Michael Hawkins, Loyalist: A Forgotten Hawkins in the Bergen-Hudson War Zone?

Contributed by Jaime Hawkins

Note: I have Alan Hawkins’s compiled work on Michael Hawkins and descendants and can provide exact page images or citations to anyone researching this line.

I am posting this because I think Eleanor / Elaney / Lanny Brower-Brewer, wife of Michael Hawkins, may be the key to understanding Michael’s pre-New Brunswick network.

I am researching Michael Hawkins, also remembered in family material as John Michael Hawkins, a Loyalist who came to New Brunswick in the Spring Fleet of 1783. He is the brick wall in my Hawkins line — but I now believe he should be studied not as an isolated “New Jersey Loyalist,” but as part of a much more interesting and dangerous wartime network along the Hudson River, Bergen County, Weehawken, Bull’s Ferry, Fort Lee, and British-held New York.

For decades, Alan Hawkins collected and preserved the family’s New Brunswick Hawkins history. His work identifies Michael Hawkins as a native of New Jersey, a Loyalist who served in Major Ward’s Company of Refugees, and a man connected to the defense of the Blockhouse before emigrating to New Brunswick in 1783. Alan’s work also identifies Michael’s wife as Eleanor / Elaney Brower, later often written as Brewer, a woman remembered as being of Dutch/New York background.

 But here is where the story gets more interesting.

 A family letter preserved in Alan Hawkins’s work says that “great grandfather” Michael Hawkins was remembered as John Michael Hawkins, that he “came from New York,” and that he came out with the Brewer family. The same memory says he was the only Hawkins who came to New Brunswick, while two brothers — George Hawkins and Martin Hawkins — remained in New York, along with two unmarried sisters.

 That is not a minor family detail. That is a road sign.

 It suggests Michael may have had one identity in official Loyalist records — native of New Jersey — and another in family memory — John Michael Hawkins from New York, connected to the Brewer/Brower family.

Those two versions do not have to contradict each other. In the Revolutionary War, the border between New York and New Jersey was not a clean genealogical wall. The British operating zone around New York City, Bergen County, Weehawken, Bull’s Ferry, Fort Lee, Hackensack, and the Hudson River was a fluid Loyalist world of guides, refugees, woodcutters, pilots, intelligence gatherers, river men, and families forced to choose sides.

And that brings me to Joseph Hawkins of Weehawken.

Joseph Hawkins appears in the Revolutionary War story as a Loyalist guide from Weehawken, on the estate of the wealthy Loyalist William Bayard. The Journal of the American Revolution states that Joseph Hawkins was the son of a tenant of the same name on Bayard’s estate at Weehawken. Joseph guided Lord Cornwallis at the taking of Fort Lee, and later served as a guide and pilot for British army and navy operations.

The Bergen County Historical Society also identifies Joseph Hawkins of Weehawken as one of three Bergen County Loyalists who led British and Hessian troops up the Palisades during the Fort Lee operation. The same article notes that Joseph was a tenant on William Bayard’s estate.

This matters because Weehawken, Bull’s Ferry, and Fort Lee were not distant places. They were part of the same narrow Hudson-Palisades corridor.

Journal of the American Revolution, The Three Guides

Bergen County's Loyalist Population, by Todd W. Braisted

Michael Hawkins served in Major Ward’s Company of Refugees and was connected to the Blockhouse. Joseph Hawkins of Weehawken was a Loyalist guide and pilot operating in the same corridor. These were not two random Hawkins men in two distant counties. They were two Hawkins Loyalists in the same dangerous military geography, doing the kinds of work that depended on local knowledge: roads, river crossings, landing places, wooded routes, safe houses, and who could be trusted.

Then the Brower/Brewer clue tightens the circle even further.

The Bergen County Historical Society notes that Jacob Brower served in Thomas Ward’s corps of woodcutters and helped defend the blockhouse at Bull’s Ferry, now West New York.

So in the same wartime space we have:

Michael Hawkins — Major Ward’s Refugees / Blockhouse

Joseph Hawkins — Weehawken / Bayard estate / guide and pilot

Jacob Brower — Ward’s woodcutters / Bull’s Ferry

Eleanor / Elaney Brower-Brewer — wife of Michael Hawkins

Brewer family tradition — Michael “came out with the Brewers”

That is not proof of kinship. But it is a serious cluster.

The BrouwerGenealogy blog has already discussed the unresolved identity of Eleanor Brewer/ Lanny Brower, wife of Michael Hawkins. The blog notes possible parentage theories involving Brouwer/Brower families from Hackensack, Bergen County, New Jersey, and Poughkeepsie / Dutchess County, New York, while also emphasizing that Michael Hawkins’s own land petition described him as a Loyalist and native of New Jersey.

In my view, Eleanor Brower may be the key to understanding the entire Hawkins problem.

If Michael came “with the Brewers,” and if a Jacob Brower was serving in the same Ward woodcutter/blockhouse environment, then the Hawkins-Brower connection may not have begun in New Brunswick. It may have begun in the New York–New Jersey war zone before the 1783 evacuation.

 There is also a second postwar connection that deserves attention: the Yerxa family.

 John Yerxa / Johannes Jurckse was a Loyalist from Cortlandt Manor, Westchester County, New York. His 1787 memorial says he was driven within the British lines in 1780 and joined the refugees under Colonel DeLancey, continuing in that service until he came to Nova Scotia/New Brunswick.

After the war, the Hawkins and Yerxa families were closely connected in New Brunswick. Yerxa family material states that James Yerxa married Sarah Hawkins on 8 July 1817. Sarah was a daughter of Michael Hawkins and Eleanor Brower/Brewer. Even more importantly, attached to the will of John Yerxa was a property valuation made by Thomas White, Jacob White, and Michael Hawkins Sr.

That means Michael Hawkins was not simply a distant in-law. He was trusted enough to help appraise the estate of John Yerxa, the Cortlandt Manor Loyalist whose family became intertwined with Michael’s.

 So the questions become:

Did Michael Hawkins know the Yerxas only after settlement in New Brunswick?

Or did these families already belong to overlapping Loyalist refugee networks before 1783?

At minimum, Michael Hawkins belongs in the same research conversation as:

Joseph Hawkins of Weehawken

William Bayard’s estate

Major Thomas Ward’s Refugees / Woodcutters

Jacob Brower of the Bull’s Ferry blockhouse world

Eleanor / Elaney Brower-Brewer

John Yerxa of Cortlandt Manor

DeLancey’s Westchester Loyalist refugee network

New Brunswick settlement at Keswick / Douglas

My working theory is this:

Michael Hawkins was probably not merely a generic New Jersey Loyalist. He appears to have been part of a Bergen–Hudson Loyalist network that included Hawkins, Brower/Brewer, Ward’s refugees, Bayard’s Weehawken estate, and postwar New Brunswick families such as Yerxa.

The strongest candidate lead right now is Joseph Hawkins of Weehawken.

Joseph may not be Michael’s father or brother. But given the surname, geography, military role, Loyalist allegiance, and shared Hudson corridor, he is far too close to ignore. In a world of guides, pilots, woodcutters, refugees, blockhouse defenders, and displaced Loyalist families, the idea that Michael Hawkins and Joseph Hawkins were operating in the same corridor and knew nothing of each other seems unlikely.

I am looking for anyone with records, family notes, land documents, church entries, Loyalist claims, or DNA clues involving:

Michael Hawkins / John Michael Hawkins

Joseph Hawkins of Weehawken

Joseph Hawkins Sr., tenant on Bayard’s estate

George Hawkins

Martin Hawkins

Eleanor / Elaney / Lanny Brower / Brewer

Jacob Brower

Major Thomas Ward’s Company of Refugees

Bull’s Ferry / Bergen County blockhouse

Bayard estate, Weehawken

Yerxa / Jurckse family of Cortlandt Manor and New Brunswick

Michael Hawkins has been sitting in the records as a lonely New Brunswick Loyalist for too long. I think he belongs back in the world he came from:

the Hudson corridor, where Hawkins, Brower, Ward, Bayard, DeLancey, Yerxa, New York, New Jersey, and New Brunswick all begin to touch.

If anyone has worked on these families or this Loyalist network, I would be grateful to compare notes. Jaime Hawkins.

For background on the above please see the posts on this website of January 22, 2015, "Who Is Eleanor Brewer, Wife of Michael Hawkins," and the follow-up post of January 30, 2015, "A Bit More On Eleanor Brewer and Michael Hawkins." In addition, see Jamie's post of May 3, 2026 on the Hawkins DNA Project website - Michael Hawkins, Loyalist (c.1750-1845), New Brunswick.

Alan Hawkins compiled work on the Hawkins family (mentioned in the first paragraph) can be obtained directly from Jaime Hawkins. 

Again, Please direct all correspondence to Jaime Hawkins.

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Brewer Families From Southside Virginia

 David Brewer has just published a new book, Brewer Families From Southside Virginia. Dave is one of the co-administrators of the Brewer DNA Project. He is focused on the Brewer families whose origins are found in the southern colonies of British North America. 

In Dave's words:

As we all know, over the past decade, several distinct branches of American families with the surname Brewer have been identified thanks to advances in DNA analysis and improved digital access to colonial and early American records. 

I've just published a new book, Brewer Families From Southside Virginia, in a further effort to sort out the ancestry of a broad group of Virginia pioneers, whose forebears mostly migrated from southwest England to the area south of the James River during the colonial period.  Among them were members of haplogroup I-Y15300, including George Brewer of Brunswick County, Thomas Brewer of Sussex County, William Brewer of Martins Brandon Parish in Prince George County, John Brewer of Hertford County, North Carolina, formerly of Southampton County, Virginia, and Benjamin Brewer of Franklin County, Georgia, formerly of North Carolina.  Their descendants have identified earliest known ancestors who lived in Indiana or southeastern states -- especially the Carolinas, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama -- in the decades before and after the turn of the 19th Century.  Until now, traditional record research alone has not allowed them to trace their ancestries back to the period between the mid-1600's and mid-1700's, the heart of the American colonial era.  

This book also studies the possibly related families of John Brewer (I), the Ancient Planter of Jamestown Colony, the 18th and 19th Century John Brewer line of the Upper Parish of Nansemond County, Virginia, William Brewer of Isle of Wight County, Virginia, Joseph Brewer of Warren Counties, North Carolina, George Brewer of Northampton County, North Carolina.  

Several other family groups whose founders settled in the area south of the James River also receive detailed attention.  Those groups include the family of Sackfield Brewer (died 1699), which is unrelated to the members of haplogroup I-Y15300 on the male side.  However, they had common associates and kinships in Virginia.  The book also studies the family of Robert Brewer, who appears to have been of Romany descent, and who settled in Nansemond County in the late 1600’s.  

As with my recent book about the descendants of George Brewer of Brunswick County, I've published the new book with Kindle Books in both e-book and paperback formats.  I like the e-book format.  It's less expensive, and it's reader-friendly, with an interactive table of contents and hot linked end notes.  This makes it easy to navigate.  The cost of printing makes the margins very thin for the paperback version, which, at more than 500 pages in length, is priced at $20.  The e-book is priced at $5.  You can find both versions at Amazon.

Little is tidy in this family history, but such was the stuff of life in the rapidly expanding New America.  Accordingly, this book is work in progress, meant to be supplemented and corrected by the fruits of further research, including DNA test results.  Even now, the journey proceeds.

I look forward to your comments and questions. 

 

 Dave can be contacted through the Brewer DNA Project's website.

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New Netherland Settlers

 In 2024 The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society announced the launch of a new project named New Netherland Settlers. Rather than describe this new project I will simply direct you to the webpage which describes the project's purpose and scope and profiles the current key researchers. Last month the first sketches of individuals who settled in New Netherland prior to 1664 were published online. It does appear that they are accessible to non-members of the NYG&B Society, and so I would encourage all those interested in the persons who inhabited the short-lived colony of New Netherland to make use of this new resource. The available Search tool will search within the various individual sketches. In other words you can find individuals in this collection who are not the subject of a sketch themselves.

The format of the sketches is very much similar, perhaps even based upon, the format used by the late Robert Charles Anderson in his Great Migration Study Project which is hosted at American Ancestors, the website of the New England Historic Genealogical Society. The components of the New Netherland Settlers sketches can be found at the bottom of the New Netherland Settler sketches page. 

The introduction tells us that a complete list of known residents for whom sketches are planned will be released in the Fall of 2025. In addition it is stated that in time the sketches will be published in printed volumes.

As it is early in this project I was not surprised to find that, as of this post, sketches are not yet available for any of the New Netherland residents with the surname Brouwer, most of who are found on the Brouwer Genealogy Database website. While we do not yet have a sketch for Adam Brouwer, one has been published for his wife, Magdalena Verdon's maternal grandmother, Aeltje Braconie. The sketch identifies for the first time a previously unknown son of Aeltje Braconie and her first husband Thomas Badie, himself named Thomas and baptized 24 October 1614 at the Roman Catholic church, Notre-Dame-aux-Fonts in Liège, in present day Belgium. My own sketch of Aeltje Braconie was published online on the Brouwer Genealogy Database some years ago. The post covering Aeltje's daughter Maria Badie was posted August 24, 2012. And so thirteen years later we now know of a brother of Maria Badie.

Much thanks to the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society for initiating the New Netherland Settlers project. I'm certain that readers of Brouwer Genealogy will be looking forward to the sketches of Adam Brouwer, Jan Brouwer and Willem Brouwer, all of whom left descendants who are with us today.

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New Book By David Brewer: Brewer Families of Moore, Chatham and Randolph Counties, North Carolina

 David Brewer, a co-administrator for the Brewer DNA Project (Family Tree DNA) has just published a new book, Brewer Families of Moore, Chatham and Randolph Counties, North Carolina: In Search of the Descendants of George Brewer of Brunswick County,Virginia. 

A description of his new book in David's words:

"In 2018, I wrote a book about the Brewer families from Moore and Southwest Chatham Counties, North Carolina. A lot has happened since then, both on the DNA and record fronts. So, I've completely rewritten the book, adding much more material and keeping track of current DNA advances. The new book more broadly focuses on the Brewer families who lived in Moore, Chatham and Randolph Counties, North Carolina in the period between 1750 and 1850. It compiles and integrates existing research with newer information, including current results of YDNA genetic testing of male descendants of the Brewers from this tri-county region. One of the conclusions the book reaches is that three sons of George Brewer of Brunswick County, Howell I, Lanier I, and John, (and their descendants) were present in northern Moore, southwestern Chatham, and southeast Randolph Counties between 1750 and 1850. 

Unlike the first version, this book also discusses in detail the Haw River Brewers, including George Brewer's probable sons Henry, Oliver, and Nathaniel Brewer, as well as probable descendants of George's son Nicholas Brewer, and several other possibly related Brewer families from northern Chatham County, including the families of John, Samuel and Abel Brewer. The book also discusses in detail descendants of these Brewer families who moved to Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, and South Carolina in the early decades of the 1800's. 

The book begins with a chronology, based on publicly recorded data, of early Brewer presence in the region and then turns to a more detailed discussion of particular individuals. Subjects of extended discussion include Lanier Brewers I and II, the Howell Brewers, Ambrose Brewer, men named Drury Brewer, Harmon Brewer, the Willis Brewers of Moore County, Kentucky and Ohio, Sampson Brewer, Micajah (Cager) Brewer, Nicholas Brewer of Bear Creek, the Tick Creek Brewers of southwest Chatham County, the Haw and New Hope River Brewers of Chatham, and the William Brewer family of Randolph County, North Carolina and Morgan County, Indiana, among other lines. 

With that peek under the hood, I've published the new book with Kindle Direct Publishing in both e-book and paperback formats. The e-book is less expensive and more reader-friendly, with an interactive table of contents and hot linked end notes. This makes it easy to navigate. The paperback version is priced at $15. The e-book is priced at $4.99. You can find both versions online at Amazon. I look forward to your comments and questions."

 

 

David can be contacted through the About us page on the Brewer DNA Project website. This book we be of interest to anyone working on tracing their Brewer ancestry to one of the numerous Brewer families whose origins are found in the southeastern U.S. states, whether they are descendants of George Brewer of Brunswick County, Virginia or otherwise.

Thank you David. I'm looking forward to reading the book.

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New Links For "The Brower Papers, 1734-1872"

 Below are new links for the posts of January 21, 2017, "The Brower Papers, 1734-1872," and the followup, "The Brower Papers, 1734-1872 Part II (January 24, 2017). As with many other links on this website the links for this post are broken. Such is the nature of the ephemeral internet.

No. 1. Indenture dated 1 September 1734 between Barhanardus Van diere of Bergen Co., New Jersey and numerous others all of Albany Co., New York and William Brower of "Schonaghton" for lots of woodland lying north of the Mohawk in Stone Arabia, Albany County.

No. 2. Deed for a wood lot in Stone Arabia from Hendreck Walrath to Hendreck Schremling dated 9 October 1739.

No. 3.  Deed from Hendreck Schremling to William Brower for six lots on the north side of the Mohawk, dated 10 December 1739.

No. 4. Bond of Cornelis Feele, Clas Feele and John Feele unto Margaret Acker, daughter of John Acker, dated 2 July 1743. "Margaret Acker" also known as Margariet Ekker or Ecker, was a daughter of Jan Ekker/Ecker/Ekkerson and Margrietje Vile, daughter of "Cornelis Feele" as his name is rendered in the bond. I have not worked out the genealogy but I would suspect that the three bondsman named "Feele" are Margaret's brothers. Margariet Ekker, baptized 21 July 1734 at Schenectady, married Harmanous Brouwer, 8 February 1755. Harmanous is a son of William Brouwer and Rebecca Vedder.

No. 5. The will of William Brower of "Stone Raby In the County of Albany on the Mohawks River yeoman," dated 10 February 1757. He is described as "Being Verry well in Good helth and Sound Perfect Mind and Memory." If born by 1669, which he would have had to have been if he is a son of William Brouwer who died in August 1668 and Lysbeth Drinkvelt, then William Brower of Stone Arabia would have been 86 or 87 years old in early 1757. The will was proved 15 February 1765, which again if born by 1669, would mean that William Brower may have lived to the age of 95 or 96.

No. 6. Indenture dated 2 June 1775 between Arent Brower and Harmen Brower, both of Stone Arabia.

No. 7. Indenture dated 22 May 1793 between Jacob Ekker, Abraham Coopman and Jacob G. Klock, Commissioners for Montgomery County, of the first part and Harmen Brower of the Town of Palatine, Montgomery County, of the second part. The parcels being sold to Harmen Brower appear to be lots that were confiscated from prior owners.

No. 8. Indenture dated 27 February 1798 between Cornelius Brower and Harme Brower, both of the Town of Palatine. The deed is for land that had been bequeathed in the will of William Brower to his sons Arent Brower and Harme Brower.

No. 9. The will of "John B. Jno. Van Eps" of the City of Schenectady, dated 25 March 1799. This would be Jan Baptist Van Eps, baptized 17 June 1752 at Schenectady, the son of Jan Baptist Van Eps and Maria Truax. In his will he names his wife Debora. Jan B. Van Eps married, as his second wife, Debora Brower on 26 January 1799. Debora is a daughter of Harmanus Brower and Margariet Ekker. The rather lengthy will of the elder Jan Baptist Van Eps can be found in Albany County Wills, vol. 3, pp. 241-246. It was dated 13 March 1800, followed by a codicil dated 24 May 1802 and an additional codicil dated 21 June 1805, proved 16 September 1805. The younger Jan Baptist Van Eps is said to have died 28 October 1821. His sister, Sarah Van Eps, married Wilhelmus Brower, a brother of Debora Brouwer.

No. 10. Indenture dated 5 March 1803 between Harme Brower of Palatine in Montgomery County and Margaret his wife, and Harme Brower, Jr., of the same place. The deed is for 47 acres of land in Palatine, New York.

No. 11. Indenture dated 5 March 1803 between Cornelius Brower of Palatine, Montgomery County and Elizabeth his wife, and Harme Brower, Jr., of the same place. This is a deed for lot number 22 in the Patent of Stone Arabia, Montgomery County.

No. 12. The will of Harme Brower of Stone Arabia, dated 14 March 1803. The testator names his son Wilhelmus, son Harme Brower, Jr., "farming utensils to be divided among my five sons," daughter Deborah Brower, three daughters Rebecca Van Deusen, Sarah Docksteder and Deborah Brower. Following the will is a receipt from John B. Jno. Van Eps, dated 1 October 1808 for the legacy left his wife Deborah by her father Harmen Brower.

No. 13. At the top of this page is a Bill of Money received from Benjamin Smith by Mr. Harmen Brower, dated 5 March 1794. The remainder of the page includes receipts from Jacob N. Doxstedder and Arindh Smith.

No. 14. Eight pages. Page 1 is an order for Arent Brower to appear before the Superior Court of Common Pleas in a matter of Hermanus Brower, plaintiff, v. Philip P. Empey. The remainder of the documents consists of varied minutes recorded in the courts (presumably Montgomery County) involving Harmen Brower. Dates are from the 1790s.

No. 15. The will of Herman Brower of the Town of Palatine, Montgomery County. Dated 11 January 1839. Names his wife, Magdalene, and sons and daughters. Signs with his mark. This is a fourteen page document and includes the probate record.

No. 16. Indenture dated 3 March 1848 between Herman H. Brower and Margaret his wife of the Town of Palatine, Montgomery County, and Frederick Brower of the same town and county. This is a deed for a woodlot in Palatine.

No. 17. Five pages of receipts and other varied court records involving Browers in Montgomery County. In at least one instance the surname is recorded as Brewer. 

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Y-DNA Haplogroups for Willem Adriaense Bennet

Contributed by Ron Bennett.

This is a follow-up to the earlier posts on the Y-DNA haplogroups for Willem Adriaense Bennet (WAB), which were generic. Since that time, eight descendants of WAB have upgraded to an extensive, full chromosome Y-DNA paternity test called BigY-700. Data processing alone for this test takes over 8 weeks, but the result is a sufficiently detailed list of individual mutations, which occur every 50 to 100 years on average, such that the software is able to create a biological family tree (called a TimeTree), showing the birth years of each common ancestor between branches.
 

The unique haplogroup (branch name) for WAB is E-FTB90013 (est. birth 1626, historical ~1605), which includes him, his two sons, and their descendants. His older son, Adrian Willemsen's haplogroup is E-FTB92022 (est. birth 1651, historical 1637). His great-grandson, Isaac Adrianson's haplogroup is E-FTD68674 (est. birth 1708, historical 1717).
 

This haplotree corroborates the WAB family tree on this site with the corrections published by Morrissey, et.al. in 2017, but does not match the original 1962 tree published by Ledley and subsequently by Kenneth Bennett.
The Y-DNA tree is skeletal due to the small number of descendants. Luckily we have four descendants from each of WAB's two sons, but only three of the eight grandsons documented here are represented. Additional male descendants are needed to fully corroborate the historical records family tree. Please contact FTDNA directly to order this test or contact me directly with questions. The test is a bit expensive, but the beauty is that nothing more is required of the participants except their DNA. The analysis will automatically connect you to all other Bennetts and other surnames (including Brouwer) who have ever taken this test.

Bennets/Bennetts interested in participating in the Bennett Y-DNA Project at FamilyTreeDNA should contact the Project directly via their website, and/or contact Ron Bennett directly.

Also see the August 21, 2022 post, "Sunset At Gowanus Bay and A Note on the Bennett Project at Family Tree DNA." 

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