Birth: 1570 Death: Apr. 17, 1627 Plymouth Plymouth County Massachusetts, USA

Pilgrim Elder William Brewster married by 1593 Mary _____, and she & two of their sons accompanied him on the MAYFLOWER. She died at Plymouth 17 April 1627. They had 6 children: Jonathan, Patience Prence, Fear Allerton, Love, a child buried at St. Pancras in Leiden, & Wrestling. The quest for the identity of Mary, the wife of William Brewster, has attracted the attention of many genealogists, but as yet without a definitive result. For some time she had been thought to be Mary Wentworth, daughter of Thomas Wentworth of Scrooby, and in 1965 John G. Hunt presented his case in favor of this identity, but this claim was rejected by Rubincam and others, and Hunt himself has now given up this position. He has, however, published a pamphlet claiming that she was a certain Mary Wyrrall, based on the appearance in a will of a bequest to "Mary Butho," which Hunt took to be a variant of Brewster resulting from a speech defect in the person dictating the will [John G. Hunt, Of Mary Brewster: The Identity of Mary, Wife of Elder William BREWSTER of the Mayflower Voyage of 1620 from Plymouth, England, to New Plymouth, New England. Eugene A. Stratton reviewed this volume negatively in 1985, to which Hunt responded with a supplement to his pamphlet. The maiden surname of Mary, wife of Elder Brewster, remains unknown. (Hunt has published other articles on various aspects of William Brewster's life which, as with all of Hunt's work, need to be used with caution: "Master Williamson' of the Mayflower;" "The Mother of Elder William Brewster of the Mayflower;" "Mary Stubbe - A Connection of Elder William Brewster?") A number of other children have been proposed for William Brewster. Jacobus in 1936 disposed of the claimed connections between William Brewster of Plymouth and Francis Brewster of New Haven and his son Nathaniel. Mary Walton Ferris proposes a son Edward.

-------------------- [Note that Mary's last name has never been irrevocably proved and often appears incorrectly} Among possible names have been Mary Wentworth, Mary Stubbe (NEHGR 128:289, Supplement to Torrey, Sanborn, p. 24).