The Grandsons of Adam Brouwer: (2) Pieter Brouwer, Son of (1) Adam Brouwer

 Before addressing the 25 grandsons of (1) Adam Brouwer we want to give a quick review or synopsis of Adam's seven sons and add any additional information that may have been learned since the initial profile posts were published in 2012. Again, numbers in parenthesis preceding an individual's name refer to their placement on the outline chart found in the Prelude post to this series. We start with Adam's eldest son (2) Pieter Brouwer. 

Adam and Magdalena (Verdon) Brouwer's eldest son Pieter was baptized at the New Amsterdam Reformed Dutch Church on 23 September 1646. The sponsors/witnesses for the baptism were Mr. Paulus Van der Beek (at that time the third husband of the child's maternal grandmother Maria Badie), Willem Bredenbent (second husband of the child's maternal great grandmother), Aeltje Braconye (child's maternal great grandmother) and Mary du Trieux (unrelated. A well known and perhaps infamous citizen of early New Amsterdam).

Pieter married Petronella Kleyn by about 1673. She was a daughter of Uldrick Kleyn and Baefje Pieters who were married in New Amsterdam in 1641 and afterwards lived at Beverwijck/Albany which is likely the location were Pieter and Petronella were married. Surviving marriage records for the Reformed Dutch Church at Albany begin with the year 1683. Records for the years previous to 1683 are lost. The couple apparently lived at Schenectady during the early years of their marriage. The marriage banns for their two eldest sons, (9) Uldrick and (10) Abraham, record their places of birth as "Schoonegte" (Schenectady). The two sons were likely born around 1673 and 1675. Schenectady church records begin with the year 1694. Pieter and Petronella had ten known children. Baptism records are found for only four of the ten children. The couple, recorded as "Pieter Adamsz and his wife," were listed as members of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church at Flatbush on 19 November 1679, "living at Gowanus."

In September 1687, Pieter Brouwer took the Oath of Allegiance at Brooklyn, as a "native" (i.e. born in the colony). He was among the soldiers from Kings County sent to Albany in 1691. He is named in his father's will dated 22 January 1692 and is noted along with his brother (5) Jacob and sister Aeltje as "disobedient" children. 

On 10 October 1700, "Peter Brower of East New Jersey," deeded his share of the mill property at Gowanus to his brothers "Abram Brower and Nicholas Brower of Brooklyn." This deed states that Peter Brower is the "eldest son of Adam Brower, deceased." This is the last certain mention we have of (2) Pieter Brouwer in any record. In October 1700 he would have just turned 54 years old and so may well have lived longer. His two eldest sons were married and had settled in Bergen County, New Jersey by 1700. Petronella Kleyn is not mentioned in the deed and is not found in any record afterwards. She may have been deceased by 1700.

On 3 March 1723, Hendrik, son of Claes Bovey and Cornelia Brouwer was baptized at the Albany RDC. The sponsors were Petrus Brouwer and Hendr(ikie) Oothout. Cornelia was (2) Pieter Brouwer's daughter, and if he was in fact the sponsor Petrus Brouwer, it would imply that Pieter was living as late as March 1723 when he would have been in his 77th year. If the sponsor is not (2) Pieter, it is not clear who exactly he might be. (2) Pieter did not name any sons Pieter (Petrus, Peter) and so Cornelia would not have had any brothers by that name. Other, more distant family members who were old enough to sponsor a baptism in 1723 would be (13) Peter son of (3) Matthys Brouwer, and Peter (b. 1701) a son of (10) Abraham Brouwer. The former (a first cousin to Cornelia), born in 1676 has been difficult to otherwise trace (he will be covered in a separate post). The later lived in Bergen County, New Jersey and would be Cornelia's nephew. He would marry in 1724 (to Dina de Groot) and it is conceivable that he could have been the sponsor. Cornelia had named her first son, Pieter. He was baptized in 1717 and the sponsors there were Matheus and Maria Bovie who were Claes's parents. If available one would suspect that (2) Pieter would have been chosen as sponsor for his namesake grandson, but this was not what happened. 

No will or record of estate settlement has been found for (2) Pieter Brouwer. As alluded to above, the date and place of his death is not known. There is no known record of burial that can be considered to belong to him. It seems likely that his wife, Petronella Kleyn was deceased by 1700, and as Pieter's youngest two brothers Abraham and Nicholas were taking complete ownership of the Gowanus Mill property, he appears to have lived after the age of 50-54 in Bergen County, New Jersey where three of his four sons had settled. His youngest son, (12) Jacob, lived in the area of Albany, New York. Two of Pieter's younger daughters, the aforementioned Cornelia, as well as Maria (married Jacob Knoet) also lived in the Albany area. It is possible that Pieter spent is latter years with his children at Albany. He may have been alive as late as 1723 when he would have been in his 77th year.

(2) Pieter Brouwer had four sons: (9) Uldrick, (10) Abraham, (11) Jan, the three of whom settled in Bergen County, New Jersey and had children born between the years 1700 and the late 1720s, and (12) Jacob who settled in the area of Albany, New York and had children born between the years of 1717 and 1743. Many of these grandchildren (of Pieter) lived their adult lives through the colonial period and some into the post Revolutionary War years, the early years of the new United States.

A contemporary is Pieter, son of Jan Brouwer and Jannetje Jans of Flatlands, Long Island. He was baptized in 1660 and so 14 years younger than (2) Pieter. The two Pieters lived in Kings County, New York at the same time and so care is needed in not confusing records regarding the two. T. G. Bergen in Early Settlers of Kings County (p. 54) did just this and assigned (2) Pieter two additional wives. The second, Geertruyd Jans, can't be confirmed and it is not otherwise known who she was. The third, "Annetje Jansen of Flatlands," was Annetje Jans (Bergen) who married Pieter Jansz Brouwer in 1687. 

William J. Hoffman covers (2) Pieter Brouwer in "Brouwer Beginnings" in TAG 43(1947):197-202 with a lengthy diversion covering the ancestry of the noted sculptor John Henry Isaac Brouwere (as he styled is own last name) who was a direct descendant of (2) Pieter. For a less than flattering account of John Henry Isaac Brouwere see The Hemmingses of Monticello by Annette Gordon Reed (2008): Chapter 29. J. H. I. Brouwere had created a death mask for Thomas Jefferson among other famous people.

See also the July 12, 2012, "The Family of Pieter Brouwer and Petronella Kleyn" on this website, and Pieter Brouwer on the BGD which includes complete source citations.

Genetic genealogy: As of this writing the Brewer DNA Project includes 10 members who can confirm their direct paternal lines back to (2) Pieter Brouwer. Of the ten, four have taken the advanced Big Y test, the results of which show that they share the SNPs E-BY6201 (FTDNA) and E-Y19643 (YFull). These same SNPs identify the Adam Brouwer group as a whole and so no new "novel" SNP has yet been identified that might identify Pieter's descendants apart from those of his brothers. The ten participants are descended from three of Pieter's four sons, those being (9) Uldrick, (10) Abraham and (12) Jacob. Only (11) Jan has yet to see a descendant participate in the Project. If more of the six participants who have not upgraded to the Big Y-700 test would do so, we may be able to identify a SNP that identifies all descendants of only Pieter, and may even identify SNPs for individual lines from one or more of his sons.

< Previous post in this series                                                  Next post in this series >

BGB 729

The Grandsons of Adam Brouwer: Introduction, (1) Adam Brouwer, Sources, Genetic Genealogy

 Note: Whenever individuals in the direct male line of descendants of Adam Brouwer of Gowanus, L. I. are mentioned in this series of posts, they will be referred to with a number preceding their name. This number identifies each individual found on the outline chart found in the Prelude post to this series published on September 24, 2022. 

Before engaging the 25 known individual grandsons of (1) Adam Brouwer we will first very briefly review their direct known ancestors, i.e. their parents and grandparents. More details on these individuals can be found within the posts of this website and elsewhere. The purpose of this review is to summarize the important facts, dates and places concerning Adam Brouwer and his sons; to introduce any material found over the previous ten years since the original profiles were published; and to consider records found that may pertain to Adam Brouwer's sons, or may pertain to others of the same name. We also want to provide a perspective on place and time, i.e. when and where did these ancestors live.

(1) Adam Brouwer was most certainly born during the decade of 1610 to 1620. An exact date or record of his birth or of a baptism has yet to be discovered or identified. The identity of his parents is not known. After serving as a soldier in the service of the Dutch West India Company in Brazil he came to New Amsterdam where he married Magdalena Verdon, daughter of Jacob Verdon and Maria Thomase Badie, on 21 March 1645 as recorded by the Reformed Dutch Church at New Amsterdam. The marriage record states that he was born in Köln, which is present day Cologne in Germany. At the time that Adam Brouwer was born Cologne was an independent city within the Holy Roman Empire. Adam Brouwer and Magdalena Verdon had fourteen children born between the years 1646 and 1672. Their eldest son (2) Pieter Brouwer was 25 years old when their youngest son (8) Nicholas Brouwer was born. Soon after his marriage Adam Brouwer settled at Gowanus, Long Island, directly across the East River from New Amsterdam. He built and operated a grist mill, and remained there is entire life. Having said that, the 1678 list of "Estates of the Inhabitants of Newtowne, Long Island," includes an "Adam Bruer," with one head and two cows. As suggested by William J. Hoffman in "Brouwer Beginnings," it is possible that Adam owned property at Newtown, but did not live there. Adam's son (6) Adam Brouwer would have only been age 16 in 1678. In August 1670 he was granted a pass to travel aboard the ship Fort Albany, owned by Jacque Cousseau, bound for England and Amsterdam. Adam Brouwer died between 22 January 1692 (the date of his will) and 21 March 1692 (the date his will was proved) presumably at Gowanus. There is no extant record of his death nor of a burial in the records of the Reformed Dutch Church at either New York (formerly New Amsterdam) or in the records of the Brooklyn or Flatbush churches. Like most individuals during this time, he was likely buried on his own property at some certain location set aside for burials. It is likely that he was somewhere between the ages of 72 and 82 when he died. Magdalena Verdon, who according to her marriage record was born in New Netherland (perhaps around 1627), outlived her husband. The last known record of her is dated 22 Jan 1699 when she was a witness/sponsor at the baptism of her granddaughter Engeltje Pieterse Hendricksen, daughter of her daughter Rachel Brouwer and her husband Pieter Hendrickszen. Adam and Magdalena's lives spanned the bulk of the years of the 1600s and during the majority of that time they were found at Gowanus, Long Island.

(1) Adam Brouwer's seven sons, (2) Pieter, (3) Matthys, (4) Willem, (5) Jacob, (6) Adam, (7) Abraham and (8) Nicholas were born between the years 1646 and 1672. All lived into adulthood, married, and left children. There are records of baptisms, recorded by the New Amsterdam/New York Reformed Dutch Church for five of the seven sons. Baptism records have not been found for the sons (5) Jacob and (7) Abraham. They may have been baptized at the RDC in Brooklyn whose surviving records are incomplete. Jacob and Abraham, along with their five brothers, are mentioned as sons in their father's 1692 will. There are no surviving records of death or burial for any of (1) Adam Brouwer's seven sons. No wills or other records of estate settlements have been found for any of the seven sons. Collectively, their 25 sons were born between the years of about 1673 and 1707. Assuming an age of 18 for reaching adulthood, they would have come of age between 1691 and 1725. Most would have died during the colonial period, but at least two, (25) Pieter and (27) Jeury are known to have lived into the years of the American Revolutionary War. 

Sources: The earliest published account of Adam Brouwer and his sons is credited to Teunis G. Bergen and is found in Register in Alphabetical Order, of the Earliest Settlers of Kings County, Long Island, N. Y., From It's First Settlement by Europeans to 1700 and published in 1881 (pages 51-55). This early account is chock-full of errors and rather than spend time on them here I will refer readers to the post of April 23, 2012. It is flawed enough that I would recommend avoiding T. G. Bergen's account of Adam Brouwer's family altogether. The highly regarded genealogist William J. Hoffman published "Brouwer Beginnings," in a series of pieces in The American Genealogist in 1947 and 1948 (volumes 23, no. 4 thru 24, no. 3). Hoffman's account remains the most complete and accurate reference for the first three generations of Adam Brouwer's descendants and will be mentioned frequently when we cover Adam Brouwer's grandsons individually. With that in mind, it must still be mentioned that there are errors, including errors of omission in Hoffman's work and we'll point them out when warranted. Please see the post of May 22, 2012 for more on Hoffman's other articles featuring Adam Brouwer's descendants. I have used numerous other sources and as they can be found mentioned within the pages of this website and in more detail on the Brouwer Genealogy Database website, I will largely not take the time to repeat them in this series of posts. The exceptions will be when some new information is introduced. So, please consult the Brouwer Genealogy Database if you desire detailed citations. 

Genetic genealogy: To date there are 59 direct male descendants of (1) Adam Brouwer who have participated in Y-DNA testing with the Brewer DNA Project at FamilyTreeDNA. Thirty-two of the participants have taken advanced Y-DNA tests in the form of either FTDNA's original Big Y test or the newer Big Y-700 test. Twenty-four of the participants have joined in for further analysis of their Y-DNA test results with the independent company YFull. Adam Brouwer's descendants, and therefore Adam Brouwer himself, can be identified on the larger Y-Tree by the SNP E-Y19643. All of the individuals found on this page of the much larger Y-Tree are genetic descendants of Adam Brouwer. Participants joining the Brewer DNA Project who take the basic STR marker Y-DNA test and receive a predicted haplogroup of E-M35 from FTDNA's analysis, can assume that they are descendants of Adam Brouwer only if their various STR marker values match with those of the known descendants of Adam Brouwer who have already been tested. A predicted haplogroup of E-M35 does not in itself identify the tested individual as a certain descendant of Adam Brouwer. In fact the Project has two members who are identified by E-M35, but are not descendants of Adam Brouwer. The reason being, their STR marker values do not match up with those of the known descendants of Adam Brouwer. Those interested in augmenting their traditional genealogical research with genetic genealogy are encouraged to contact and join the Brewer DNA Project. Those who have already joined and taken the basic Y-DNA STR marker test are encouraged to upgrade to the BigY-700 test.

Transcription of Adam Brouwer's Will

Profile of Adam Brouwer on the BGD website. Includes complete source citations.

Brief posts reviewing each of (1) Adam Brouwer's seven sons will follow.

< Previous post in this series                                            Next post in this series >

BGB 728

The Grandsons of Adam Brouwer: Prelude

 Back in mid 2012 I posted notes, summaries, profiles, whatever you wish to call them, on Adam Brouwer and his fourteen children, all of whom had children of their own. My intention back then was then to start on the grandchildren and post notes on each of them. But then everything else got in the way including side trips exploring the other Brouwers of New Netherland (Jan Brouwer of Flatlands and Willem Brouwer of Beverwijck) and then even further afield into the Brewer families of New England and Hubert Brower the immigrant to Philadelphia, and then onto the Brewer families who originated in the colonies of the American southeast. This blog site was originally intended to focus on Adam Brouwer of Gowanus, L. I. and his descendants, and so now, it's time to do just that.

As Adam Brouwer researchers and descendants know, Adam Brouwer and his wife, Magdalena Verdon had fourteen children. [I do not count the sometimes supposed son Daniel who was baptized in the New York Reformed Dutch Church on 7 May 1678 with the parents listed as Adam Brouwer and Aeltje Van der Beek in the church register of baptisms. I don't think he was a child of either Adam or Aeltje, who is Adam's wife's half-sister]. Of the fourteen, seven were sons and seven were daughters. These fourteen children in turn were parents to, by my count, 96 known grandchildren. For now I am only going to focus on the grandsons who carry on the Brouwer surname, that is to say, the sons of Adam Brouwer's seven sons, Pieter, Matthys, Willem, Jacob, Adam, Abraham and Nicholas. What follows is a numbered outline of sorts naming and numbering them (since some given names are found more than once, I will refer to these numbers in the proposed future posts). Profiles or notes that I have on each will be published here as posts in the future as time permits. It's going to take awhile, and I don't doubt that in between there will be diversions into other subjects and the like. The goal is to get this completed by next spring.

Outline:

1. Adam Brouwer

  2. Pieter Brouwer

     9. Uldrick Brouwer

    10. Abraham Brouwer

    11. Jan Brouwer

    12. Jacob Brouwer

  3. Matthys Brouwer 

    13. Peter Brouwer

    14. Samuel Brouwer

    15. Hendrick Brouwer

    16. Johannes Brouwer

  4. Willem Brouwer

    17. Adolphus Brouwer

    18. Johannes Brouwer

    19. Samuel Brouwer

  5. Jacob Brouwer

    20. Sybrandt Brouwer

    21. Jacob Brouwer

    22. Willem Brouwer

    23. Everardus Brouwer

    24. Adam Brewer

    25. Pieter Brouwer

  6. Adam Brouwer

    26. Hendrick Brouwer

  7. Abraham Brouwer

    27. Jeury Brouwer

    28. Abraham Brouwer

  8. Nicholas Brouwer

    29. Adolphus Brouwer

    30. Jurge Brouwer

    31. Nazareth Brouwer

    32. Cornelis Brouwer

    33. Nicholas Brouwer

By my count that is 25 known grandsons of Adam Brouwer who carry the Brouwer surname forward. It would be nice to be able to profile all 96 grandchildren, and perhaps in time that can be done, but for now it's most feasible to focus on this subset of 25 grandsons. The reason for doing this is 1) narrowing the list of grandchildren down gives me more optimism that this undertaking can be accomplished and therefore more incentive to get it done, and 2) this exercise will be of benefit to the Brewer DNA Project, which as a surname focused Y-DNA project, is limited to male descendants of Adam Brouwer. The current administrator and co-administrators of the Project believe that, largely with the help of newer advanced Y-DNA tests (the BigY-700 at FamilyTreeDNA specifically) the Project is on the verge of identifying missing links in many of the lineages of those members of the Adam Brouwer Group who are still trying to identify their complete Brouwer line back to Adam Brouwer. Some traditional genealogical data and notes, made available publicly online to all who are interested, should augment the genetic genealogical data that is being accumulated by the Brewer DNA Project.

Finally, I urge all current members of the Adam Brouwer Group at the Brewer DNA Project, to upgrade their tests to the advanced BigY-700 test. This is especially helpful for those who know with certainty their ancestral paternal line back to Adam Brouwer. Your results and matches may help those who are still seeking their connection find their way back to Adam. Please contact the administrators at the Brewer DNA Project with any questions. And of course, the Project always welcomes new members.

                                                                                               Next post in this series >

BGB 727

"Tracing A Branch of the Brewer Families of Colonial Virginia to North Carolina and Beyond"

 David V. Brewer, a co-administrator of the Brewer DNA Project and responsible for the "Lanier-Brewer" Group has just published online his latest book of research focused on the Brewer families descended from or closely related to George Brewer of Brunswick County, Virginia. And so, in David's words as posted to the Brewer DNA Project's Activity Feed on September 5th:

"I’ve now completed a book entitled Tracing A Branch of the Brewer Families of Colonial Virginia to North Carolina and Beyond, which follows the historical path of a numerous branch of Brewers who migrated from England to Virginia in the 17th Century. That branch is identified as Haplogroup I-Y15300, subclade I-Y21524. We currently have 10 members in the Brewer DNA Project who are confirmed for this subclade through BigY/700 testing. We also have several other members who haven’t tested at the Big Y level yet probably are members of this extended family group. 

 For the most part, the book covers the period between the late 17th Century and mid-19th Century, which constitutes the primary “brick wall” era for many people with roots in the Colonial and Early American South. The record evidence suggests to me that the most recent common ancestor for those tested in subclade I-Y21524 probably was born in England or Virginia in the latter 1600’s. Specifically, the book concludes that this group probably descends from a family that lived in Surry/Sussex Counties, Virginia between the late 1600’s and early 1750’s, through men named Thomas Brewer and John Brewer and their possible father, another John Brewer. It’s sometimes asserted that the above mentioned Thomas Brewer might have been a direct descendant of John Brewer I, the so-called Ancient Planter of Jamestown, through his probable descendant Thomas Brewer of Nansemond County, Virginia. The book concludes that available record evidence doesn’t support that hypothesis but further concludes that the two lines nevertheless might be related. 

 The book follows the path of the members of subclade I-Y21524 from southside Virginia to Edgecombe and Halifax Counties, North Carolina, from there to Rowan and Surry Counties, North Carolina, and from there to Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama, with respect to one sub-branch, from Rowan and Surry Counties to Indiana (some via Tennessee) and from there to other midwestern states, with respect to a second sub-branch, and from Halifax County to Tennessee, then to Mississippi and later Texas, as to a third sub-branch. By the mid-19th Century, this family group had dispersed throughout the Midwest and Southern states, following a similar path to that of many Colonial Virginia families. 

The book also covers in detail several other distinct branches of the Brewer families of the Colonial and Early American South, including among others the descendants of John Brewer I of Jamestown, John Brewer I’s probable descendant Thomas Brewer of Nansemond County, William Brewer of Isle of Wight County, Virginia, Nicholas Brewer of Prince George County, Virginia, John Brewer of Southampton County, Virginia, Robert Brewer of Nansemond County, Virginia, the John Brewer family of Nansemond County, Virginia, the Moses Brewer families of Halifax and Wayne Counties, North Carolina, the Joseph Brewer family of Granville/Bute/Warren Counties, North Carolina, and the Sackfield Brewer and Sackford Brewster lines in Virginia. In addition, the book considers several men that have not been broadly discussed, including one or more (possibly overlapping) men named John Brewer who, in the early 1700’s, owned land on Assamoosick Swamp, Virginia, in Isle of Wight County, Virginia, and in Prince George County, Virginia, another John Brewer from Halifax County, North Carolina, and William, John, and Robert Brewer of Martin County, North Carolina. 

 My approach was to start with the most reliable available record evidence, which almost always is found in more recent generations. This requires a reverse chronological approach. When I hit a logjam, I tried to remember four things: (1) many records have been lost or destroyed, especially from the pre-Civil War South where we are focused, but that doesn't mean that more finds won't be unearthed in the future, especially with improved digital access to old records; (2) many of our ancestors didn’t read or write, so they left a much smaller written legacy than we would like; (3) having an open mind and being willing to revisit previous opinions is important; and (4) like it or not, this line of Brewers constantly recycled first names, generation after generation, which has created an obstacle for researchers trying to sort out individuals, even within the same generation and geographical area. Of course, our ancestors couldn't have cared less about that, but we certainly do. 

 This book is a work in progress, meant to be supplemented, corrected, and superseded, where appropriate, by the fruits of further research. I will accept all comments and suggested edits with a positive spirit. The identities of individual members of this subclade have been screened to protect their genetic privacy rights. Whether they choose to waive those rights in the course of future dialogue is strictly up to them. I’m pleased to share the book with members of the Brewer DNA Project through the following Google Drive share link: Tracing A Branch of the Brewer Families of Colonial Virginia to North Carolina and Beyond. I look forward to your thoughts and comments. Once I compile comments and make corrections, I’ll add an index and circulate the book more broadly. In the meantime, you can key word search the draft by using your standard pdf search method. Thanks for your interest. Dave Brewer."

And to the above I will just add that in a comment to the post of August 20, 2022, "Edmund Brewer of Robertson County, Tennesee: A Correction to the Brewer-Lanier Database," David mentions that Edmund Brewer is briefly discussed on page 132 of the book and that it is possible that he was originally from Martin County, North Carolina.

Thanks David, I am sure that this work will be of great interest and help to those researching this very large group of Brewer families. And once again, I very strongly encourage those researching their Brewer family ancestry, to contact the administrators at the Brewer DNA Project, through email links available on the Project's website, and join the project by having a close male relation (if you are not one yourself) take a Y-DNA test. 

BGB 726