Life
Twentieth century historians such as Gookin and Quinn have identified John Brereton as a clergyman who was born and lived in East Anglia. The son of Cuthbert Brereton, a sheriff of Norwich, he was born around 1571/72 and was educated at Norwich School, before being admitted as a pensioner at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge aged seventeen on 17 January 1589. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1593, and proceeded to Master of Arts by seniority in 1596. He took holy orders, being ordained deacon priest by the Bishop of Norwich and in 1598 was appointed curate of Lawshall, Suffolk.
It was probably through this appointment in Suffolk that Brereton came into contact with Gosnold, who lived nearby, and also with the notable Elizabethan author, Richard Hakluyt, who had published numerous accounts of travels and voyages of discovery, especially in America.
With Gosnold, Brereton undertook a voyage to Virginia, as it then was. On his return to England and after the publication of his account, he appears to have lived a quiet life in holy orders, becoming Rector of Brightwell, Suffolk, in 1619, and probably he is the same man who became Rector of St Peter Mancroft in Norwich and who died in 1632.
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