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The Scrooby Pilgrims |
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Leading lights
Scrooby Parish Church, St Wilfred's
© Courtesy of Bassetlaw Museum |
One of the leading lights behind the Separatist movement was William Brewster. Scrooby born and bred, Brewster's father was the bailiff of the Archbishop of York's estates in the village and Master of the Queens Postes between the years 1590-95. Brewster attended Cambridge University, a hot bed of radical, religious ideas at the time, before entering into the service of William Davidson, Secretary of State to Queen Elizabeth I, and her representative in the Netherlands, in 1585. On the death of his father in 1590, he returned to Scrooby and was himself appointed as Master of the Postes. Experiences gained at Cambridge University and trips to the religiously tolerant Netherlands evidently had a profound influence on Brewster.
By 1606, Brewster was a member of the nearby Gainsborough Separatist church, led by John Smyth. Since preaching by someone other than an ordained priest was considered treacherous by Parliament, the Separatists were forbidden to hold their own services. The 1559 Act of Uniformity made non-attendance at an Anglican church illegal too. There is no written evidence to say that the congregation held their services in any of the existing churches in Gainsborough, it is most likely that the group used to meet at Smyth's home.
Your comments
1 Jody from Dunstable - 7 January 2004
""What happened about the Pilgrim fathers at thanks giving"?
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