Kettle in use, Two new keelers, a brewing Tub, six silver spoons, wth. ye use of all ye plate in the house, if she desire of my Executors of Trust, till my heire or heires come or send his or their order how or wch. way all things shall be disposed of."

In addition to Daniel Burr's designation as trusted executor of Thomas Pell's will, these substantial bequests to Daniel Burr and his wife, Abigail, suggest that Daniel and Abigail were close to Thomas Pell at the time of his death.  But, who were Daniel and Abigail Burr?  Research has revealed the answer.

"Thomas Pell" by Thom Lafferty from an Original by an

Unknown Artist Who Imagined Pell as He Would Look

There Are No Known Images of Thomas Pell.

NOTE: Click on Image to Enlarge.

Jehu Burr, Father of Daniel Burr

Many believe Daniel Burr was a son of Jehu Burr (whose wife is unknown).  Jehu Burr arrived in New England on the John Winthrop Fleet in early 1630.  He settled in Roxbury in Massachusetts Bay Colony and became overseer of bridges in the Boston region of the Colony in about 1635.  In 1636, Jehu Burr, six other men, and their families moved to an area then known as Agawam (now Springfield, Massachusetts). They acquired land from local Native Americans and carved a small settlement out of the wilderness there.  

In about 1644, Jehu Burr and his family moved from Agawam in Massachusetts Bay Colony to Uncowau (today's Fairfield) in the nearby Colony of Connecticut.  He quickly became a prominent citizen in Fairfield and, in 1645, he represented the tiny settlement at the General Court.  

Over the next twenty years, Jehu Burr was a prominent citizen active in the affairs of Fairfield.  He was appointed as one of two commissioners to solicit funds at the order of the General Court of Connecticut to fund improvements to the educational system.  He served as a Grand Juror.  He was appointed a Commissioner for Fairfield and was reappointed to that position in 1664 and 1668.  It appears, based on a deed in the Fairfield Records dated January 12, 1673 referencing a grant of land to his son, John Burr, made "by will of his father," it appears that Jehu Burr died in late 1672 or early 1673.

To learn more about Jehu Burr, see The Burr Family of Fairfield, CT:  Jehu Burr (visited Jun. 19, 2016).

Daniel Burr

Many believe that at the time of his death, Jehu Burr left four sons:  Jehu, Jr., John, Daniel, and Nathaniel.  All four sons lived and died in Fairfield in the Colony of Connecticut.  Daniel Burr was born about 1639, likely in Agawam (now Springfield) in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.  References to Daniel Burr in the records of the Colony of Fairfield are rather sparse.  According to one genealogist, such records reflecting Daniel Burr show that:  

"May 15, 1668, he bought of Andrew Ward one corner lot with all the appurtenances thereto belonging: at the same time he received a grant of 13 acres from the town, and also bought several parcels of land; in 1681 he exchanged with the town 2 parcels of land and bought a large tract; in 1683 he again appears as a large purchaser of land. His long lot was separated from [his brother] Nathaniel's by Burr's highway, and was 24 rods, 23 links in width."  See id.  

At the time Thomas Pell named Daniel Burr an executor of his will, Burr was about thirty years old and, according to Pell's will, was married to "Abigail."  Abigail Brewster Burr was a daughter of Rev. Nathaniel Brewster of Brookhaven, Long Island.  Nathaniel Brewster, in turn, was a stepson of Thomas Pell, who married Nathaniel Brewster's mother, Lucy Brewster, widow of Francis Brewster of Fairfield.  In short, Abigail was a granddaughter of Lucy Brewster Pell, Thomas Pell's wife.  See Jacobus, Donald Lines, History and Genealogy of the Families of Old Fairfield, Vol. I, p. 123 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1976) (available digitally via Ancestry.com; visited Jun. 17, 2016) (NOTE:  Paid subscription required to access via this link).  Furthermore, there are indications that Daniel Burr and Abigail Brewster Burr were married shortly before Thomas Pell's death, suggesting that the bequests to the two of them at the time of Pell's death were somewhat in the nature of wedding gifts including much needed to begin a home as well as horses for transportation and farming.

One of the apparently more reliable authorities that touches on the life of Daniel Burr seems to be Jacobus, Donald Lines, History and Genealogy of the Families of Old Fairfield, Vol. I (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1976) (available digitally via Ancestry.com; visited Jun. 17, 2016) (NOTE:  Paid subscription required to access via this link).  That book says about Daniel Burr the following:

"Burr, Daniel, s. of Jehu.  Commissary, Fairfield County, May 1690.  

Born abt. 1642; testified 1682 ae. [age] 40; d. in 1695.  He bought a house and homelot from Andrew Ward, 24 Dec. 1668; deed witnessed by William Ward and John Burr.  He bought land from Mr. John Pell [i.e., Thomas Pell's nephew and principal legatee who took over his uncle's real estate including land in Fairfield], 25 July 1672.

Married (1) (rec. Stamford) Feb. 166[9?], Abigail Brewster.  She was dau. of Rev. Nathaniel of Brookhaven, L. I., whose will 16 Mar. 1684/5 named his gr. children Daniel and Abigail Burr.  The will of Dr. Thomas Pell of Fairfield 1669 gave legacies to Daniel Burr and Abigail his wife.  Pell was stepfather of Rev. Nathaniel Brewster.

He m. (2) at New Haven, 11 Dec. 1678, Abigail Glover.  She was dau. of Henry and Helena, b. 31 July 1652, d. abt. 1720/1.

Inv. of Est. of Daniel, Sr., 5 Nov. 1695.

Inv. of Est. of Abigail, 25 Jan. 1721.  Probate names her heirs as:  one son Samuel; children of dec'd dau. Helena wife of John Andrews (viz.:  John, Abigail, Helena, Daniel, Ebeneezer); children of dec'd dau. Deborah wife of Joseph Perry (viz.:  Sarah, Abigail, Joseph, Daniel, Nathaniel); and Mehitabel's one dau. Mehitabel Strong.

Distribution of land that belonged to Daniel Burr 1st, 2 Aug. 1751, to the heirs of Daniel Burr dec'd, to Samuel Burr, to the heirs of Ellen dec'd, to the heirs of Deborah dec'd, and to Abigail.  Another distribution ordered 8 May 1769 to the following:  heirs of Daniel Burr, dec'd, eldest son of the dec'd; heirs of Ellen Andrews, dec'd; heirs of Abigail Sherman, dec'd; heirs of Deborah Perry, dec'd; and Seth Samuel Burr.

Children [by Abigail Brewster], recorded at Fairfield:
Daniel, b. 30 July 1670.
Abigail, b. 14 Mar. 1671 [1671/2], d. at Stratford, 2 Mar 1730/1; m. (1) Daniel Lockwood; m. (2) at Fairfield, 26 June 1700, Elnathan Hanford; m. (3) (rec. Stratford) 26 Nov. 1707, Nathaniel Sherman; had issue by all three.

Children [by Abigail Glover], recorded at Fairfield:
Ellen [also called Helena], b. 26 Oct. 1680; m. Ens. John Andrews.
Deborah, d. abt. 1718; m. (1) Joseph Whelpley; m. (2) Joseph Perry; had issue by both.
Mehitabel, d. before 1713; m. Benajah Strong.
Seth Samuel [often called Samuel], b. 20 June 1694, bapt. 19 Aug. 1694."

Source:  Jacobus, Donald Lines, History and Genealogy of the Families of Old Fairfield, Vol. I, pp. 123-124 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1976) (available digitally via Ancestry.com; visited Jun. 17, 2016) (NOTE:  Paid subscription required to access via this link).

There are additonal biographical and genealogical entries that shed some light on the lives of Daniel and Abigail Brewster Burr.  Care should be taken, however, given a number of apparent mistakes and questionable assertions in the material that follows:

"DANIEL BURR,   2   [5]   OF FAIRFIELD, CT.,
made freeman in 1668.  General Court of May 8, 1690, appointed him Commissary for Fairfield Co.  There is no record of his holding other public office.

May 15, 1668, he bought of Andrew Ward one corner lot with all the appurtenances thereto belonging : at the same time he received a grant of 13 acres from the town, and also bought several parcels of land; in 1681 he exchanged with the town, 2 parcels of land and bought a large tract; in 1683 he again appears as a large purchaser of land.

His long lot was separated from Nathaniel's by Burr's highway, and was 24 rods, 23 links in width.

H m. Abigail, dau. of Henry Glover of New Haven, Dec. 11, 1678.  Chil.:

31.  DANIEL 3
32.  ABIGAIL, 3 m. Daniel Lockwood.
33  SETH SAMUEL.  3
34.  SAMUEL.  3
35.  ELLEN.  3
36.  DEBORAH, 3 m. Ensign John Andrews and had children:  1, John, 2, Abigail, 3. Hellinah, 4, Daniel, and 5, Ebenezer.
38.  MEHITABLE, 3 m. a Strong, and had 1 child, 1, Mehitable.

Daniel and Abigail contested the will, and the estate was not distributed, and the estate was not distributed until 1751.  Daniel, Ellen and Deborah were then deceased, leaving heirs.  No will is found.  Inv. presented Nov. 5, 1695.  His w. Abigail's estate dis. Jan. 25, 1723."

Source:  Todd, Charles Burr, A General History of the Burr Family in America With a Genealogical Record fromm 1570 to 1878, pp. 145-46 (NY, NY:  E. Wells Sackett & Bro., 1878).  It should be noted that Thomas Pell's will seems to make clear that Daniel Burr and Abigail Glover Burr were married by late September, 1669, well before the December 11, 1678 claimed in the text quoted above.

Great care must be taken when considering the genealogical data referenced above.  It appears that among Jehu Burr's sons were both Daniel Burr and Jehu Burr, Jr.  That Jehu Burr, Jr., in turn, named one of his sons after his brother Daniel.  That Daniel Burr, who died in 1722, typically is confused with his uncle who served as the Executor of Thomas Pell's will.  Recently, one genealogist noted:

"THE BURRS OF FAIRFIELD, CONN.
[Communicated by SYLVESTER JUDD, Esq.]. . . .

The ancestors of those Burrs, in this country, were as follows: --

1.  Jehu Burr, who was in Massachusetts in 1630, and was admitted freeman in 1631.  This christian name in the record can hardly be distinguished from John, and is often copied John.  Jehu Burr belonged to the church at Roxbury, and settled at Springfield with William Pynchon and others, in 1636.  In a few years he removed to Fairfield, where he died before 1650.  He had sons Jehu and John; and probably Nathaniel and Daniel Burr, of Fairfield, were his sons also.

2.  Jehu Burr, son of Jehu, died in Fairfield, 1692.  He left sons Daniel, Peter, Samuel, and five or six daughters.  Peter graduated at Harvard College in 1690, and was a distinguished man in Connecticut.

3.  Daniel Burr, son of the second Jehu, died in Fairfield in 1722, leaving ten children, viz. Jehu, Stephen, Peter, David, Moses, Aaron, Hannah, Mary, Elizabeth, Jane. . . ."

Source:  Roberts, Gary Boyd, ed., Genealogies of Connecticut Families From The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol. I - Adams-Gates, p. 261 (Baltimore, MD:  Reprinted for Clearfield Company, Inc. by Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1998, 2006).

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Another Account of the 1653 Witchcraft Trial of Goodwife Knapp In Which Thomas Pell's Wife Testified

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"When . . . reminded that she was now to die, and therefore should deal truly, she burst into tears, and desired her persecutors to cease, saying, in words that must have lingered long in the memory of those who heard, and which it is impossible now to read without emotion, -- 'never, never, poor creature was tempted as I am tempted; pray, pray for me.'"

-- Words of Goodwife Knapp not long before she was hanged for witchcraft following testimony by Lucy Brewster Pell, wife of Thomas Pell.

"If this [implicating another as a witch while on the gallows] was done in the hope of obtaining a reprieve, as seems likely, the poor creature was disappointed, for she was speedily turned off by the executioner, and hung suspended until life was extinct."

-- Account of the execution of Goodwife Knapp for witchcraft in late 1653.

By the 1650’s a preoccupation with the supernatural and a hysterical effort to root out those who “covenanted” with the spectral world had swept through Connecticut – home of Thomas Pell, the founder of the Manor of Pelham.  Sadly, it seems that Thomas Pell’s family members were not immune from the hysteria. Thomas Pell's wife, Lucy, and his step-daughters were involved in the witchcraft persecution that led to the execution of Goodwife Knapp not long before Thomas Pell acquired the lands that became Pelham and surrounding areas.

I have written on several occasions of the involvement of Lucy Brewster Pell and her daughters in the witchcraft persecution of poor Goodwife Knapp in 1653.  See:

Fri., Jul. 07, 2006:  The Involvement of Thomas Pell's Family in the Witchcraft Persecution of Goody Knapp. 

Thu., Oct. 30, 2014:  Did Thomas Pell Act on Pangs of Remorse After Witchcraft Persecution Involving His Family?

Bell, Blake A., The Involvement of Thomas Pell's Family in the Witchcraft Persecution of Goody Knapp, The Pelham Weekly, Vol. XIII, No. 4, Jan. 23, 2004, p. 11, col. 1.

We know a great deal about the witchcraft trial and execution of Goodwife Knapp due to a subsequent lawsuit brought by the husband of Goodwife Staples, an acquaintance of Goodwife Knapp who implicated Staples in witchcraft from the gallows steps in an unsuccessful effort to gain a reprieve.  Mr. Staples sued to clear his wife's name and succeeded.  The depositions taken during that lawsuit, however, paint a horrid, sad, and brutal persecution and execution of Goodwife Knapp.

We may know a great deal about the witchcraft persecution, trial, and execution of Goodwife Knapp, but we do not know precisely what conduct led to the witchcraft accusations against her.  We do know, however, of the torment and anguish that Goodwife Knapp suffered before her execution.  

After her conviction, an ad hoc "committee" of women visited her in confinement.  Lucy Brewster Pell led the group, accompanied by two of her daughters referenced as "Goody Lockwood, and Goodwife Purdy."  These were step-daughters of Thomas Pell, likely the product of Lucy Brewster Pell's first marriage to Francis Brewster who was lost at sea in 1647.  The women tormented Goodwife Knapp, demanding that she confess to witchcraft and threatening that unless she confessed, the devil would take her soul more quickly after her death.  Goody Knapp seemed to believe that the ulterior motive of the women was to have her implicate an acquaintance -- Goodwife Staples -- as a witch.  Goodwife Knapp refused, saying she "must not say anything that was not true" and "must not return evil for evil."  She further warned the women against encouraging such accusations, saying "Take care, that the devil have not you; for you cannot tell how soon you may be my companion."

The women led by Lucy Pell and her daughters continued their onslaught and continued to demand a witchcraft confession from Goody Knapp.  They urged her to confess since, due to her conviction, she would die anyway.  At this, Knapp burst into tears.  She begged her persecutors to cease and piteously cried "never, never, poor creature was tempted as I am tempted; pray, pray for me."

 On the appointed day, a procession of "magistrates and ministers, young persons and those of maturer years, doubtless nearly the entire population of Fairfield" led Goodwife Knapp to the gallows.  Even along the way the local minister urged Goody Knapp to confess to witchcraft.  

At the gallows, Goody Knapp mounted the ladder and had a "moment's grace."  She then descended the ladder and approached Roger Ludlow, one of the magistrates involved in her trial.  She whispered in his ear and then returned to the gallows where she "was speedily turned off by the executioner, and hung suspended until life was extinct."

Once dead, the body of Goodwife Knapp was cut down and laid next to a grave that had been dug nearby.  Once again, a group of women stepped forward and demanded to examine the body for marks of the devil.  One of those women was Goody Staples.  According to one account:

"Calling upon her companions to look at the supposed witch-marks, she [Goody Staples] declares that they were naught but such as she herself or any woman had.  'Aye, and be hanged for them, and deserve it too,' was the reply of one of the older women present.  Whereupon a general clamor ensued, and seeing that there was now nothing to be gained, and much to be apprehended if she persisted, Mrs. Staples yielded, and returned home."  

What did Goodwife Knapp whisper in the ear of magistrate Roger Ludlow immediately before she was hanged?  Apparently in hopes of a last minute reprieve, she repeated a story she had told before about an acquaintance and neighbor, Goodwife Staples.  She told Ludlow that Goodwife Staples had admitted that an Indian had visited her and shown her glowing objects as bright as day that were Indian gods that would bring wealth and power to their possessor.  

Goodwife Staples saw Goody Knapp whisper in the ear of Magistrate Ludlow at the gallows and must have feared what Goody Knapp told him.  Indeed, Goodwife Staples was the one who exclaimed to the women who examined the body for marks of the devil that all the marks present "were naught but such as she herself or any woman had."

After these sad events, Roger Ludlow repeated Goodwife Knapp's last words about Goody Staples and the glowing Indian objects.  The husband of Goody Staples sued Ludlow to clear his wife's name.  The records of that lawsuit preserve the story of this terrible moment in the history of the family of Thomas Pell and the settlement of Fairfield.

Today's posting to the Historic Pelham Blog transcribes the text of yet another account of the witchcraft persecution, trial, and execution of Goodwife Knapp.  The text, from a book published in 1886, is followed by a citation and link to its source.

June 10, 1692 Hanging of Accused Witch,

Bridge Bishop of Salem, Massachusetts.

NOTE:  Click Image to Enlarge.

*          *          *          *          *

"'In October, 1653, about two and a half years after the event just narrated, the General Court passed another resolution in the following words:  'Mr. Ludlow, Mr. Wells, Mr. Westwood and Mr. Hull, are desired to keep a perticulier Courte at Fairfield, before winter to execute justice there as cause shall require. 4  [Footnote 4 reads:  "Col. Rec., i. 249."]

'The unfortunate person on whose account justice was to be executed was, as before, a woman, charged with witchcraft.  She is designated simply as 'Knapp's wife,' or 'goodwife Knapp,' in the only account we have of the proceedings; namely a number of depositions in the case of Thomas Staples of Fairfield, who in the spring of 1654, sued Roger Ludlow of that place, for calling his wife a witch.  It is not impossible that goody Knapp may have been the wife of Roger Knapp of New Haven, who removed to Fairfield, although his name is not mentioned among the residents there until 1656.  His son, Nathaniel, lived in Pequannock in 1690, and joined the church afterwards organized there, his name occur- [Page 148 / Page 149] ring frequently upon the early records of the North Church in Bridgeport.

'The trial took place in the autumn of 1653, before a jury and several 'godly magistrates' (the same probably that are named in the order of the General Court), and doubtless lasted several days.  There were many witnesses, but the indictment and the substance of the greater part of their testimony are wanting.  We learn, however, that a strong and perhaps decisive point against the accused, was the evidence of Mrs. Lucy Pell and Goody Odell, the midwife, who by direction of the Court had examined the person of the prisoner, and testified to finding upon it certain witch marks, which were regarded as proof positive of intimacies.  Mrs. Jones, wife of the Fairfield minister, was also present at this examination, but whether as a spectator or as one of the examiners, is not clearly stated.

'The jury brought in a verdict of guilty, and goodwife Knapp was sentenced to death.  After her condemnation she was visited by numbers of the towns-people, who constantly urged her to confess herself a witch and betray her accomplices, on the ground that it would be for the benefit of her soul; and that while there might have been some reason for her silence before the trial, since a confession then might have prejudiced her case, there could be none now, for the reason that she was sure to die in any event.  The pains of perdition were held up to her as sure to be her position, in case of a refusal.

'Upon one of these occasions, the minister and a number of the towns-people being present, the poor woman replied to her well-meaning tormentors that she 'must not say anything that was not true,' she 'must not wrong anybody,' but that if she had anything to say before she went out of the world she would reveal it to Mr. Ludlow, at the gallows.  Elizabeth Brewster, a bystander, answered coarsely, 'if you keep it a little longer till you come to the ladder, the devil will have you quick, if you reveal it not till then.'  'Take care,' replied the prisoner indignantly, 'that the devil have not you; for you cannot tell how soon you may be my companion.' 'The [Page 149 / Page 150] truth is,' she added, 'you would have me to say that goodwife Staples is a witch, but I have sins enough to answer for already, and I hope that I shall not add to my condemnation; I know nothing against goodwife Staples, and I hope she is an honest woman.'  She was sharply rebuked by Richard Lyon, one of her keepers, for this language, as tending to create discord between neighbors after she should be dead, but she answered, 'goodman Lyon, hold your tongue, you know not what I know; I have been fished withall in private more than you are aware of.  I apprehend that goodwife Staples hath done me wrong in her testimony, but I must not return evil for evil.'  When further urged, and reminded that she was now to die, and therefore should deal truly, she burst into tears, and desired her persecutors to cease, saying, in words that must have lingered long in the memory of those who heard, and which it is impossible now to read without emotion, -- 'never, never, poor creature was tempted as I am tempted; pray, pray for me.'

Yet it appears that her fortitude sometimes gave way, and that she was induced to make a frivolous confession to the effect that Mrs. Staples once told her that an Indian had brought to her several little objects brighter than the light of day, telling her that they were Indian gods, and would certainly render their possessor rich and powerful; but that Mrs. Staples had refused to receive them.  This story she subsequently retracted.

'The procession to the place of execution, which is stated by an eye-witness to have been 'between the house of Michael Try and the mill,' or a little west of Stratfield boundary, included magistrates and ministers, young persons and those of maturer years, doubtless nearly the entire population of Fairfield.  On the way to the fatal spot the clergyman 5 [Footnote 5 reads"  "Rev. John Jones, who came from England in 1635."] again exhorted the poor woman to confess, but was rebuked by her companion Mrs. Staples, who cried, 'Why bid her confess what she is not?  I make no doubt, but that if she were a witch she would confess.'

'Under the shadow of the gallows the heart of Goody Knapp must again have failed her, for being allowed a [Page 150 / Page 151] moment's grace after she had mounted the ladder, she descended and repeated her former trifling story respecting Mrs. Staples, in the ear of Mr. Ludlow, her magistrate.  If this was done in the hope of obtaining a reprieve, as seems likely, the poor creature was disappointed, for she was speedily turned off by the executioner, and hung suspended until life was extinct.

'When the body had been cut down and laid upon the green turf beside the grave, a number of women crowded about it eager to examine the witch signs.  In the foreground we see Mrs. Staples kneeling beside the corpse, and in the language of one of the witnesses, 'wringing her hands and taking ye Lord's name in her mouth,' as she asseverates the innocence of the murdered woman.  Calling upon her companions to look at the supposed witch-marks, she declares that they were naught but such as she herself or any woman had.  'Aye, and be hanged for them, and deserve it too,' was the reply of one of the older women present.  Whereupon a general clamor ensued, and seeing that there was now nothing to be gained, and much to be apprehended if she persisted, Mrs. Staples yielded, and returned home.  

Among the names occurring in that narrative are some like Gould, Buckly and Lyon, that are common in Fairfield to this day.  The Odells and Sherwoods may have been residents of Pequannock. 6  [Footnote 6 reads:  "There were no settlers at Pequannock as early as 1654."]  Mr. Ludlow saw fit to repeat the story told him by the dying woman, and to further assert that Mrs. Staples had not only laid herself under the suspicion of being a witch, but 'made a trade of lying.'  Hence the suit already mentioned, in which the New Haven Court had the good sense to give a decision in favor of the plaintiff, and allow him fifteen pounds damages."

Source:  Orcutt, Samuel, A History of the Old Town of Stratford and the City of Bridgeport Connecticut, Part I, pp. 148-51 (New Haven, CT:  Press of Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor, 1886) (Published under the auspices of the Fairfield County Historical Society).

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More About Rev. Nathaniel Brewster, the Stepson of Pelham Founder Thomas Pell

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Reverend Nathaniel Brewster was the stepson of Pelham founder, Thomas Pell.  In 1647, Thomas Pell married Lucy Brewster, the widow of Francis Brewster of Fairfield.  Lucy brought to her second marriage several children from her first marriage to Francis Brewster.  One of those children, Nathaniel Brewster, had 17th century ties to Eastchester and Pelham and is the subject of today's posting to the Historic Pelham Blog. I have written about Nathaniel Brewster before.  See Tue., Nov. 04, 2014:  Rev. Nathaniel Brewster, Stepson of Thomas Pell.

Nathaniel Brewster was born to Francis and Lucy Brewster before 1618. [Knapp, Alfred Averill, The Ancestral Lines of Mary Lenore Knapp, p. 117 (Ann Arbor, MI: Edwards Brothers, Inc., 1948).]  Brewster died in 1690 in Setauket (now Brookhaven), Long Island. See id.  In about 1644, shortly before his father was lost at sea in 1646, Nathaniel married Abigail Reynes, a daughter of John Reynes.  Her mother is unknown.

The Brewster House, Town of Brookhaven, Long Island.

Photograph by Dr. Ira D. Koeppel, 2013.  Source:  This

Photograph is Embedded from the Ward Melville Heritage

Organization Web Site and is Not Copied To This Blog.  Thus,

If the Photograph is Removed from the Ward Melville Heritage

Organization Web Site or the Web Address for the Image

Changes, It Will No Longer Display Above.  See Image at

http://wmho.org/brewster-house.

Today's posting to the Historic Pelham Blog provides additional information about Nathaniel Brewster by transcribing a portion of an article that appeared in the January, 1915 issue of The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record.  One of the most interesting aspects of the excerpt quoted immediately below is the information it provides regarding Nathaniel Brewster's ties to and service on behalf of Oliver Cromwell and the assertion that Brewster returned to New England at the time of the Restoration.

"[I]t is most remarkable that the identity of so prominent a clergyman as the Rev. Nathaniel Brewster should still be an unsettled question.  The compiler of the Brewster Genealogy, published in 1908, says:  'The problem upon which numerous genealogists have been working for many years concerning the parentage of Rev. Nathaniel Brewster of Brookhaven, L. I., has not been solved.'

Yet Mr. Savage, whose Genealogical Dictionary was published a half century ago, says that he was probably the son of Francis Brewster of New Haven, between whom and Elder William Brewster no kinship has yet been traced, though Mr. William A. Beers, author of a memoir of Roger Ludlow, quoted by Stiles in his History of Ancient Windsor, calls Francis, without authority, a 'nephew of Elder William Brewster.'  Sibley, in his Harvard Graduates (1873), accepts Mr. Savage's suggestion that Nathaniel was the son of Francis, who is credited in 1640 with a wife Lucy and a family numbering in all nine heads.  In 1646 Francis Brewster was one of the passengers on the ill-fated ship built in New Haven and sent out in command of Captain Lamberton, the loss [Page 5 / Page 6] which at sea is said to have been disclosed to the anxious inhabitants through the apparition of the phantom ship.  Mrs. Lucy Brewster, his widow, married 2nd Dr. Thomas Pell and died in 1669.

Nathaniel Brewster was a member of the first class graduated at Harvard in 1642, his classmates being Benjamin Woodbridge, George Downing, John Bulkeley, William Hubbard, Samuel Bellingham, John Wilson, Henry Saltonstall and Tobias Barnard.  He married, according to Mr. Savage, Sarah Ludlow, daughter of Roger Ludlow, Deputy Governor of Massachuetts in 1637 and Chief of the Commission sent in 1639 to govern Connecticut, but when or where this union took place is not recorded.

The life of Mr. Ludlow, after he left Connecticut, is involved in some obscurity.  Mr. Savage says that after serving as a Commissioner of Connecticut in the convention of the United Colonies of New England in 1651-53, he 'went off next year to Virginia in some disgust and passed there the rest of his days.'  But the researches of Mr. Waters, published originally in 1886 (N. E. Gen. Reg., xl, 300), show conclusively that Ludlow, even if he visited Virginia, where his brother George lived, returned almost immediately to England.  George Ludlow of Co. York, Virginia, in his will, made Sept. 8, 1655, makes a bequest to his brother Roger Ludlow, and in a codicil of Oct. 23, the same year, bequeaths a part of his estate, in a certain contingency, to 'my nephew Jonathan Ludlow, the eldest son to my brother Roger, who lives in Ireland at Dublin,' and a residuary remainder to Roger's other children.  In 1656, Aug. 1, letters of administration were granted to 'Roger Ludlow, Esq., the father and curator lawfully assigned to Jonathan, Joseph, Roger, Ann, Mary and Sarah Ludlow, minors . . . during the minority of the said minors.'  This gives us for the first time the names and an approximation to the ages of Roger Ludlow's children.

Hubbard, in his History of New England, says that Roger Ludlow was a brother-in-law of John Endicott.  The will of Philobert Cogan of Chard, Co. Somerset, gentleman, of Feb. 10, 1640, proved April 12, 1641, mentions daughters 'Mary Ludloe and Elizabeth Endicott.'  This gives us probably the names of the wife of Roger Ludlow and of the last wife of Gov. Endicott.  In the Visitation of Somerset, under date of 1623, we learn that Mary, daughter of Philobert Cogan and of Ann, daughter of Thomas Marshall, was nineteen years old in that year.  She was born therefore in 1604, and was fourteen years younger than her husband Roger Ludlow, who was baptized in 1590.  When she married Ludlow is unknown, but it was probably before 1630 when Ludlow accompanied Winthrop to New England.

We are almost equally ignorant of the movements of Nathaniel Brewster after his graduation at Harvard, nor do we know when or why he went to England, though it was probably after the loss of his father.  The earliest note we find of him is in 1649, when Thomas Pell of New Haven, chirugeon, constituted Nathaniel [Page 6 / Page 7] Brewster of Walberswick, Co. Suffolk, his attorney.  This is pretty good evidence of Nathaniel's connection with the New Haven family, for Thomas Pell was his stepfather through marriage with the widow of Francis Brewster.  Brewster must have removed soon after to Norfolk, where he preached at several places.  A church was formed at Alby in that county in 1651 and Brewster seems to have had some connection with it from the first, but he did not settle there until 1653.  In 1654 an order of council directed that an augmentation of £36, which had been granted for the better maintenance of Nathaniel Brewster, late minister of Nettisheard and Irsted, Norfolk, be paid to John Leverington from the time of Brewster's leaving it.

Mr. Brewster seems to have been persona grata to the Lord Protector Cromwell and to have been employed by him in affairs of State.  In 1655 he was sent to Ireland with the Protector's son Henry Cromwell, who went with a commission as Major-General to command the forces there.  Oliver, writing to the Lord Fleetwood, Lord Deputy of Ireland, under date of 'Whitehall, 22d June, 1655,' says of Brewster:

'Use this Bearer, Mr. Brewster, kindly.  Let him be near you:  indeed he is a very able holy man; trust me you will find him so.'  Carlyle, commenting on this letter, in Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, says:  'Of Mr. Brewster and the other reverend persons, Spiritual Fathers, held in such regard by the Lord Protector as is due to Spiritual Fatherhood, and pious nobleness of Intellect under whatever guise, I can say nothing:  they are Spiritual Great-grandfather's of ours, and we have had to forget them!  Some slight notices of Brewster, who I think was a Norfolk man; . . . are in the Milton State Papers; they prove the fervent zeal, faith and fearlessness of these worthies.'

The Milton State Papers referred to are letters and papers addressed to Oliver Cromwell between 1649 and 1658, found among the political collections of John Milton, including several concerning the churches in Norfolk.  Among them is a document in regard to the parsonages of Alby and Twaite, presided over by Mr. Nathaniel Brewster, who, having constantly preached in both places, cannot raise above £50 per annum out of both.  'So as the said Mr. Brewster, a great family, and much employed in the country by preaching freely, when there is need, is reduced to very great straits, and not like to continue in his function without assistance from the State.'

It was probably in consequence of this report that he was sent to Ireland by Cromwell.  Mr. Brewster was in Ireland somewhat more than a year, though apparently not continuously, as there is mention of him at Alby meanwhile.  He received, it is said, the degree of B. D. from the University of Dublin, but his name does not appear in the catalogue of graduates.  He was a widower at the time if he married, as is said, the daughter of Roger Ludlow.  His first wife is said to have been Abigail Reynes, daughter of John Reynes of Edgefield, Co. Norfolk, who must have been the [Page 7 / Page 8] mother of his 'great family' mentioned above.  Mr. Brewster was much older than Sarah Ludlow.  If the statement of his grandson to President John Adams be correct, that he was ninety five years old at the time of his decease in 1690, he was born in 1595.  But this is scarcely probable, as he would have been forty-seven at his graduation at Harvard and sixty at the tie of his marriage to Miss Ludlow, then a minor.  But if, as is usually stated, he was seventy years old at his decease, December 18, 1690, he was born in 1620, and was therefore thirty-six years old at the time of his visit to Ireland.  As Jonathan, the eldest of Roger Ludlow's children, was then a minor, he could not have been more than twenty, and Sarah, if the youngest, not more than twelve years old.  Of course, it is possible that the six children are not mentioned in the order of their birth, but even if Sarah were next to Jonathan she could scarcely have been more than half the age of the Rev. Nathaniel.  If she were 'eminently distinguished for her genius  and literary acquirements,' as we are told, she must have gained them through her connection with the learned graduate of Harvard.

Mr. Brewster probably resumed his ministrations at Alby and Twaite on his return to England, but after the Restoration he came back to New England and preached in the First Church of Boston several months from October, 1663.  In 1665 he went to Brookhaven, Long Island, where his sister had settled, and in the autumn of that year accepted a call as the first minister of the church there.  He was incapacitated from ministerial duties several months before his death."

Source:  Champlin, John Denison, THOMPSON AND BREWSTER in The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Vol. XLVI, No. 1, pp. 4, 5-8 (NY, NY:  Jan. 1915).

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Rev. Nathaniel Brewster, Stepson of Thomas Pell

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Thomas Pell is widely considered the founder of the Manor of Pelham though he never resided permanently on the lands that he acquired from local Native Americans on June 27, 1654.  According to Pell's will, Pell left no issue (offspring) of his own.  In 1647, however, he married Lucy Brewster, the widow of Francis Brewster of Fairfield.  Lucy brought to her second marriage several children from her first marriage to Francis Brewster.  One of those children, Nathaniel Brewster, had 17th century ties to Eastchester and Pelham and is the subject of today's posting to the Historic Pelham Blog.  

Nathaniel Brewster was born to Francis and Lucy Brewster before 1618.  [Knapp, Alfred Averill, The Ancestral Lines of Mary Lenore Knapp, p. 117 (Ann Arbor, MI:  Edwards Brothers, Inc., 1948).]  Brewster died in 1690 in Setauket (now Brookhaven), Long Island.  See id.  In about 1644, shortly before his father was lost at sea in 1646, Nathaniel married Abigail Reynes, a daughter of John Reynes whose mother is unknown.  See id.  

Nathaniel Brewster and his first wife, Abigail Reynes, had at least two children:  John Brewster, born about 1645 in England, and Abigail Brewster.  Shortly after Thomas Pell acquired the lands that became the Manor of Pelham in 1654, Nathaniel Brewster married his second wife, Sarah Ludlow, who was a daughter of Roger Ludlow and his wife, Mary (Cogan) Ludlow in about 1655/56.  Roger Ludlow was an important early English settler who helped found the Colony of Connecticut as well as Fairfield and Norwalk.  Id.  According to one source, Nathaniel and his second wife, Sarah, had at least the following children:

"Sarah Brewster, b. about 1656.  m. Jonathan Smith. . . . 

Timothy Brewster, b. about 1858.  m. Mary Hawkins. . . . 

Daniel Brewster, bapt. 10-31-1662, Alby, England.  m. about 1693, Anne Jayne, dau. of William Jayne. . . . 

Hannah Brewster, b. about 1669/70. or 5-19-1679.  m. 1st, John Muncey.  2nd, John or Samuel Thompson. . . . 

Dinah Brewster, b. about 1666.  m. 4-6-1685, Joseph Tooker, son of Capt. John and Sarah Tooker. . . . 

Deborah Brewster, not proven by records."

Id., p. 118.

Nathaniel Brewster graduated from Harvard in 1642.  He served as a preacher in England from 1643 until 1663.  He returned to America at an opportune time.  His stepfather, Thomas Pell, had sold a large section of his land on June 24, 1664 to Philip Pinckney and others to permit the establishment of the settlement that became Eastchester.  The original ten families of Eastchester plus others who joined them built houses and settled adjacent to the lands owned by Thomas Pell.  

In 1665, the settlers of Eastchester agreed to the "Eastchester Covenant," an early 17th century copy of which still exists.  The Eastchester Covenant contained articles of agreement by which the early settlers agreed to abide as if the articles had the force of Town law.  One of the articles, designated number "19." in the early copy of the Eastchester Covenant, provided "That we give some encouragement to Mr. Bruwster eatch other weecke to give us a word of exortation and that when we are settelled we mete togeather etch other weeke one hour to talke of the best things."  [For an image of the early copy of the Eastchester Covenant, see Eastchester 350, Archive of Original Records:  Eastchester Covenant, 1665 <http://eastchester350.org/350/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Eastchester-Covenant1.pdf> (visited Nov. 1, 2014).]  

The "Mr. Bruwster" referenced in the above-quoted article was Rev. Nathaniel Brewster, a stepson of Thomas Pell.  Though Brewster had preached in England for nearly two decades, in 1663 he returned to America after "The Great Ejection" that followed the Act of Uniformity 1662 in England.  In The Great Ejection, about two thousand Puritan ministers left their positions as Church of England clergy, following changes after the restoration of Charles II to power following The Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell.  

For a very short time after his arrival in America, Brewster preached in Boston.
 Beginning in 1664, however, Brewster began preaching every other week in the tiny settlement of Eastchester  [See, generally, Morgan, Eloise L., ed., Out of the Wilderness -- The Emergence of Eastchester, Tuckahoe & Bronxville, NY 1664-2014, p. 67 & nn.154-57 (Privately Printed, Eastchester 350th Anniversary, Inc.).]  It would appear that Thomas Pell's ties to the tiny settlement of Eastchester facilitated a paid, though brief, tenure for Pell's stepson, Nathaniel Brewster, who preached to the Eastchester settlers every other week for about a year.  By 1665, however, Brewster removed to Setauket [now Brookhaven], Long Island where he preached for twenty-five years until his death in 1690.  Id.  It appears that Nathaniel Brewster removed to Eastchester not only because he had an opportunity to preach there, but also because certain of his children already lived there (see below).

This information sheds fascinating light on a matter about which I have written several times involving settlers who were allowed in 1669 to live on Minneford Island (today's City Island), part of the lands owned by Thomas Pell of the Manor of Pelham.  Nathaniel Brewster, Pell's stepson, was a preacher in Setauket in 1665 and thereafter.  Early in his tenure as a preacher in Setauket, a local husband and wife, Ralph and Mary Hall, were accused of practicing witchcraft and harming local residents who had become sick.  They were brought before the Court of Assizes which, after a witchcraft trial, sentenced the couple as follows:

"[Ralph Hall] 'should be bound Body and Goods for his Wife's Appearance at the next Sessions and so on from Sessions to Sessions, as long as they stay in this Government. In the mean While to be of good Behaviour.'"  The Court's message in its sentencing was clear:  "GET OUT!"  By August 21, 1668, the couple was living on Great Miniford's Island," part of the land owned by Thomas Pell.  [See Drake, Samuel G., Annals of Witchcraft in New England and Elsewhere in the United States from their First Settlement Drawn Up from Unpublished and Other Well Authenticated Records of the Alleged Operations of Witches and Their Instigator, the Devil, pp. 125-27 (NY, NY: Burt Franklin 1869).]

Although I have speculated that Thomas Pell's pangs of remorse over his family's earlier involvement may have played a role in allowing Ralph and Mary Hall to settle on Pell's lands, it would certainly seem that the circumstantial evidence is strong that Setauket preacher Nathaniel Brewster brokered an arrangement with his stepfather, Thomas Pell, to allow Ralph and Mary Hall to flee Setauket and settle on Minneford Island, part of Thomas Pell's lands. 

To read more about Ralph and Mary Hall of Setauket and their witchcraft persecution, see:  

See Fri., May 12, 2006:  Possible Evidence that Residents of the Manor of Pelham Were Acquitted in Rare 17th Century Witchcraft Trial in New York.

Thu., Oct. 30, 2014:  Did Thomas Pell Act on Pangs of Remorse After Witchcraft Persecution Involving His Family?

Another interesting issue to consider in connection with Nathaniel Brewster's brief tenure as a Puritan preacher in Eastchester is where did he and his family live.  No record has yet been located by this author to resolve this issue.  It is fascinating, however, to speculate that Brewster and his family lived in his stepfather's house believed to have been located on Pell's Point (today's Rodman's Neck) a thousand yards away from the center of the tiny little settlement of Eastchester at the time.  

We know that Brewster's stepfather, Thomas Pell, owned a home on a farm in Pelham due to the inventory of that portion of Pell's estate within the colony of New York taken shortly after his death in late September, 1669.  The inventory of Thomas Pell's New York estate is a fascinating document that seems to reveal much about Pelham's earliest years.  According to tradition, Thomas Pell never lived on the lands bought from Native Americans that came to be known as Pelham. His principal abode remained in Fairfield in the Colony of Connecticut.  The inventory, however, strongly suggests that Thomas Pell built a substantial farm on his Pelham lands and that the farm, which likely was located on what we know today as Rodman Neck, was in use at the time of Pell's death.  The inventory shows that Pell had "howsing [housing], lands, barnes" on the land that came to be known as Pelham.  There is an additional reference in the inventory to "House and land in Westchester" owned by Pell.  This is interesting because Westchester County was not created until 1683.  There was, however, a settlement known by the English as "West Chester" or "Westchester" in a portion of today's Bronx County on land that Pell sold to the early settlers of that community.  There is at least the possibility that Thomas Pell had a working farm on Rodman's Neck that included some form of housing as well as a house in the settlement of West Chester.  If, as tradition holds, Thomas Pell built a house and farm on today's Rodman's Neck, it would seem nearly a given that Nathaniel Brewster and his family would have stayed in the house during his time preaching at Eastchester.  Alternatively, they could have stayed in a house owned by Pell in the settlement of "West Chester" which was adjacent to the southern boundary of Eastchester.

One genealogist who has studied Nathaniel Brewster's life has written about him as follows:

"Nathaniel Brewster graduated at Harvard in 1642.  Preached in England from 1643 to 1663.  In Brookhaven, L.I. until his death [sic].  (It has also been said that he was Pastor at Setauket, L.I., from 1644 to 168, probably incorrect [sic].)  He was a member of the first class to graduate at Harvard in 1642.  Received the degree of B.D. from Dublin, Ireland in 1656.  In 1649 he appeared as Attorney for Thomas pell at Walderswish, Co. Suffolk, England.  His will was made 3-16-1684/85.  Proven 5-3-1695, at Brookhaven.  The will of John Reynes, dated 9-26-1662, proven 5-30-1663, mentions 'my son-in-law, Nathaniel Brewster who married my daughter'.  In a suit in England, 1660, Roger Ludlow is called 'natural and legal father of Jonathan-Joseph-Roger-Anne-Marie and Sarah ludlow.  If Sarah was still unmarried in 1660, she could have been the mother of Daniel and Timothy Brewster, but none older.  Roger Ludlow, father of Sarah, returned to England between 1651 and 1653.  Sarah's ancestry goes back to Magna Charta."

[Knapp, Alfred Averill, The Ancestral Lines of Mary Lenore Knapp, p. 117 (Ann Arbor, MI:  Edwards Brothers, Inc., 1948).]

Interestingly, Setauket citizens purchased a home for Rev. Nathaniel Brewster for use as a manse in Setauket (now Brookhaven), Long Island when he moved there in about 1665.  That home has been preserved, still stands, and is administered by the Ward Melville Heritage Organization.  The structure is believed to be the oldest now standing in the Town of Brookhaven.  It is a lovely saltbox-style structure created from the original "one-room cottage" built by Brewster in about 1665.  An image of the home appears below, embedded from within the Ward Melville Heritage Organization Web site.

The Brewster House, Town of Brookhaven, Long Island.

Photograph by Dr. Ira D. Koeppel, 2013.  Source:  This

Photograph is Embedded from the Ward Melville Heritage

Organization Web Site and is Not Copied To This Blog.  Thus,

If the Photograph is Removed from the Ward Melville Heritage

Organization Web Site or the Web Address for the Image

Changes, It Will No Longer Display Above.  See Image at

http://wmho.org/brewster-house.

A local historian has written of Nathaniel Brewster, his wife Sarah Ludlow Brewster and her father, Roger Ludlow, as follows:

"Roger Ludlow married a sister of Governor John Endicott.  It is probable that this marriage did not take place until after he came to America as none of his children were of age when he left New England.  One of his children was born at Windsor, and probably most of his other children were born at Fairfield.  His daughter Sarah married Nathaniel Brester.  'She is represented as a person eminently distinguished for her genius and literary acquirements.'  Savage supposes her husband Nathaniel Brewster to have been a son of Francis Brewster of the New Haven Colony, and a nephew of the celebrated Elder Brewster, of the Plymouth Colony.  He was a graduate in 1642 of the first class of Harvard College, and, on account of the liberality allowed at that time to all classes of christians [sic], he with most of his class returned to England.  He received the degree of B. D. from the Dublin University, and was settled as a minister over the parish of Alby in Norfolk County.  It was during his residence in England that he married Sarah Ludlow.  Upon the restoration of Charles II, Episcopacy being again restored, Brewster returned with his wife to New England, and from Oct. 1663 preached at the First Church in Boston.  He was settled over the church of Brookhaven, Long Island, in 1665, where he continued his pastoral duties for the remainder of his life.  He died in 1690.  Both he and his wife 'were buried in the Presbyterian burying-ground of Setauket, but the inscriptions on their tomb stones are too much effaced to be read.'  They left three sons, John, Timothy, and Daniel, whose numerous descendants are still found there.

Capt. Caleb Brewster of Black Rock, who distinguished himself in the Revolution, was one of the descendants of the Rev. Nathaniel Brewster and his wife Sarah Ludlow.  His grand-son, Caleb Brewster Hackley, who now resides at Black Rock, is the sole surviving representative in Fairfield of this distinguished family.  Still further light is thrown upon the family pedigree of Roger Ludlow, by Sir Anthony B. Strausham, of London."

[Schenk, Elizabeth Hubbell, The History of Fairfield - Fairfield County, Connecticut from the Settlement of the Town in 1639 to 1818, Vol. I, p. 319 (NY, NY:  Published for the Author by the Press of J. J. Little & Co., 1889).].

Gravestone of Rev. Nathaniel Brewster, Setauket

Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Setauket, Suffolk County, New York.

Photograph by Michael Sparks.  Source:  This

Photograph is Embedded from the Find-A-Grave Web Site

and is Not Copied To This Blog.  Thus, If the Photograph is Removed from

the FindAGrave.com Web Site or the Web Address for the Image

Changes, It Will No Longer Display Above.  See Image at

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=31597216

Another authority has written of Nathaniel Brewster as follows:

"[I]t is most remarkable that the identity of so prominent a clergyman as the Rev. Nathaniel Brewster should still be an unsettled question.  The compiler of the Brewster Genealogy, published in 1908, says:  'The problem upon which numerous genealogists have been working for many years concerning the parentage of Rev. Nathaniel Brewster of Brookhaven, L. I., has not been solved.'

Yet Mr. Savage, whose Genealogical Dictionary was published a half century ago, says that he was probably the son of Francis Brewster of New Haven, between whom and Elder William Brewster no kinship has yet been traced, though Mr. William A. Beers, author of a memoir of Roger Ludlow, quoted by Stiles in his History of Ancient Windsor, calls Francis, without authority, a 'nephew of Elder William Brewster.'  Sibley, in his Harvard Graduates (1873), accepts Mr. Savage's suggestion that Nathaniel was the son of Francis, who is credited in 1640 with a wife Lucy and a family numbering in all nine heads.  In 1646 Francis Brewster was one of the passengers on the ill-fated ship built in New Haven and sent out in command of Captain Lamberton, the loss of which at sea is said to have been disclosed to the anxious inhabitants through the apparition of the phantom ship.  Mrs. Lucy Brewster, his widow, married 2nd Dr. Thomas Pell and died in 1669.

Nathaniel Brewster was a member of the first class graduated at Harvard in 1642, his classmates being Benjamin Woodbridge, George Downing, John Bulkeley, William Hubbard, Samuel Bellingham, John Wilson, Henry Saltonstall and Tobias Barnard.  He married, according to Mr. Savage, Sarah Ludlow, daughter of Roger Ludlow, Deputy Governor of Massachusetts in 1637 and Chief of the Commission sent in 1639 to govern Connecticut, but when or where this union took place is not recorded. . . .

We are almost equally ignorant of the movements of Nathaniel Brewster after his graduation at Harvard, nor do we know when or why he went to England, though it was probably after the loss of his father.  The earliest note we find of him is in 1649, when Thomas Pell of New Haven, chirugeon, constituted Nathaniel Brewster of Walberswick, Co. Suffolk, his attorney.  This is pretty good evidence of Nathaniel's connection with the New Haven family, for Thomas Pell was his stepfather through marriage with the widow of Francis Brewster.  Brewster must have removed soon after to Norfolk, where he preached at several places.  A church was formed at Alby in that county in 1651 and Brewster seems to have had some connection with it from the first, but he did not settle there until 1653.  In 1654 an order of council directed that an augmentation of [36 pounds sterling], which had been granted for the better maintenance of Nathaniel Brewster, late minister of Nettisheard and Irsted, Norfolk, be paid to John Leverington from the time of Brewster's leaving it.

Mr. Brewster seems to have been persona grata to the Lord Protector Cromwell and to have been employed by him in affairs of State.  In 1655 he was sent to Ireland with the Protector's son Henry Cromwell, who went with a commission as major-General to command the forces there.  Oliver, writing to the Lord Fleetwood, Lord Deputy of Ireland, under date of 'Whitehall, 22nd June, 1655,' says of Brewster:

'Use this Bearer, Mr. Brewster, kindly.  Let him be near you:  indeed he is a very able holy man; trust me you will find him so.'  Carlyle, commenting on this letter, in Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, says:  'Of Mr. Brewster and the other reverend persons, Spiritual Fathers, held in such regard by the Lord Protector as is due to Spiritual Fatherhood, and pious nobleness of Intellect under whatever guise, I can say nothing:  they are Spiritual Great-grandfather's [sic] of ours, and we have had to forget them!  Some slight notices of Brewster, who I think was a Norfolk man: . . . are in the Milton State Papers:  they prove the fervent zeal, faith and fearlessness of these worthies.'

The Milton State Papers referred to are letters and papers addressed to Oliver Cromwell between 1649 and 1658, found among the political collections of John Milton, including several concerning the churches in Norfolk.  Among them is a document in regard to the parsonages of Alby and Twaite, presided over by Mr. Nathaniel Brewster, who, having constantly preached in both places, cannot raise above [50 pounds sterling] per annum out of both.  'So as the said Mr. Brewster, a great family, and much employed in the country by preaching freely, when there is need, is reduced to very great straits, and not like to continue in his function without assistance from the State.'

It was probably in consequence of this report that he was sent to Ireland by Cromwell.  Mr. Brewster was in Ireland somewhat more than a year, though apparently not continuously, as there is mention of him at Alby meanwhile.  He received, it is said, the degree of B. D. from the University of Dublin, but his name does not appear in the catalogue of graduates.  He was a widower at the time if he married, as is said, the daughter of Roger Ludlow.  His first wife is said to have been Abigail Reynes, daughter of John Reynes of Edgefield, Co. Norfolk, who must have been the mother of his 'great family' mentioned above.  Mr. Brewster was much older than Sarah Ludlow.  If the statement of his grandson to President John Adams be correct, that he was ninety-five years old at the time of his decease in 1690, he was born in 1595.  But this is scarcely probable, as he would have been forty-seven at his graduation from Harvard and sixty at the time of his marriage to Miss Ludlow, then a minor.  But if, as is usually stated, he was seventy years old at his decease, Dec. 18, 1690, he was born in 1620, and was therefore thirty-six years old at the time of his visit to Ireland.  As Jonathan, the eldest of Roger Ludlow's children, was then a minor, he could not have been more than twenty, and Sarah, if the youngest, not more than twelve years old.  Of course it is possible that the six children are not mentioned in the order of their birth, but even if Sarah were next to Jonathan she could scarcely have been more than half the age of the Rev. Nathaniel.  If she were 'eminently distinguished for her genius and literary acquirements,' as we are told, she must have gained them through her connection with the learned graduate of Harvard.

Mr. Brewster probably resumed his ministrations at Alby and Twaite on his return to England, but after the Restoration he came back to New England and preached in the First Church of Boston several months from October, 1663.  In 1665 he went to Brookhaven, Long Island, where his sister had settled and in the autumn of that year accepted a call as the first minister of the church there.  He was incapacitated from ministerial duties several months before his death."

[Champlin, John Denison, "Thompson and Brewster" in The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Jan. 1915, Vol. XLVI, No. 1, pp. 4, 5-8 (NY, NY:  Jan. 1915).].

Another writing about the history of Long Island has written of Nathaniel Brewster as follows:

"There does not seem to have been any idea of anything but a civil government at Setauket (where was made the first settlement in Brookhaven) . . . Of course there was a clergyman in the community, and he was a man of parts, one who, if he was not one of the first colonists, came so early that he is acknowledged as the first minister.  He was the Rev. Nathaniel Brewster, a grandson of William Brewster, one of the Pilgrim Fathers.  His three sons were among the pioneers and it is thought that he merely went to Setauket to visit them and was induced to stay.  These sons were Timothy, Daniel and John, who became prominent in town affiars, the first named serving for twenty-three years as clerk, and the second being continued in that office for twenty-six years following.

There is no record in the earlier years, however, to show that Mr. Brewster was regarded as the minister of the town.  In fact, in 1662, the town meeting extended a call to a dominic named Fletcher to become the minister at a salary of [forty pounds sterling] a year, but whether he accepted or not cannot be determined.  But from his arrival Brewster acted as minister, and in 1665 seems to have fully accepted the charge, for a house was purchased for his use as a manse.  It was evidently a most superior structure, for it had doors and glass windows and other modern improvements.  Brewster died in 1690.  In 1685 he was laid aside from active work through ill-health, and Samuel Eburne, one of the men in Thompson's list, was chosen as his successor.

[Pelletreau, William S., A History of Long Island From Its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, Vol. II, p. 270 (NY and Chicago:  The Lewis Publishing Co., 1905).].

To read more about Nathaniel Brewster, stepson of Thomas Pell, see:

Long Island Genealogy:  The Brewster Family of Long Island - Rev. Nathaniel Brewster, LongIslandGenealogy.com <http://longislandgenealogy.com/Surname_Pages/brewster.htm> (visited Nov. 1, 2014).

FindAGrave:  Rev. Nathaniel Brewster, FindAGrave.com <http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=31597216> (visited Nov. 1, 2014).

Sullivan, May Lilian Hartwell, Rev. Nathaniel Brewster and His Wife, Sarah Ludlow.  Some of Their Descendants, (San Francisco, CA:  Privately Printed, 1919).  

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