Digital images of the will of Samuel Brewer of New York City, dated 1815 (New York County Surrogate's Court v. 15, p.205) have been placed online.
Identifying this Samuel Brewer had an unexpected outcome. Samuel lived in New York City and in Westchester County, New York. The name, Samuel, is very common among the descendants of Adam Brouwer, and a number of them lived in the greater New York City area. This Samuel Brewer, however, is not one of them. He is not descended from Adam Brouwer, nor is he a descendant of one of the other New Netherland Brouwer families. This Samuel is a New England Brewer, a descendant of John Brewer who was at Cambridge, Massachusetts during the first half of the 17th century. Samuel is a son of James Brewer, born 1740 in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, and his wife Hannah Lee. The couple lived in Westchester County, New York prior to the Revolutionary War (James Brewer, a physician, was killed in 1780, apparently by accident, by fellow Patriots). James Brewer, his family and some descendants, can be found on the Brewer of New England website, and a descendant chart has also been placed online.
I would not be surprised if some of the other unplaced Brewers, found in New York, eventually are found to be of a New England ancestry, rather than a New Netherland ancestry.
BGB 42
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