1652 John Brewer witnessed to a deed [A-15] in Kent County, Maryland. [1]
1658 John Brewer was named as a judge or commissioner of Anne Arundel County, Maryland. [2]
1659 The tract "Brewerton" was surveyed in Anne Arundel County, Maryland for John Brewer. [3] A patent was awarded. [4]
Brewerston Eodem die
Laid out for John Brewer of this province planter a parcell of land lying on the West side of Chesapeak Bay, and on the West side of a river in the said bay called Road river, next adjoyning to the land of Thomas Besson the elder, beginning at the sd Bessons Northernmost bounded Tree, being a polehickary(?) Tree bounding on the East by a Line drawn North and West from the said polehickary for breadth two hundred perches to a mark't oak on the North by a Line drawn West and by South from the said oak for length three hundred and twenty perches, on the west by a line drawn South and by East from the end of the West and South line for breadth two hundred perches until it intersect a parallel drawn from the land of the sd Besson, on the south with the said Land and parrallel containing and now laid out for four hundred acres more or less.
1661 John Brewer and Samuel Chew were named as burgesses for Anne Arrundell County. [5] [6]
1662 A tract, "The Security ", of 66 acres, was surveyed for John Brewer, west side of Chesapeak Bay in Ann Arundell on the south side of South River by land of William Burges. Dated November 3. [7] A patent was awarded on April 28, 1663. [8]
1662 John and Eliza Brewer witnessed the will of Edmond Townehill in Maryland. [9]
1663 John Brewer, of Anne Arundel County, appointed Samuel Chew as his attorney in a court case concerning the estate of John Hatton, merchant, deceased, of which John Brewer was the administrator. Dated August 25. [10]
1663 John Brewer transported several persons and requested land rights. [11]
1666 Sixty-six acres, "Security", was surveyed in April, 1662, for John Brewer, south side South River. [12]
1666 Elizabeth Brewer testified about land held by her without rights. The land was to be held by George Nettlefield, the original owner. [13]
1668 Widow Elizabeth Brewer dated her will on March 6, 1667/68. To sons John and William, cows (named) and their increase. To son William parcel of land in South River called Holland bought of Richard Tydeing. To son William a negro called Peter and a mulato called Jeffrey, who is to be freed at age 30. To Anias and Jabez Pierpoint cattle. Land on the Wye River to be sold and proceeds to be used to bring up two sons and to pay debts. Probate: May 22, 1688. [14] [15] [16] [17]
1668 Testamentary Proceedings were recorded regarding Elizabeth Brewer, widow deceased. The inventory listed many pieces of cloth and sewing items. Unnamed: one negro boy, negro girl, two mullatto boys, and one negro woman. Appraised by Robert Franklin, Witt Towlson, ?, and Tho. Besson. Dated May 25. [18] [19]
1673 John Brewer was administrator for the estate of John Hatton, deceased, whose goods chattels and credits were committed to John Brewer. "The said John Brewer died after whose death administration of all and singular the goods and chattels which were of the said John at the time of his death were committed to Elizabeth Brewer relict of the said John. Elizabeth also died and her goods were committed to Nathaniel Heathcoate. John Brewer was accused of presenting a false inventory and wasting and embezeling the estate of John Holland, so that nothing was left from it. [20]
1673 An administration of the estate of Elizabeth Brewer widdow dec'd was reported by Tho Elias Dobbs. Payments to several people were listed. [21] [22]
1674 At an inquisition regarding the estate of James Stringer, Mary Williams was determined to be his only heir. She was to inherit disputed land. "The present possessor of the said land is Nathan Heathcoate Guardian of ye Orphans of John Brewer of this county deceased by virtue of an assignment granted to John Brewer by John Collier upon the back of a pattent granted unto ye John Collier after ye decease of the said John Stringer." Dated November 12. [23]
1675 Nathan Heathcote was to sell land of widow Brewer, deceased. Dated February 19, 1674/75. [24]
1681 Eliza Heathcote dated her will on January 12, in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. To John Brewer and his heirs, the negroes and their increase bequeathed by Eliza's late husband, and a boy Peter to be sent to school, apprenticed as a cooper, and then set free at age 31. To William Brewer, negroes bequeathed in the will of Eliza's husband. Many other persons were named. Proved February 21, 1683. [25] [26] [27]
1683 William Brewer was named in the will of William Woodcocke. [28]
Research Notes:
"John Brewer was justice and county commissioner of Anne Arundel county, 1658; member of the House of Burgesses of Anne Arundel county, 1661. He married Elizabeth Howard." [29] [30]
There are two contradictory ancestries (below) reported for this John Brewer. One assumes father John Brewer [31] of Virginia and the other assumes immigration through Massachusetts.
A biosketch [32] reports [the material about 1641 emigration from Massachusetts is contradicted by the 1622 petition involving John Brewer of Virginia]:
The first of the Brewer family who emigrated to America was John Brewer, one of the Puritan settlers of Maryland. He was born in the south of Wales at the beginning of the seventeenth century, emigrated to Massachusetts in 1645, and moved to Virginia upon the solicitation of William Ducand. Rev. Ethan Allen's "Historical Notes of St. Anne's Parish, Anne Arundel County," states that the first Puritans appeared in Virginia about the year 1641, and that to prevent their coming severe laws had been enacted against them under the administration of Sir William Berkeley. These meaures, however, failed to accomplish their purpose, and some years later one hundred Puritans were found to be in the colony, one of whom was John Brewer. Governor Berkeley at length putting the laws into rigid execution, they "at once," in 1649, in the language of their own historian, "removed themselves, their families, and estates into the Province of Maryland, being thereunto invited by Capt. William Stone, then Governor for Lord Baltimore, with the promise of liberty of religion and the privileges of English subjects." John Brewer was one of that company. They settled in part on the site of the present city of Annapolis, naming the town Providence. Mr. Brewer took up his residence on South River, on a tract of land which soon came to be called Brewerton, which he patented in 1659. In 1664 another property called Larkington was patented by him. He was one of the county justices commissioned by Leonard Calvert. He married Sarah, daughter of Henry Ridgely, and at his death, April 5, 1690, left three children, John, Eke, and Joseph. He was one of the few wealthy men of that period who adhered to the law of primogeniture, and he left a large estate in entail, which finally falling to Joseph Brewer, the fifth in descent, he had the entail dissolved.
A biosketch reports [33]:
John Brewer is mentioned in his father's will dated 1635, as a minor. He received from his father the estate of "Stanley Hundred," in Warwick County, and "Brewer's Borough." He was probably the John Brewer who was Burgess for Isle of Wight County, Virginia, in 1657-58. His wife was Ann. John Brewer died in 1669. A search of the records of Isle of Wight County has not discovered a will left by him. An inventory of his estate was filed June 15,1669, by his relict and executrix, Mrs. Ann Holiday. She must have re-married within a week or two of his death. There is an entry, dated May 20, 1671, in an old record book of the Virginia General Court, the only one now remaining later than 1640, that John Harloe informed the Court that Mr. Anthony Holiday (of Nansemond, in Isle of Wight), who married the widow of John Brewer, held more land in Warwick County than the probate called for. John Brewer left a very large estate which was valued at eighty-seven thousand six hundred and twenty-one pounds of tobacco (then used in the Colony as a standard of valuation). It included £155 in gold and silver money, and seventy-eight ounces of valuable plate. His son may have been the John Brewer who held the estate of "Stanley Hundred," in Warwick County, Virginia, though he lived in Nansemond, in 1717. Another son may be the Thomas Brewer who was a citizen of New-Port Parish, Isle of Wight County, in 1722, and was Sheriff of Isle of Wight in 1725. This may be the Thomas Brewer, of Isle of Wight, who made a will dated March 4, and proved May 23, 1729. His legatees were his wife, daughters, Mary and Ann, and sons, John and Thomas H. It confirmed gifts of two hundred pounds sterling each, which he had already given to his children, and gave them, in addition, each one hundred pounds sterling. It named his son, Thomas, executor. This Thomas may be the Thomas Brewer who received a deed from his brother, John Brewer, dated 1733, and recorded in Isle of Wight County. A John Brewer patented land in Isle of Wight in 1742.
A genealogical abstract reports [34]:
John Brewer (1622-64), one of the 100 invited Puritans to go to Va. from Mass.; burgess; mem. Council; from Va. to Anne Arundel Co., Md.; built "Brewerton", on South River; m 1640, Elizabeth Heathcoat (d 1667).
John (1644-90), commr., 1667; justice; del. 1660-62; burgess; m 1685 Sarah Ridgely (Col. Henry)
John (1686-1730), Anne Arundel Co.; m 1704, Dinah Battee (d 1732: Ferdinand, grad. Oxford, Eng., justice Anne Arundel Co., 1683-94).
The Brewer genealogy of Colonial Virginia does not have an obvious link to this family. [35]
[1] J. Hall Pleasants, ed., Archives of Maryland, Proceedings of the County Courts, Court Series 7, Vol. 54 (Baltimore, MD: 1937), 19, [InternetArchive].
[2] Bernard Christian Steiner, ed., Archives of Maryland, Provincial Court Proceedings, Vol. 41 (Baltimore, MD: 1922), 89, [GoogleBooks].
[3] Hester Dorsey Richardson, Side-lights on Maryland History, Vol. 1 (1913), 327, [HathiTrust].
[4] Maryland State Archives Land Patent portal, 7, image=168, Maryland Patent 505 Liber 4-285, citing Liber R-118, [MD Land Patent SM2], [MD Land Patent Index].
[5] William Hand Browne, ed., Archives of Maryland, Proceedings of the Council of Maryland, 1637-1664, Vol. 1 (Baltimore, Maryland: 1883), 396, [HathiTrust].
[6] Archives of Maryland Online, Volume 1, page 396, [MD_Archives_Megafile [ocr]], [MD_Archives_Megafile [pdf]].
[7] Hester Dorsey Richardson, Side-lights on Maryland History, Vol. 2 (1913), 400, [HathiTrust].
[8] Maryland State Archives Land Patent portal, 9, image=5, Liber 6 folio 5 citing patent CC-270, patent 267, [MD Land Patent SM2], [MD Land Patent Index].
[9] Jane Baldwin Cotton, Roberta Bolling Henry, The Maryland Calendar of Wills: Wills 1635-1685, Vol. 1 (1901), 111, [HathiTrust], [GoogleBooks].
[10] J. Hall Pleasants, ed., Archives of Maryland, Provincial Court Proceedings, Vol. 49 (Baltimore, MD: 1932), 82-84, [InternetArchive].
[11] Maryland State Archives Land Patent portal, 8, image 231, patent book 5-411, citing AA-70, [MD Land Patent SM2], [MD Land Patent Index].
[12] Hester Dorsey Richardson, Side-lights on Maryland History, Vol. 2 (1913), 400, [HathiTrust].
[13] J. Hall Pleasants, ed., Archives of Maryland, Provincial Court Proceedings, Vol. 57 (Baltimore, MD: 1940), 122, [InternetArchive].
[14] Maryland Colonial Wills, 1635-1674, 1, 312, [MD_Archives Will Book Catalog].
[15] Jane Baldwin Cotton, Roberta Bolling Henry, The Maryland Calendar of Wills: Wills 1635-1685, Vol. 1 (1901), 43, [HathiTrust], [GoogleBooks].
[16] James M. Magruder, Index of Maryland Colonial Wills, 1634-1777 (1933, reprinted 1967), 52, [GoogleBooks].
[17] Maryland State Archives, Probate Records, Colonial, Index, 1634-1777, MSA S1393, Liber 1, folio 312, [MD Archives].
[18] Maryland Prerogative Court, Maryland Colonial Testamentary Proceedings 1718-1777, 2-463, [FamilySearchImage], [FSCatalog].
[19] Maryland State Archives, Probate Records, Colonial, Index, 1634-1777, MSA S1393, 2-463, [MD Archives].
[20] Elizabeth Merritt, ed., Archives of Maryland, Provincial Court Proceedings, 1670-1675, Vol. 65 (Baltimore, MD: 1952), 601-602, [Maryland Archives].
[21] Maryland Prerogative Court, Maryland Colonial Testamentary Proceedings 1718-1777, 4-29, [FamilySearchImage], [FSCatalog].
[22] Maryland State Archives, Probate Records, Colonial, Index, 1634-1777, MSA S1393, 4a-29, [MD Archives].
[23] J. Hall Pleasants, ed., Archives of Maryland, Proceedings of the Court of Chancery, 1669-1679, Court Series 5, Vol. 51 (Baltimore, MD: 1934), 137, Proceedings of the Court of Chancery, [InternetArchive].
[24] William Hand Browne, ed., Archives of Maryland, Proceedings of the Council of Maryland, 1666-1776, Vol. 2 (Baltimore, Maryland: 1884), 428, [HathiTrust].
[25] Maryland Colonial Wills, 1682-1688, G, 4, 130, [MD_Archives Will Book Catalog].
[26] Maryland Colonial Wills, 1682-1688, G, 4, 36, part, [MD_Archives Will Book Catalog].
[27] Jane Baldwin Cotton, Roberta Bolling Henry, The Maryland Calendar of Wills: Wills 1635-1685, Vol. 1 (1901), 152, [HathiTrust], [GoogleBooks].
[28] Jane Baldwin Cotton, Roberta Bolling Henry, The Maryland Calendar of Wills: Wills 1635-1685, Vol. 1 (1901), 126, [HathiTrust], [GoogleBooks].
[29] Clayton Colman Hall, ed., Baltimore, its History and its People, Vol. II - Biography (Chicago: Lewis Historical Publishing, 1912), 452, [HathiTrust], [GoogleBooks].
[30] not seen, Edward C. Papenfuse et. al. A Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland Legislature 1635-1789 pg. 163, [URL].
[31] Janet and Robert Wolfe, Genealogy Page for John Brewer of Virginia, [JRWolfeGenealogy].
[32] J. Thomas Scharf, History of Baltimore City and County from the earliest period to the present day (Philadelphia : L. H. Everts, 1881), 639, [HathiTrust].
[33] Mary Selden Kennedy, Seldens of Virginia and Allied Families, Vol. 2 (1911), 511, [HathiTrust], [GoogleBooks].
[34] Frederick Adams Birkus, ed., The Abridged Compendium of American Genealogy, Vol. 2 (1942), 003135-474, [AncestryImage], [AncestryRecord].
[35] Marvin T. Broyhill, The Brewer Family of Colonial Virginia 1626-1776 (), [FHLBook].