A Dictionary of the Booksellers and Printers who Were at Work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1641 to 1667/Brewster (Thomas)
BREWSTER (THOMAS), bookseller in London, (1) Three Bibles under Mildred's Church in the Poultry, 1649; (2) Three Bibles in Paul's Churchyard, 1659. 1649–64. What relation, if any, this bookseller was to the two preceding has not been discovered. In company with Giles Calvert and Henry Hills he was appointed official printer to the Council of State on the accession of Cromwell, but he only held the appointment until the end of 1653, after which the name of Henry Hills is found alone or in conjunction with John Field, q.v.. Thomas Brewster had as partner for a short time G. Moule, q.v. In 1654 he published an edition of the Bible in Welsh. [Ballinger, Bible in Wales, p. 10.] In 1664, in company with Simon Dover and Nathan Brooks, he was tried at the Old Bailey for having caused to be printed two pamphlets, the one entitled The Speeches of some of the late King's Justices; the other. The Phoenix of the Solemn League and Covenant. One of the witnesses against him was his servant, Peter Bodvell, q.v. Brewster was condemned to pay a fine of 100 marks and to stand in the pillory on two days. [An Exact Narrative of the Tryal … of John Twyn, etc, 1664.] In a note in The Newes of April 28th, 1664, he is said to have died shortly afterwards. A list of books on sale by Thomas Brewster occurs at the end of Robert Purnell's Little Cabinet, 1657. [E. 1575.] It consists mainly of theological books and pamphlets against the Quakers.