The Ancestors of John Williams and Selina Brewster
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Ephraim Brewster bought land at Richland NY in 1804, and soon after his first marriage, he and his wife removed there. In 1816 they removed to Ellisburg, to that part which is called the "Brewster Settlement," where he cleared a farm, on which he lived until his death. He served as orderly sergeant in mass militia, under Colonel Meacham, called out to defend Sackett's Harbor, in the War of 1812. travel email from Bob and Jo Sparks: We formed the distinct impression that the War of 1812 was fought in Sackets Harbor. Indeed, a significant battle was fought there. Sackets Harbor is a small but well-protected harbor where the United States had a major warship-building operation protected by a series of tiny forts. The British knew that to gain control of Lake Ontario, they would have to make changes. They landed several boatloads of troops west of town and proceeded to reduce their ranks as they walked into cannon fire from the first fort. They were, however, making good progress until their commander became discouraged and ordered them back to the boats, not knowing that a behind-the-lines U.S. commander without all the facts had ordered a retreat from the first fort. Thus military intelligence shapes history. Return to Williams Ancestor Chart.
Coldham, American Loyalist Claims p.528: WILLIAMS, JOHN, Saratoga, Albany Co., N.Y. Three sons served in the Army from 1776 until reduction of their Corps. He harbored and provisioned scouts from Canada and provided them with intelligence. Sept. 1781, joined Army and served with Loyal Rangers until their reduction. Memorial, undated. Claim: Lands [unspecified]. (A013/15/470) Loyalist claim: from Saratoga County of Albany and [illegible] of New York but through Loyalty and attachment to the British government left the above place in Sept 1781 and joined the Kings Troops and served until the Reducement of the Loyal Rangers. I was not able at the time of Gen'l Burgoynes army arriving at the above named place to join myself, but have had three sons in the Kings service from the 1776 until the Reducement of the above Corps ... [evidence by claimant] Says he was at Mashish in 1783. Is a Native of America - lived at Saratoga - joined the British in 1781 - came into Canada - joined Major Jessups Corps - served during the war. Loyalist Sketches p.933-34: AO12/28/312, AO12/109/318
Wm. Caniff, The Settlement of Upper Canada, 1971 edition, p.62-3: At the close of the contest there were a large number of Refugees in Lower Canada, especially at Fort St. John, about twenty-nine miles from Montreal. ... Besides the Refugees, there were several Provincial Corps, which were no longer to be retained in the service, but to be disbanded. Of these there was the 84th, often called Johnson's regiments, this was 800 strong, mostly Dutch, from the Mohawk, and Hudson, descendants of the old stock. This regiment consisted of two corps, one under Major Jessup, stationed at St. John's ... Jessups corps became the first pioneers upon the St. Lawrence, ... settled in 1784. ... "A proclamation was issued," says Croil in his history of Dundas, "that all who wished to continue their allegiance to Britain, should peaceably rendezvous at certain points on the frontiers. ... Jessup's Corps was stationed at Isle Aux Nois, on the borders of Lower Canada, and late in the autumn of 1783, the soldiers were joined by their wives and little ones, who had wandered the weary way on foot, to Whitehall, through swamps and forest, -- beset with difficulties, dangers, and privations innumerable. The soldiers met them there with boats, and conveyed them the rest of their journey by water, through Lake Champlain. ... A boisterous passage was before them, in open boats, exposed to the rigors of the season -- a dreary prospect of the coming winter, to be spent in pent up barracks, and a certainty should they be spared, of undergoing a lifetime of such hardships, toil and privation as are inseparable from the settlement of a new country." Return to Williams Ancestor Chart.
Return to Williams Ancestor Chart.
Loyalist Sketches p.786: AO13/80/436
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He was also a farmer and owned land in Ellisburg near that of his son Ephraim, who settled there in 1816, and his sons Elisha and William settled on adjoining farmes, which gave the vicinity the name of "Brewster Settlement." The cemetery there, in which he and his wife rest, was presented by him to the community. His son Ephraim narrated the following story regarding him: In early youth, upon a Sabbath afternoon, Timothy Brewster and a few ungodly friends were in an old sugar-house engaged in playing cards, when suddenly the pasteboards disappeared and the most careful search failed to find them. This was thought to be the work of the devil and the young men were seized with consternation, renounced their sinful lives and became good Christians, and Timothy Brewster was eventually led to enter the ministry of the Blessed Gospel. He was a selectman of Pawlet in 1812-13 and served two short terms as a private in the Revolutionary War. He owned a dictionary which, traditionally, had belonged to his ancestors, William3 Brewster and Nathaniel4 Brewster, and probably William5 Brewster and Love6 Brewster. Alexander Campbell, minister, Church of Christ, Millennial Harbinger (Journal), Bethany W. Va: Sep 1832, Progress of Reform (brief extracts from correspondents) - June 25, Elder Timothy Brewster, Ellisburg, New York, says: "The time of my departure is at hand. I have set up a little wigwam which contains about a dozen disciples. We are not visited by any of the brethren who labor in the word; and we live so far off, that I fear after my demise the little wigwam may fall with its founder. We have seen much change in the mode of preaching, and the things preached, in these vicinities; but not much change in practice. It is probable this will be my last communication to you; and my farewell address to you is, My dear brother, live in agreement with, and correspondent to your published profession. Farewell! Return to Williams Ancestor Chart.
Return to Williams Ancestor Chart.
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In 1752 Daniel Andrus of Norwich, for £550, bought land in the East Society of his cousin Isaac Andrus. In 1763 Daniel Andrus, with others, was permitted to build a pew in the church of Long Society. His name is frequently found in the land records of Norwich, both as a buyer and a seller of land; but in 1768 he seems to have fallen into financial difficulties and is mentioned several times in court records on account of debt. In 1777 he took the freeman's oath at Norwich. No further record of him is found until 1789, when he was at Danby VT, and gave a quitclaim deed of certain land at Preston to Jonathan Truman of that place. In 1802 he was mentioned in the will of his sister Judith, who gave $20 to her "brother Daniel Andrus, now of Pawlet VT." Return to Williams Ancestor Chart.
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Niclaus Bonestiel made his first appearance on the Hunter Lists 4 Oct 1710 ... [He] was naturalized 17 Jan 1715/16 (Albany Naturalizations). ... He made his first appearance on the tax rolls in 1722 and was continued in Rhinebeck Precinct until Jun 1767 (Dutchess Co. Tax Lists). Return to Williams Ancestor Chart.
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He lived at Duxbury and was often employed "to good advantage" in the civil affairs of the town. He was made a freeman in 1689. For many years he was a deacon of the church at Duxbury. He was an extensive land owner and he distributed the land by deeds "for love to his sons." Return to Williams Ancestor Chart.
On 10 Oct 1704 Thomas Knowlton, Jr., ... all of Norwich, sold for £280 to John Andrews, Jr., of Ipswich MA, house carpenter, 550 acres of land on the east side of the Shetucket River; and to this place John removed with his wife and children. The section in which this family settled east of the Shetucket River was originally a part of Norwich, but it was a long distance from the church on the town plot, and at a very early date the farmers in this section petitioned the General Assembly, begging to be released from the necessity of attending public worship in Norwich town and to be allowed to pay their rates for a minister of their own. In 1712 John was given 8½ acres of land "near his house being for money paid for building the meeting house." In 1714, three years before his death, he gave all his property to his sons, 110 acres to each, reserving for himself during his life, 20 acres, together with one half of his house. The deeds were signed by John and Judith Andrews. Return to Williams Ancestor Chart.
Return to Williams Ancestor Chart.
Brewster Genealogy p.27 (extracts): He was admitted a freeman of the Plymouth Colony 2 Mar 1635/6; 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 and he was a member of Captain Myles Standish's Duxbury Company in the military enrollment of 1643. He was grand juryman from Duxbury in 1643 and in 1645 he was one of the proprietors of the extension to Duxbury, afterwards known as Bridgewater. Return to Williams Ancestor Chart.
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He was a house carpenter and farmer, and lived in that part of Ipswich which in 1679 was organized as Chebacco Parish and in 1819 was incorporated as the town of Essex MA. His name is frequently found in the land and court records of Ipswich, where he seems to have accumulated considerable property and to have been a man of some distinction. He was honorably connected with that outbreak of independence which led the inhabitants of Ipswich in 1687 to resist the order of Sir Edmund Andros and his council for levying a tax on the King's subjects, viz., "a penny in the pound on all Estates personal or real, twenty pence per head as Poll Money," etc. John was at that time chairman of the selectmen of Ipswich ... They, with John Wise, the minister, and others, called a meeting at which the command of the Governor to choose a commissioner to assist in assessing the tax, was discussed; and at the town meeting the next day the town considered that by the laws of England it was enacted "that no Taxes should be Levied upon the Subjects without consent of an Assembly chosen by the Freeholders." For this act of the town Mr. Wise, John Andrews, [and others] were arrested, brought before the court at Boston, and tried; and "that they might be sure to be found guilty, Jurors were picked of such as were no Freeholders, nay of Strangers; the Prisoners pleading the privilege of Englishmen not to be taxed without their own consent, they were told that the Laws of England would not follow them to the end of the Earth, ... for the penalties they resolved should follow them quo jure quaque injuria;" that they had no right to claim the privileges of Englishmen, "when it had been declared in the Governours Council, that the Kings Subjects in New England did not differ much from Slaves, and that the only difference was, that they were not bought and sold ... . In as much as the Prisoners mentioned had asserted their English Liberties, they were severely handled, not only imprisoned for several weeks, but fined and bound to their good behavior." This act of resistance has been called "the foundation of American Democracy," and was the beginning of those events which eighty-eight years later culminated in the Revolutionary War. It is commemorated in the seal of the town of Ipswich, which bears the motto, "The Birthplace of American Independence 1687." During the unhappy days of the Witchcraft Delusion John Andrews and his four sons were among those who signed the petition to save John Proctor and his wife, who had lived at Chebacco and had been tried and convicted of witchcraft at Salem; and although they could not save the husband, they put themselves on record as among the more tolerant of the people of New England. Return to Hilton Ancestor Chart.
On 28 May 1659 he was granted 300 acres by the General Court, to be located outside the settled plantations, but he did not take up this grant, which was revived in favor of his son Jeremiah over sixty years later. On 15 May 1661 he deeded lands in Haverhill to his sons Jeremiah and John. On 1 Jul 1721, John Gould of Charlestown, and Moses Burnham and Thomas Andrews of Ipswich, heirs to Jeremiah Belcher of Ipswich, deceased, released to Samuel Adams all claims to a farm in Ipswich formerly owned by said Jeremiah Belcher, and they also defended the grantee from the heirs of Richard Belcher and from the heirs of David Belcher, sons of said Jeremiah, and from the heirs of John Andrews who married one of the daughters of said Jeremiah Belcher. Return to Williams Ancestor Chart.
Return to Williams Ancestor Chart.
Brewster Genealogy p.xxxvii-xli, xlix, 3-5 (extracts): He matriculated at Peterhouse, Cambridge (the oldest of the fourteen colleges at that time grouped into the University of Cambridge) on 3 Dec 1580, but it does not appear that he remained there long enough to take his degree. He is next found as a 'discreete and fathfull' assistant of William Davison, Secretary of State to Queen Elizabeth, accompanying that gentleman on his embassy to the Netherlands in August 1585, and serving him at court after his return, until his downfall in 1587. After the retirement of Davision, Brewster returned to Scrooby, where he lived 'in good esteeme amongst his freinds, and ye gentlement of those parts, espetially the godly & religious,' doing much good 'in promoting and furthering Religion.' His residence at Scrooby was the old manor house. In this house the members of the Pilgrim Church were accustomed to meet on the Lord's day, where Brewster 'with great loue entertained them when they came, making prouission for them to his great charge.' In 1590 he was appointed administrator of the estate of his father. Sir John Stanhope, who became Postmaster General in Jun 1590, appointed one Samuel Bevercotes to succeed William's father as Postmaster in Scrooby. Through the influence of Davison, however, William was soon appointed to the office, which he held until 30 Sep 1607. The Pilgrims, attempting to remove to Holland in the latter part of 1607, were imprisoned at Boston through the treachery of the master of the ship that was engaged to transport them. Bradford says that Brewster 'was ye cheefe of those that were taken at Boston, and suffered ye greatest loss; and of ye seuen that were kept longst in prison, and after bound ouer to ye assises.' After he reached Holland, he suffered many hardships and spent most of his means in providing for his 'many children.' He was not so well fitted as the other Pilgrims for the hard labor which became their common lot, yet he bore his condition cheerfully. During the latter part of the twelve years spent in Holland, he increased his income very much by teaching and by the profits from a printing press which he by the help of some friends, set up at Leyden. While in Leyden his arrest was sought for publishing Protestant books for circulation in England and Scotland. At the time of the burial of one of his children 20 Jun 1609 in St. Pancras, as recorded at Leyden HOL, he lived in Stinksteeg, a short lane near the Hoogewoerds Bridge, and five days later he had removed to St. Ursulusteeg. He subsequently removed to the Choorsteeg, an alley extending from the Broadway to the choir of St. Peter's Church. Brewster was chosen the Elder of the Church during the Pilgrims' stay at Leyden. His duty as an elder intrusted him especially with the discipline and building up of the Church and the preservation therein of soundness of doctrine. As Elder, he was desired by the first group to go to America, to go with them, while John Robinson, the pastor, stayed with the majority who were to follow later. This first group ultimately settled in what became Plymouth Colony, after their journey on the Mayflower. He was one of the signers of the Mayflower Compact and it seems almost certain that he drafted the Compact. At Plymouth, Brewster bore an important part in establishing the Pilgrim republic, not shrinking from even the severest manual labor, and 'when the church had no other minister, he taught twise euery saboth, and ye both powerfully and profitably, to ye great contentment of ye hearers.' That is was the moral, religious and spiritual leader of the Colony during its first yers of peril and struggle and its chief civil adviser and trusted guide until the time of his death is quite certain. But for his ecclesiastical position he would have been Governor of the Colony. Perhaps an equally cogent reason was that an outlawed exile would hardly be 'persona grata' to the officers of the Crown. His house in Plymouth was at the intersection of "the streete" and "high way." "the streete" in Plymouth was called First Street (later changed to Leyden Street), and originally extended from the shore to the old fort at the summit of what is now Burial Hill. The "high way." led to the Town Brook, and through it the Pilgrims brought water from the Brook. He was a member of the first formal military organization at Plymouth and must have acted also as its chaplain. 'The good Elder fights as he prays, and, though he would far rather convert an enemy than hurt him, he would not dread of allowing him the first fire.' 'If Elder Brewster prayed for protection against enemies, he took good care that his gun was ready and his sword sharp, so that he might do his part toward securing the blessing asked.' In the Division of Land, in 1623, he was allotted 6 acres. Later, he built a house in Duxbury, near Captain's Hill, where he lived. In the Division of the Cattle, 1 Jun 1627, he and his companie was allotted 'one of the fower Heyfers Came in the Jacob Caled the Blind Heyfer & 2 shee goats.' Return to Williams Ancestor Chart #384.
Return to Williams Ancestor Chart #385.
He was elected an assistant councillor to the Governor of Plymouth Colony, 1634, and re-elected to the same office every year until 1666, except 1653, and was one of two commissioners appointed by the Plymouth Colony to form a confederation of the New England Colonies, 1643. He appears to have been the wealthiest man in Duxbury, being rated the highest on the tax list. Return to Williams Ancestor Chart.
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He was appointed by Archbishop Sandys, in Jan 1575/6, receiver of Scrooby and bailiff of the manor house in that place belonging to the Archbishop, to have life tenure of both offices. This evidently involved residence in the manor house. In addition, he was 'Post' at Scrooby at the time of his death, and it is said that his father held the same office. The office was then a court appointment. He was master of the court mails. The mails were then only accessible to those connected with the court. Not until 1644 were they thrown open to the public. Such a postmaster, however, was not what the name now suggests. Letters then sent by post usually, if not always, were government missives, passed from messenger to messenger at each station; personal correspondence, so far as it existed, being left to go by private hand. Return to Williams Ancestor Chart #768.
Return to Williams Ancestor Chart #769.
Return to Williams Ancestor Chart #794.
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