BREWSTER, John (1604-77), of Wyfields, Ilford, Essex.

Whereas Robert*, as eldest of the Brewster brothers, was heir to the family estates in Suffolk and Francis I* was probably originally earmarked for the church, John, the fourth son, trained as a lawyer at Lincoln’s Inn.12LI Admiss. i. 193; LI Black Bks. ii. 295 His marriage to a daughter of Augustine Skottowe, one of the aldermen of Norwich, may have assisted his position – the Skottowes were keen to marry into the local landed gentry, and Brewster’s brother-in-law, Richard Skottowe, married a daughter of Sir Charles Le Gros*.13Vis. Norf. 1664, 200, 252; E. Anglian Misc. (1908), 73; A. Heal, ‘Timothy Skottowe, of Norwich, goldsmith’, N. and Q. clxii. 282. Although John’s first son, John junior, was born at Wrentham in February 1639, it is clear from his activities in the early 1640s that he had settled in Norfolk.14E. Anglian Misc. (1908), 62.

It was Brewster’s support for Parliament during the civil war which did most to bring him to prominence within Norfolk. As early as April 1643, when the 1st Baron Grey of Warke (Sir William Grey†) appointed commissioners from each county to administer the newly-formed Eastern Association, Brewster was of sufficient local standing to be named as one of the commissioners for Norfolk. Over the next five years he was also named to the other major commissions with jurisdiction within the county.15Suff. ed. Everitt, 52; A. and O. Among the more important duties he undertook was that of representing Norfolk at a number of meetings of the Eastern Association committee at Cambridge.16Suff. ed. Everitt, 81; Add. 22620, f. 2v; Add. 19398, ff. 172, 216; HMC 7th Rep. 550; Eg. 2646, f. 219; SP28/197: Eastern Assoc. cttee. warrants. Sept.-Dec. 1644; Norf. RO, HMN 7/172/2; Luke Letter Bks. 358, 446, 527, 601, 603. Perhaps, since his elder brothers played key roles in the war effort in Suffolk, Brewster acted as a useful link between the leading parliamentarian supporters in these two neighbouring counties. During 1644 he also assisted the 2nd earl of Manchester (Edward Montagu†) in his purge of the fellows of the Cambridge colleges.17Cooper, Annals Camb. iii. 372, 382; J.D. Twigg, ‘The parliamentary visitation of the Univ. of Cambridge, 1644-1645’, EHR xcviii. 518.

Probably during the mid-1640s Brewster acquired the manor of Wyfields at Ilford in Essex, just five miles to the east of London.18Morant, Essex, i. bk. ii. 8; VCH Essex, v. 214. This was a permanent move, causing him to abandon all his administrative commitments in Norfolk and serve instead in Essex. From June 1647 he was included on the Essex assessment commission and from that October he was a member of the Essex standing committee.19A. and O.; Smith, ‘Some Essex Parliamentarians’, 152; SP28/227: cert. of Essex co. standing cttee. 30 Mar. 1648 From then on he occasionally attended the meetings of the sub-committee which covered the south west of the county.20Add. 37491, ff. 180, 189v, 191, 198, 201. After 1649 he seems to have had no qualms about serving the republic.21Add. 37491, ff. 209v, 211, 217, 218, 219, 221, 231, 235. In late 1651 he acted as one of the executors of George Leigh, one of the captains who had been serving with the New Model army in Scotland.22Graves’ Mems. of the Civil War, ed. F.A. Bates (Edinburgh and London, 1927), 286.

Brewster’s main concern as an MP in the Nominated Parliament of 1653 was the intended construction of a religious meeting house at Barking, and it may well be that it was his enthusiasm for that project which had helped recommend him for nomination in the first place. The original proposal promoted by Brewster and fellow Essex MP Joachim Matthews* was that one acre of Waltham Forest at Barking should be assigned to the local inhabitants as the site of the meeting house. Matthews and Brewster were appointed by the House on 9 September 1653 to prepare legislation to that effect. The introduction of a separate bill proposing the sale of the forests formerly owned by the crown, which included Waltham Forest, allowed them to alter their tactics, for it now seemed more practical to tack their particular measure on to the more general bill. This option seems to have made them overconfident. Instead of a mere acre, the amendment moved on 22 November proposed that the meeting house be endowed with an additional 100 acres, with that endowment to be administered by Matthews, Brewster, Augustine Garland* and four other trustees. At the last minute that amendment was withdrawn, whereupon the House voted to agree to the original scheme. Once the bill for the sale of the royal forests became law, Matthews and Brewster took possession of the acre assigned to them as sole trustees.23CJ vii. 316b, 354a-b; A. and O. In due course the Presbyterian preacher Edward Kighley was appointed as the congregation’s minister, and over the next few years Brewster was much preoccupied in attempting to secure payment of the tithes due to Ilford Hospital, from which it was intended that the stipend should be supported.24H.E. Brooks, ‘The Kighley fam. of Grays Thurrock’, Essex Review, xxxviii. 137-8; CCC 3288; VCH Essex, v. 230. Given Brewster’s close interest in the fate of Waltham Forest, it seems far more likely that it was John Brewster, rather than his elder brother, Francis I, who was sitting for Suffolk, who was added to the committee of the forest bill on 26 October.25CJ vii. 340a. Brewster’s efforts to establish the meeting house with official support makes it unsurprising that he was thought to favour the public maintenance of a preaching ministry.26Woolrych, Commonwealth to Protectorate, 412.

Apart from this, Brewster’s known activity in the 1653 Parliament was confined to his appointments to the committees on law reform (19 July) and for inspections (4 Nov.).27CJ vii. 286b, 346b. It might be too crude to suggest that the £25 paid to him by the council of state on 24 August was a bribe to encourage good behaviour in Parliament, although it does suggest that he was seen as being sympathetic to the council.28CSP Dom. 1653-4, p. 452. Another result of his time in Parliament was his appointment as a justice of the peace, for, having been nominated to Parliament, he could hardly be omitted from the new Essex commission of the peace issued in October 1653.29Essex QSOB ed. Allen, p. xxxiv.

Brewster had benefited from the method of parliamentary nomination adopted in 1653. As a newcomer to the county he probably could not hope to gain a seat in Parliament by election, even in the exceptional circumstances of the 1650s. He seems not to have sought election to any subsequent Parliament. His contribution to public life was now confined only to matters of local administration in south west Essex. He was consulted several times by the council of state about claims to timber in Waltham Forest.30CSP Dom. 1656-7, p. 175; 1659-60, pp. 327-8. From 1657 until the return of the king in 1660 he regularly attended quarter sessions at Chelmsford.31Essex QSOB ed. Allen, 59, 92, 96, 98, 114, 117, 122, 126, 129, 139, 144, 149, 160.

Little is known of Brewster after the Restoration. The loss of all his offices excluded him from local affairs. He continued to live at Ilford, where his nephew, (Sir) Philip Skippon† (son of Philip Skippon*) visited his ‘old uncle’ several times during the early 1670s.32Cent. Kent Stud. U951/F15, unfol. Following his death on 27 July 1677, Brewster was buried in St Margaret’s, Barking.33Morant, Essex, i. bk. ii. 8; RCHM Essex, ii. 7. The lands at Ilford were inherited by his eldest surviving son, Augustine, only to pass out of the family’s possession after his death in 1708.34Morant, Essex, i. bk. ii. 8. None of Brewster’s descendants are known to have sat in Parliament.