Martin Bere (abt. 1472 - abt. 1505)

History:

The Beers' family seem to have been seated originally at a place called Bere's, or Byer's, Court, Parish of Westcliffe, County Kent, England. William de Bere, of Bere's Court, was bailiff of Dover, in the 2d and 4th of Edward I. Nicholas de Bere held the manor of Bere's Court in the 20th of Henry III. Soon after the family disappeared from the place, and it passed into the possession of the family of Toke, who remained there for several generations. Bartow, Rev. Evelyn. The English Ancestry of the Beers Family, The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record (NYGBS, New York, 1888) Vol. 13, Page 85.

Of this same family was Roger Byer, or Bere, who died in the reign of Mary. His son, John Bere, or Beer,* who purchased, in 1542, of Thomas Horsman, the famous Horsman Place, " a mansion of some note," in Dartford. By his will, dated 1572, John Beer founded four almshouses in Dartford, and devised his mansion, called Horsman' s, to his eldest son, Henry. An altar-tomb erected to him in Dartford Church bears his arms : Argent, a bear talient sable, muzzled or; quartering the arms of Nissell : three garbs, or, a chief ermine. Edward Beer, his grandson, died unmarried in 1627, bequeathing Horsman Place, Kent, to John Twistleton, of Drax.

Suggested source "article by Rev. Evelyn Bartow, "The English Ancestry of the Beers Family," in the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Vol. 13, No. 2, April 1888" for info on Thomas Nissell of Wrotham, wife Alice. Does not provide name of their daughter who married Martin Bere/Beere. See extract at https://www.myheritage.com/site-135221151/beers