Sunset at Gowanus Bay

Sunset at Gowanus Bay
Sunset at Gowanus Bay, Henry Gritten, 1851

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

James Brewer Executor of the Estate of Peter Brewer

Item number 7 from abstracts of miscellaneous Monmouth County Court Papers, part 1, involves the case of James Brewer, son and executor of the estate of Peter Brewer, deceased, vs. John Culp, administrator of the estate of Peter Noss, in which James Brewer is suing John Culp for money due to the estate of Peter Brewer, from the estate of Peter Noss, for an unpaid debt incurred during their lives. In this document James Brewer is appointing in his place as attorney, Jonathan Rheas, while John Culp is appointing in his place, Richard Stockton. The case is from the April 1786 term held in the court at Freehold, Monmouth County, New Jersey.

7. James Brewer, executor of the estate of Peter Brewer

This document was grouped with those believed to be pertinent to descendants of Jan Brouwer of Flatlands, Long Island. However, in this case, such a placement appears to be incorrect. The James Brewer mentioned in this document would have been born before 1765, and presently no such person has been identified or discovered among the descendants of Jan Brouwer of Flatlands.

The James Brewer and Peter Brewer named in this file are more likely, James Bruere, born 9 Feb 1751 in Monmouth County, the son of Peter Bruere, born in 1697 and who came to America in 1709 with his parents, and two brothers, and two sisters. Peter Bruere settled in Monmouth County and lived at Upper Freehold. Those of us who are familiar with the fact that standardized spelling was not practiced during the colonial period in particular, and even well into the 19th century, understand that surnames are often found with varied spellings. Here is an example of that. BRUERE is written as BREWER by the Monmouth County Clerk. The BRUERE family was prominent in Monmouth County, New Jersey, and to a lesser extent in surrounding counties during the 1700s and 1800s. They are in no way related to the families descended from Jan Brouwer of Flatlands or Adam Brouwer of Gowanus, yet they lived in the same areas at the same time, and all three families often had their surnames recorded as BREWER in various Monmouth County records.

Some descendants of Peter Bruere can be accessed online at the Brouwer Genealogy Database.

BGB 296





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