John
Brewer
Born about in England
[uncertain]
[uncertain]Son of [father unknown] and [mother unknown]
[sibling(s) unknown]
Husband of
Anne (Skinner) Brewer
— married
1642 in Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts
Descendants 
Father of
John Brewer and Hannah (Brewer) Roper
Died before
before about age 69
in Sudbury, Massachusetts Bay [uncertain]
[uncertain]Profile last modified
| Created 18 May 2011
This page has been accessed 3,685 times.
Contents |
Two John Brewers Conflated
William H. Whitmore's article in NEHGR distinguishes the John Brewer of Cambridge and Sudbury, Massachusetts, from the John Brewer of Ipswich, Massachusetts.[1] Whitmore's thesis relies on the marriages of John Brewer's son John. John Brewer of Cambridge had a son John who married Elizabeth in 1669 in Sudbury[2]. John Brewer of Ipswich had a son John who married Susannah Warner in 1674 in Ipswich. The Ipswich John Brewer married Mary Whitmore in 1647. Had the Cambridge Brewer moved to Ipswich about 1647 (when his son was 5), then the son John who married Elizabeth Rice in 1669 would have been of Ipswich not Sudbury. The Ipswich John Brewer's son John married Susannah Warner.
Thus, Robin Anderson moved the Ipswich John to John Brewer along with parents Thomas Brewer and Unknown Unknown, wife Mary Whitmore and child Mary Brewer.
Biography
A John Brewer arrived in Boston on the Lyon in Sept. 1632. [3] from County Sussex [per the passenger list] [4] This 1632 arrival was probably an adult and not the John Brewer of Ipswich born ca. 1626.
Passenger Brewer didn’t appear in Hotten’s list of persons of Quality [5]
so Brewer was then not of high social standing or wealth. Brewer was perhaps indentured, a common method for emigrants without means to pay for the price of passage and a plausible reason why he left no record in New England soon after arriving (indentured servants couldn’t own land under English common law). (Leaving or dying are other possible reasons for no records.)
John Brewer married his wife Anne by 1642 although no record of the date or place of this marriage has been found. [6] They had at least the following children in Cambridge, Massachusetts:
Maiden names suggested for Anne include Skinner and Reade per Elizabeth Goble Steen, but those claims are modern and undocumented.
John Brewer was a proprietor at Cambridge, MA by 1644-45 [9] In 1644 'Proprietor' meant owning a share of the Commons, not a business owner. Proprietary interests were transferable, so this datum sheds little light on when John Brewer arrived.
Cambridge town records indicate that John Brewer removed to Sudbury ca.1645.
John Brewer’s death ae. [aetatis] 50 recorded at Sudbury in 1691 must have been of John Jr. No record has been found of the deaths of either John Brewer Sr. or his wife Anne.
A John Brewer was made a freeman at Sudbury by early October 1678.[10] We surmise this was John Jr.,. then ca. age 36, who might have recently become eligible to vote by acquiring realty at Sudbury, perhaps by descent.. If the profiled John Brewer died before 1647, his son John probably would have been made a freeman at Sudbury long before 1678 since any land at Sudbury owned by John Sr. would have descended to his only son John Jr.
A John Brewer petitioned the General Court on Oct. 11, 1676 for himself and on behalf of others for damages sustained during King Philip’s War, recovering 200 pounds. [11] This claimant could have been John Brewer Sr. or John Jr., but the amount of damages and his acting on behalf of others suggest this was John Sr., as claimed in the cited source, and an owner of real property at Sudbury in 1676.
Per the above, the best estimate today of John Sr.’s death is ca. 1677-1678, and that of his wife Anne, merely unknown.
Genealogist Richardson (see Sources) asserted as a fact without any citation that the Hannah Brewer who married Henry Loker at Sudbury in April, 1647 was John Brewer’s widow. [12] Genealogist Robert C. Anderson didn’t agree. Richardson’s conclusion ignored the difference in given names (Hannah vs. Anne) and other possibilities, e.g., John Brewer could have had a sister or cousin named Hannah, as well as the facts mentioned above which imply John Brewer Sr. was living in 1676. Loker’s profile is supervised by PGMP and, following Anderson, doesn’t connect Loker’s second wife Hannah to John Brewer’s wife Anne.
Research Notes
The title or address Corporal, associated with an event in 1688, has been removed.
Whether and when John Jr. became an owner of realty {a requirement for voting) via purchase, gift or descent might be determinable by examining Sudbury’s land records.
A John Brewer was born to Thomas in Chelmsford, Essex, England, in 1598.[13]
A John Brewer was born 16 nov 1620 near London in Edmonton Enfield, Middlesex, England, to Thomas.[14]
Robin Anderson thinks it's also possible that our John Brewer (or the Ipswich John Brewer) was the son of Thomas (as some documents say) who was the son of the rather famous separatist, Thomas Brewer, who assisted the separatist group in Leyden (Pilgrims) and William Brewster with publishing their truth, and who testified for them in London in 1619. This may be incorrect...Robin Anderson does not yet see all connections documented. The dates seem to work, their consciences match, and their reasons for emigrating out of England were strong. Secondly, the Mavericks also emigrated to Boston, who were cousins of the Brewers if my theory is correct. Thomas Brewer is cited in the Mayflower Reader as one of the supporters remaining in England to raise money for the Plymouth settlers in 1627.
Thomas wrote a will in 1619, just before traveling to England to testify on behalf of the Pilgrims. The future was uncertain. There is no record of this will being probated (though of course that does not prove a lot, but it might be suggestive that he lived for many years still). He then remained in England and could have had more children. Since his brother was named John, if he had another child John would be an appropriate name.... Maybe I am grasping at straws...
Sources
- ↑ William H. Whitmore, Gleanings, NEHGR 30(1876):421-426, (Boston:NEHGS), p. 425. available at americanancestors.org
- ↑ U.S., New England Marriages Prior to 1700 Name Elizabeth Brewer Maiden Name Rice Gender Female Birth Year 1648 Marriage Date 1669 Marriage Place New England, USA Death Year 1740 Spouse John Brewer
- ↑ Wikitree Puritan Great Migration Ships ,https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Category:Lyon%2C_sailed_June_22%2C_1632
- ↑ Banks, Charles E., Planters of the Commonwealth 1620-1640 p. 101 (1930)
- ↑ Hotten, John C., The Original Lists of Persons of Quality ...Who Went From Great Britain to the American Plantations, 1600-1700 p. 150 (1874)
- ↑ U.S., New England Marriages Prior to 1700 Name John Brewer Gender Male Marriage Date 1642 Marriage Place New England, USA Spouse Anne Brewer
- ↑ Baldwin, Thomas W., Vital Records of Cambridge, Mass to the Year 1850 Vol. I p. 86 (1914)
- ↑ Baldwin, Thomas W., Vital Records of Cambridge, Mass to the Year 1850 Vol. I p. 86 (1914)
- ↑ Cutter, William R., Ed., 'Historic homes and places and genealogical and personal memoirs ...’, Vol. 2 p. 623 (1908)
- ↑ Paige, Lucius, List of Freeman, The New England Historical and Genealogical Register Vol. 3 p. 245 (1849)
- ↑ Robinson, Harriet A., Brewer Genealogy pp. 9 et seq. (1903) P. 9
- ↑ Douglas Richardson, The Riddlesdale alias Loker Family of Bures Saint Mary, Suffolk, England, and Sudbury, Massachusetts. NEHGR 143:330, (Boston:NEHGS), available at americanancestors.org
- ↑ Essex, England, Select Church of England Parish Registers, 1518-1960 Name Thomas Brewer Baptism Date 26 Nov 1598 Baptism Place Chelmsford, Essex, England Father Tho Brewer FHL Film Number 001472064
- ↑ London, England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 Name John Brewer Gender Male Record Type Baptism Baptism Date 16 Nov 1620 Baptism Place All Saints, Edmonton Enfield, Middlesex, England Father Thomas Brewer Register Type Parish Register
See also:
- FamilySearch Person: GZS1-TH1
- New England Family History (Henry Cole Quinby, New York, N.Y., 1907) P. 30
- Robinson, Harriet A. Brewer Genealogy. , 1902. P. 9
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2. A Corporal John Brewer in 1688 advocated a new church in Sudbury, see Robinson, Harriet A., Brewer Genealogy p. 9 (1903). That rank doesn’t fit the profiled John Brewer who was deceased in 1688. Since John Brewer Jr. and John Brewer III eventually attained higher military ranks, the rank/title of Corporal should not be associated now with any Brewer.
3. Genealogist Douglas Richardson guessed that Henry Loker’s second wife Hannah was the widow of our John Brewer, although the wife of John is rendered only as Anne in all records of her name found to date and there is no record of the death of either John Brewer Sr. or his wife Anne. Robert Charles Anderson disagreed with Richardson and thus Henry Loker’s profile does not agree with John Brewer’s. There is no evidence that John Brewer had died when Henry Loker married Hannah Brewer and because the names Anne and Hannah are not congruent, Richardson’s guess should not appear on this profile as factual. For reasons discussed below, guesses re Henry Loker’s wife Hannah better than Richardson’s include a sister or cousin of John Brewer of Sudbury.
4. A John Brewer petitioned the General Court on Oct. 11, 1676 for himself and on behalf of others for damages sustained during King Philip’s War, recovering 200 pounds. See Robinson, Harriet A., Brewer Genealogy p. 9. (1903). This could have been either John Brewer Sr. or John Jr., then ca. age 35. The amount of damages and Brewer’s acting on behalf of others suggest petitioner was John Sr., as claimed in the cited source.
5. A John Brewer was made a freeman at Sudbury ca. Oct. 1678, see NEHGR 3:245. This was probably John Brewer Jr. Owning real property was a requirement for the status of freeman. John’s eldest son John Jr. would have acquired by descent any realty John Sr. owned at Sudbury upon John Sr.’s death, so it is fairly likely that John Sr. died not long before Oct. 1678 and highly unlikely that John Sr. died before 1647.
6. The profiled John Brewer was a proprietor at Cambridge by 1644-45, see Cutter, 'Historic homes and places and genealogical and personal memoirs … Vol. 2 p. 623, meaning John then owned a share of the Commons. A John Brewer arrived in 1632 on the Lyon, presumably of age and hence not the John Brewer of Ipswich born ca. 1626. It is more sensible to conclude that the John Brewer who arrived in 1632 was the man at Cambridge 1642-44 than that they were different persons.
edited by Charles Clark
We need to make a second profile for the Ipswich John Brewer. If you disagree, please send me a message.
Any objections to me making Brewer-1064 into the Ipswich John Brewer with father Thomas from Hampton and moving child Mary to him?
Here are some things I have from records on Ancestry:
I notice on the profile that there is a son John Brewer who was the child of Anne. The information I have for the son John Brewer from the Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 is: Name John Brewer Event Type Birth Birth Date 6 Oct 1653 Birth Place Ipswich, Massachusetts Father Name John Brewer Mother Name Mary Whitmore The same info. is in the North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000 This John married 1st, Susannah Warner, 2nd, Martha Perkins.
His siblings were Martha Brewer, born 23 September 1648 Ipswich, Essex, MA, and Sarah Brewer, born 27 MARCH 1655 Ipswich, Essex, MA (Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988) Sarah's spouse was Samuel Graves. Married: 12 Mar 1678 in Lynn, Essex, Massachusetts.
I have the mother of these 3 above children as Mary Whitmore.
There is a lot of different information on trees on Ancestry for Anne (Hannah?) Skinner. They list her children as the John Brewer, born in 1642 and a Hannah Brewer.
Do you think there were 2 sons named John?
Samuel Graves is one of my ancestors (to the best of my knowledge). As for my research, I hadn't found his wife last name until now. Even in North America, Family History taken from Genealogy of the Graves family in America vol.1 doesn't show her last name. I'm still confused about her father, John Brewer.