Lived: 1567-1644 Pilgrim and respected elder, William Brewster arrived in the New World with his fellow Pilgrims on the Mayflower. Brewster's flight from persecution had led him and his fellow Puritans from the main room in Scrooby, England to Leiden in the Netherlands. During this time, Brewster was selected as the Elder of the Puritan Congregation. Yet English pressure again forced the Puritans to migrate, traveling on the Mayflower to the New World. Once there, Brewster became the center of a religious unfurling, as with the signing of the Mayflower Compact, the new colony of Plymouth would become a place where the Puritans could finally worship in peace.