Update: Elias Brewer and Rebecca Wickers

Back on February 9th we raised some questions regarding the identity of Elias Brewer and Rebecca Wickers who received a license to marry in New Jersey on 25 September 1786. We still do not know who either of the two were, but some copies of the marriage license courtesy of Richard Brewer, clears up a couple of issues.

 The license as published in Nelson, William. Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State of New Jersey. Volume XXII. Marriage Records, 1665-1800. Archives of the State of New Jersey. First Series. (Paterson, N.J.: Press Printing and Publishing Co., 1900), says, "Elias Brewer, Burlington, Rebecca Wickers." Meanwhile, Family Search in their searchable online database titled, "New Jersey, County Marriages, 1682-1956," has an entry for Elias Brewer, Rebekah Wickers, event place: Monmouth County, New Jersey. This entry is from FHL film #802936. In addition to this entry, Family Search as two others in their database titled, "New Jersey Marriages, 1678-1985." In one of the entries, no location is given other than New Jersey (Elias Brewer, Rebekah Wickers, FHL film #802936), while a second (Elias Brewer, Rebekah Wickers, FHL film #888701) states, "Elias Brewer, birthplace: of Burlington, New Jersey, Rebekah Wickers." So, we have four abstracts of the same record, none of which completely agree with any of the others. (Also note that two of the index entries by Family Search are taken from the same FHL film #802936).

I had also, in the February 9th post, raised the question regarding Rebecca's surname. Was it correctly recorded as "Wickers," or might this be an error for "Vickers." The answer here, as can be seen in a digital image of the original taken from FHL film #802936, by Richard Brewer, is that Rebecca's name was correctly transcribed. The original does record, "Wickers."

Elias Brewer - Rebeckah Wickers Marriage License

Note though, that this document does not name any location. The counties of Burlington and Monmouth were, however, mentioned in different renderings of the license and we did have the question as to which one was correct. The page following this document had the answer, and here it is:

Rebekah Wickers, Burlington (N.J.) Marriage License

So, we will scrap the idea that Rebecca (Rebekah) Wickers may have been a Vickers, and we should continue a search for this couple in Burlington County, New Jersey.

BGB 261