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.
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BGB 729
Chris. Info on Pieter is always difficult to get a handle on. Thanks for all you do. Steve B
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