While people who have one Mayflower passenger as an ancestor commonly have a couple of others, having 10 amounts to above average odds. This would indicate the families stayed close to Plymouth, Massachusetts for the first few generations and married each other.
William Brewster Was Religious Leader
William Brewster, from Scrooby in Nottinghamshire, was the only university educated man among the 1620 Mayflower pilgrims. He served as Plymouth Colony’s first religious leader. Accompanying him on the Mayflower were his wife, Mary, and sons Love and Wrestling. Son Jonathan arrived on the second boat, the Fortune, and daughters Fear and Patience came about two years later. The six children were born between 1593 and 1614; one died in infancy.
Palin’s Brewster Line of Descent
- William Brewster and Mary, his wife, who came on the Mayflower in 1620. Mary died at Plymouth in 1627 and William died at nearby Duxbury in 1644.
- Patience Brewster (ca. 1600-1634) married Plymouth Colony Gov. Thomas Prence (1599-1673) in 1624 at Plymouth; they had four children. He was from Lechlade, Gloucestershire, England. Prence became governor the year Patience died.
- Mercy Prence and Major John Freeman were married in 1649 at Eastham, MA, a town founded by her father. John was from Pulborough, Sussex, England and died at age 95 in 1719 at Eastham.
- Mercy Freeman (1659-1737) married Samuel Knowles (1651-1737) in 1679 at Eastham, MA, where both died.
- Lt. Richard Knowles (1688-ca. 1769) of Eastham, MA, married Martha Cobb (1682-1763).
- Mercy Knowles (1717-1758) was born at Eastham and in 1733 married George Godfrey (ca. 1707-1768) at Chatham, MA, where both died.
- Knowles Godfrey (ca. 1737-1766) married Jerusha Ryder (1740-1766) in 1760 at Chatham, where both were born and died.
- Knowles Godfrey (1762-1794) and Mary Ryder (born ca. 1769) were married at Chatham in 1786. He served in the Revolutionary War and died in Charleston, SC.
- Benjamin Godfrey (1794-1862) was born at Chatham, MA and died at Monticello, IL, now named Godfrey. He married Harriet Cooper (1801-1838) in 1817 at Baltimore, MD, where she was born. She died at Monticello.
- James Ryder Godfrey (1818-1881) was born in Baltimore and died at Godfrey, IL. He married Lodema Curtiss (1822-1915) in 1842 at Waverly, IL. She was born in Litchfield, CT, and died at Godfrey.
- Augusta Lodema Godfrey was born at Waverly, IL in 1854 and was still living in 1920. She married, in 1879 at Godfrey, IL, Homer Curtiss Strong , who was born at Warren, CT in 1849 and probably died between 1910 and 1920.
- Cora Strong was born in 1886 in Chippewa Co., WI, and married James “Carl” Gower (1882-1954) ca. 1904/5. James was born in Wisconsin and died at Pocatello, ID. Cora was living in 1910 ; she probably died before Carl’s 1925 remarriage.
- Helen Louise Gower (1907-1985) was born in Wisconsin and died in Richland Co., WA. She married in 1929 at Pocatello, ID, Clement J. “Clem” Sheeran (1907-1992), a Washington native who also died in Richland Co.
- Sarah “Sally” Sheeran, born in 1940 in Richland, WA and still living; she married Charles “Chuck” Richard Heath, who was born in 1938 in Los Angeles, CA. They are the parents of Alaska Gov. Sarah Louise (Heath) Palin (b. 1964).
Famous Brewster descendants include chef Julia Child, singer Bing Crosby, actress Katharine Hepburn, poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, politicians Jay and Nelson Rockefeller, U. S. Presidents Zachary Taylor and William Taft, and airplane pioneers Wilbur and Orville Wright.
