A Suggested Ancestry for Peter Brewer of Hardin Co., Kentucky

Peter Brewer of Hardin County, Kentucky was probably born during the decade of the 1750s, almost certainly in New Jersey, and possibly in Sussex County, or perhaps in an adjoining county in northern New Jersey. He has been mentioned in previous posts on this website, specifically on November 16, 2013; December 8, 2015; and May 4, 2017. He wrote his will on 2 November 1840 and it was proved in Hardin County on 19 April 1841, so he likely died during the first quarter of 1841. Exact dates of his birth and death are not known, and to my knowledge a burial location or grave marker has not been discovered. As of this post, the identity of his parents is still not known.

What is known is that Peter Brewer is a direct male descendant of Adam Brouwer of Gowanus, Long Island. This statement is proved by Y-DNA testing of no less than four direct male descendants of Peter Brewer, who are descended from two different sons of Peter, those sons being Valentine Brewer and Isaac Brewer. The Y-Chromosome DNA test results of all four match those of known direct male descendants of Adam Brouwer to the degree that it can be stated without question that Peter Brewer is also a descendant of Adam. But to repeat, to date we still do not known Peter Brewer's direct male line back to Adam Brouwer. Three of the tested descendants have taken advanced SNP testing (FTDNA's Big Y test) and are found on YFull's public Y-Tree as haplogroup E-BY6245. This haplogroup is a sub-clade of E-Y19643 which (as of this post) includes seven other direct male descendants of Adam Brouwer. (This updates the post of April 7, 2018).

We know that Peter Brewer had a brother named Samuel Brewer. Peter says as much in an affidavit found in his Samuel's Revolutionary War Pension Application file. In that application, Samuel states that he was born in Sussex County, New Jersey, but does not state his parent's names. Samuel was age 75 in 1832 when he filed this application. We also know that Peter had seven children, including six sons named Michael, Isaac, Benjamin, Samuel, John and Valentine.

A Benjamin Brewer, born 24 April 1755 (location not known), died 6 May 1834 in Washington County, Indiana (dates from his gravestone in the Cooley-Brewer Cemetery in Washington Co., Indiana). His wife was Catherine Mellinger, and they had nine known children including sons named William, Benjamin, Samuel, Peter, and John. A direct male descendant of this Benjamin has taken a Y-DNA test and his results also confirm that Benjamin is a direct male descendant of Adam Brouwer.

Benjamin Brewer, Samuel Brewer and Peter Brewer are all found on a tax roll from 1783 in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. Benjamin and Samuel are in Tyrone Township, while Peter lives in Huntington Township. On 20 February 1783, Samuel Brewer of Tyrone Twp., sold land to Benjamin Brewer (then) of Huntington Twp. A witness to the deed was a Peter "Bruin," probably meant to be Peter Brewer, or Bruer, as the surname was sometimes recorded, particularly in records found in Pennsylvania. While we know that Samuel and Peter were brothers, and although this deed does not state so specifically, it appears highly likely that Benjamin is also a brother of Samuel and Peter.

On 25 May 1778, in the soon afterwards extinct county of Yohogania, Virginia, administration of the estate of a Benjamin Bruer was granted to his widow Mary. A Mary Brewer is also found on that same 1783 tax roll in Huntington Twp., Westmoreland Co., Pennsylvania (along with Peter Brewer). We know that the Benjamin who died by 25 May 1778 was a married adult. We don't know when he was born, but we do know that he could not have been the Benjamin Brewer who was born in 1755 as he is known to have died in 1834. I would suggest that this Benjamin is older, an probably born by 1735. As we can clearly see that there are two men named Benjamin here, my suggestion is that Benjamin Bruer/Brewer, who died in 1778, and his wife Mary, are the parents of Peter Brewer, Samuel Brewer and Benjamin Brewer, and if correct then Benjamin must also be a descendant of Adam Brouwer.

Focus is now squarely on the given name Benjamin. We know that this name is uncommon among the descendants of Adam Brouwer found within the first four generations of Adam Brouwer's known descendants. Looking at Adam Brouwer's descendants we find only one named Benjamin, who was born by 1735. That would be Benjamin Brouwer, son of Pieter Brouwer and Elizabeth Quackenbosh, who was baptized at the New York Reformed Dutch Church on 11 February 1728. Benjamin would have been named (by tradition of that time and culture) for his maternal grandfather, Benjamin Quackenbosch. Pieter and Elizabeth (Quackenbosh) Brouwer's first two sons were both named Jacob (the first of the two having died early in infancy) and were named (by the same tradition) for Pieter's father, Jacob Brouwer. There is no other male descendant of Adam Brouwer, named Benjamin, who is known to have been born by 1735. With this, I am suggesting that the Benjamin Brouwer, baptized in New York in 1728, is the same Benjamin Bruer whose estate was administered in Yohoangia Co., Virginia in 1778, and is the father of Peter Brewer of Hardin County, Kentucky, Samuel Brewer (who died in 1835 and is buried at Harrodsburg, Kentucky) and Benjamin Brewer (1755-1834).

Benjamin Brouwer/Bruer/Brewer's grandparents would be the above mentioned Jacob Brouwer and Annatje Bogardus, and the above mentioned Benjamin Quackenbosh and Claasje Webber. His great-grandparents would then be Adam Brouwer and Magdalena Verdon; Willem Bogardus and Wynnetje Sybrants; Reynier Quackenbosh and Lysbet Masten; and Aernout Webber and Jannetje Cornelis.

I want to emphasize that the suggestion that Peter Brewer of Hardin County, Kentucky is a son of Benjamin Brouwer, baptized in 1728 at New York, has not been proved to a standard that would be accepted to a professional genealogist. It is a suggestion based upon all known information and evidence, both traditional and genetic, collected to date. I further suggest that descendants and others interested in further proof, focus their research in any and all records that exist for Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania and the old Yohoangia County, Virginia (from which Westmoreland County was formed). You might also check records in each of the counties where the three assumed brothers (Peter, Samuel and Benjamin) lived, for any possibility that a sibling is named. This would be Hardin County and Mercer County, Kentucky, and Washington County, Indiana. A check back in Sussex County, New Jersey should also be done but I have less confidence that it will yield anything that is not already known, or to say it another way, if something existed back in Sussex County, it would have been found by now.

Some additional notes:
-Pieter Brouwer, the father of Benjamin (bapt. 1728) left a will dated 12 February 1788. It is abstracted in the post of June 29, 2018. He does not mention his son Benjamin. This omission may be because Benjamin had died previously, and we know that Benjamin Bruer of Yohoangia County died in 1778 (ten years earlier). It also has to be remembered that not all children are always mentioned in a testator's will. While inclusion in a will can prove a relationship, exclusion from a will does not disprove a relationship.

-In addition to Peter, Samuel and Benjamin, a fourth brother may be Henry Brewer whose wife was Jane (Hurdley?). Henry lived in 1840 at Clay, Owen Co., Indiana. This Henry had a son named Benjamin born in 1796 in Fayette Co., Pennsylvania. Fayette County was created in September 1783 out of Westmoreland County. If you can follow this, Henry's son Benjamin's second wife was Elizabeth Roney/Rony, who was a daughter of James Roney and Margaret Brewer, and a granddaughter of Benjamin Brewer and Catherine Mellinger, with Benjamin being the assumed brother of Peter and Samuel. A direct male descendant of Henry Brewer has taken a Y-DNA test, and he too, matches the other descendants of Adam Brouwer.

-The current edition of the Brouwer Genealogy Database (presently offline) suggests that Peter Brewer of Hardin County may be a descendant of either Hendrick Brouwer (bapt. 1699) a son of Adam Brouwer and Marretje Hendricks and grandson of Adam Brouwer and Magdalena Verdon, or of Samuel Brouwer (bapt. 1706) a son of Willem Brouwer and Marthe Boulton (and grandson of Adam Brouwer and Magdalena Verdon). Both this Hendrick and Samuel (first cousins) are found in Somerset County, New Jersey in the mid 1700s. Somerset County, like Sussex County, is in West New Jersey. That, and some naming similarities (Samuel and Henry) led to this suggestion some years ago. While these two ideas are still possible, I'd say that they are now far more unlikely than the suggestion given above.

-Sussex County, New Jersey was formed in 1753 out of Morris County which had been set off from Hunterdon County in 1738/39. See pages 19 and 34-35 of this excellent PDF of New Jersey Civil Boundaries.

-For more on Yohogania County, see the Wikipedia page, and the wiki page at Family Search.

-There are Benjamin Brewers/Browers found among the descendants of Jan Brouwer of Flatlands, L. I. The earliest one that I can find is Benjamin, son of Jan Brouwer and Helena Van Cleef, who was baptized on 19 February 1738 by the Reformed Dutch Congregation of Freehold and Middletown, in Monmouth Co., New Jersey. Sponsors of the baptism were his mother's brother Benjamin Van Cleef (for whom he was named) and his wife Rachel Couwenhoven. This Benjamin Brewer/Brower married Maria Lane at Shrewsbury, New Jersey by a marriage license dated 16 Jan 1767. They had five children baptized between 1768 and 1785 at Freehold-Middletown. Obviously since he was living in 1785, this Benjamin cannot be the Benjamin Bruer/Brewer whose estate was administered in 1778 in Yohogania County. No record has yet been found of this Benjamin outside of Monmouth County, New Jersey. All other known men named Benjamin Brewer, Brower, Brouwer or Bruer were born much to late to be considered as the Benjamin Brewer of Yohogania County in 1778.

In conclusion: I suggest that Peter Brewer, his known brother Samuel Brewer, near certain brother Benjamin Brewer and likely brother Henry Brewer are all sons of Benjamin Bruer/Brewer (d. 1778, Yohogania Co., Virginia) and his wife Mary whose family name is not yet known. In turn, this Benjamin Bruer/Brewer is the Benjamin, son of Pieter Brouwer and Elizabeth Quackenbosh, who was baptized in the New York Reformed Dutch Church in 1728. Peter's direct line ancestry back to Adam Brouwer of Gowanus, L. I. would then be: Peter Brewer > Benjamin Bruer/Brewer > Pieter Brouwer > Jacob Brouwer > Adam Brouwer of Gowanus. Peter Brewer and his brothers are great-great grandsons of Adam Brouwer of Gowanus. While evidence that would meet modern genealogical standards for proof is lacking, this suggestion best fits the known evidence, both traditional and genetic, available at this time. Proof is probably only one or two documents or records short, that being records that show that the Benjamin Bruer/Brewer who died in 1778 is in fact a son of Pieter Brouwer and Elizabeth Quackenbosch, and records that show that this Benjamin is the father of Peter Brewer of Hardin Co., Kentucky. Such records may possibly exist in the probate, land or court files found in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, or perhaps in the adjacent county of Fayette, or perhaps in older records of Yohogania County that may be in a repository in some other county that was established when Yohogania ceased to exist. Should anyone find any such records, please let us know.

BGB 591

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