Science. Its first meeting was held at York in 1831; and Brewster, along with Charles Babbage and Sir John F. W. Herschel, had the chief part in shaping its constitution. In the same year in which the British Association held its first meeting, Brewster received the honour of knighthood and the decoration of the Guelphic order of Hanover. In 1838 he was appointed principal of the united colleges of St Salvator and St Leonard, St Andrews. In 1849 he acted as president of the British Association and was elected one of the eight foreign associates of the Institute of France in succession to J. J. Berzelius; and ten years later he accepted the office of principal of the university of Edinburgh, the duties of which he discharged until within a few months of his death, which took place at Allerly, Melrose, on the 10th of February 1868.
In estimating Brewster’s place among scientific discoverers the chief thing to be borne in mind is that the bent of his genius was not characteristically mathematical. His method was empirical, and the laws which he established were generally the result of repeated experiment. To the ultimate explanation of the phenomena with which he dealt he contributed nothing, and it is noteworthy in this connexion that if he did not maintain to the end of his life the corpuscular theory he never explicitly adopted the undulatory theory of light. Few will be inclined to dispute the verdict of Forbes:—“His scientific glory is different in kind from that of Young and Fresnel; but the discoverer of the law of polarization of biaxial crystals, of optical mineralogy, and of double refraction by compression, will always occupy a foremost rank in the intellectual history of the age.” In addition to the various works of Brewster already noticed, the following may be mentioned:—Notes and Introduction to Carlyle’s translation of Legendre’s Elements of Geometry (1824); Treatise on Optics (1831); Letters on Natural Magic, addressed to Sir Walter Scott (1831); The Martyrs of Science, or the Lives of Galileo, Tycho Brahe, and Kepler (1841); More Worlds than One (1854).
See The Home Life of Sir David Brewster, by his daughter Mrs Gordon.
BREWSTER, WILLIAM (c. 1566–1644), American colonist, one of the leaders of the “Pilgrims,” was born at Scrooby, in Nottinghamshire, England, about 1566. After studying for a short time at Cambridge, he was from 1584 to 1587 in the service of William Davison (? 1541–1608), who in 1585 went to the Low Countries to negotiate an alliance with the states-general and in 1586 became assistant to Walsingham, Queen Elizabeth’s secretary of state. Upon the disgrace of Davison, Brewster removed to Scrooby, where from 1590 until September 1607 he held the position of “Post,” or postmaster responsible for the relays of horses on the post road, having previously, for a short time, assisted his father in that office. About 1602 his neighbours began to assemble for worship at his home, the Scrooby manor house, and in 1606 he joined them in organizing the Separatist church of Scrooby. After an unsuccessful attempt in 1607 (for which he was imprisoned for a short time), he, with other Separatists, removed to Holland in 1608 to obtain greater freedom of worship. At Leiden in 1609 he was chosen ruling elder of the Congregation. In Holland he supported himself first by teaching English and afterwards in 1616–1619, as the partner of one Thomas Brewer, by secretly printing, for sale in England, books proscribed by the English government, thus, says Bradford, having “imploymente inough.” In 1619 their types were seized and Brewer was arrested by the authorities of the university of Leiden, acting on the instance of the British ambassador, Sir Dudley Carleton. Brewster, however, escaped, and in the same year, with Robert Cushman (c. 1580–1625), obtained in London, on behalf of his associates, a land patent from the Virginia Company. In 1620 he emigrated to America on the “Mayflower,” and was one of the founders of the Plymouth Colony. Here besides continuing until his death to act as ruling elder, he was also—regularly until the arrival of the first pastor, Ralph Smith (d. 1661), in 1629 and irregularly afterward—a “teacher,” preaching “both powerfully and profitably to ye great contentment of ye hearers and their comfortable edification.” By many he is regarded as pre-eminently the leader of the “Pilgrims.” He died, probably on the 10th of April 1644.
See Ashbel Steele’s Chief of the Pilgrims; or the Life and Time of William Brewster (Philadelphia, 1857); and a sketch in William Bradford’s History of the Plimouth Plantation (new ed., Boston, 1898).
BRÉZÉ the name of a noble Angevin family, the most famous member of which was Pierre de Brézé (c. 1410–1465), one of the trusted soldiers and statesmen of Charles VII. He had made his name as a soldier in the English wars when in 1433 he joined with Yolande, queen of Sicily, the constable Richmond and others, in chasing from power Charles VII.’s minister La Trémoille. He was knighted by Charles of Anjou in 1434, and presently entered the royal council. In 1437 he became seneschal of Anjou, and in 1440 of Poitou. During the Praguerie he rendered great service to the royal cause against the dauphin Louis and the revolted nobles, a service which was remembered against him after Louis’s accession to the throne. He fought against the English in Normandy in 1440–1441, and in Guienne in 1442. In the next year he became chamberlain to Charles VII., and gained the chief power in the state through the influence of Agnes Sorel, superseding his early allies Richmond and Charles of Anjou. The six years (1444–1450) of his ascendancy were the most prosperous period of the reign of Charles VII. His most dangerous opponent was the dauphin Louis, who in 1448 brought against him accusations which led to a formal trial resulting in a complete exoneration of Brézé and his restoration to favour. He fought in Normandy in 1450–1451, and became seneschal of the province after the death of Agnes Sorel and the consequent decline of his influence at court. He made an ineffective descent on the English coast at Sandwich in 1457, and was preparing an expedition in favour of Margaret of Anjou when the accession of Louis XI. brought him disgrace and a short imprisonment. In 1462, however, his son Jacques married Louis’s half-sister, Charlotte de Valois, daughter of Agnes Sorel. In 1462 he accompanied Margaret to Scotland with a force of 2000 men, and after the battle of Hexham he brought her back to Flanders. On his return he was reappointed seneschal of Normandy, and fell in the battle of Montlhéry on the 16th of July 1465. He was succeeded as seneschal of Normandy by his eldest son Jacques de Brézé (c. 1440–1490), count of Maulevrier; and by his grandson, husband of the famous Diane de Poitiers, Louis de Brézé (d. 1531), whose tomb in Rouen cathedral, attributed to Jean Goujon and Jean Cousin, is a splendid example of French Renaissance work.
The lordship of Brézé passed eventually to Claire Clémence de Maillé, princess of Condé, by whom it was sold to Thomas Dreux, who took the name of Dreux Brézé, when it was erected into a marquisate. Henri Evrard, marquis de Dreux-Brézé (1762–1829), succeeded his father as master of the ceremonies to Louis XVI. in 1781. On the meeting of the states-general in 1789 it fell to him to regulate the questions of etiquette and precedence between the three estates. That as the immediate representative of the crown he should wound the susceptibilities of the deputies was perhaps inevitable, but little attempt was made to adapt traditional etiquette to changed circumstances. Brézé did not formally intimate to President Bailly the proclamation of the royal séance until the 20th of June, when the carpenters were about to enter the hall to prepare for the event, thus provoking the session in the tennis court. After the royal séance Brézé was sent to reiterate Louis’s orders that the estates should meet separately, when Mirabeau replied that the hall could not be cleared except by force. After the fall of the Tuileries Brézé emigrated for a short time, but though he returned to France he was spared during the Terror. At the Restoration he was made a peer of France, and resumed his functions as guardian of an antiquated ceremonial. He died on the 27th of January 1829, when he was succeeded in the peerage and at court by his son Scipion (1793–1845).
The best contemporary account of Pierre de Brézé is given in the Chroniques of the Burgundian chronicler, Georges Chastellain, who had been his secretary. Chastellain addressed a Déprécation to Louis XI. on his behalf at the time of his disgrace.
