John Brewer (b. 1709 - d. 1754)
MSA SC 5496-51578
Property Owner, Anne Arundel County, Maryland
Biography:
John Brewer was born in 1709 to parents John Brewer and Dinah Battee.1 John Brewer, Sr. married Dinah Battee on February 14, 1704.2 They had their first child, Elizabeth, on September 12, 1707.3 John Brewer was born on May 7, 1709.4 He had seven younger siblings: Sarah (b. 1711),5 Joseph (b. 1713),6 Fardinando (or Fernando; b. 1716),7 Dinah (b. 1719),8 Henry (b. 1722),9 Nicholas (b. 1723),10 and Deborah (b. 1725/6).11
Fardinando (or Fernando) Brewer married a woman named Elizabeth.12 Nicholas Brewer married Elizabeth Jacob on January 14, 1745.13 Sarah Brewer married Christian Geist on July 9, 1730.14 Joseph Brewer married a woman named Mary and they had their first son, Thomas, in 1737.15
John Brewer married Eleanor (or Elinor) Maccubin in 1727.16 They had ten children: Dinah (b. 1728),17 William (b. 1732),18 Joseph (b. 1734),19 Eleanor (b. 1736),20 John (b. 1738),21 Elizabeth (b. 1740),22 twins Nicholas and Rachel (b. 1744),23 Jane (b. 1746),24 and Mary (b. 1748).25
Rachel Brewer married artist, Charles Willson Peale.26 William Brewer married Rebekah Newton, daughter of Joseph and Ann Newton of Prince George's County, on December 3, 1765.27 Jane Brewer married her cousin, Joseph Brewer, son of John Brewer's brother, Joseph and his wife Mary, on May 30, 1769.28
John Brewer inherited 300 acres of "Larkington" from his father, John Brewer, who died in 1730.29 He disputed his father's will, but the court ruled that his father's will was legal after speaking to three witnesses.30
In 1732, Brewer marked his cattle, hogs, and sheep with a cross in each ear and a "milder Cutt in the Right ear."31
Brewer owned at least eight slaves. One woman, two children, and one girl were unnamed.32 He named Pompey, Cyrus, and Jack.33 He also had a slave named Toby who ran away in 174534 and again 1747.35 As Toby does not appear in Brewer's inventory, it is not known exactly what happened to him.36
John Brewer died in 1754. His inventory was valued at 549 pounds, 27 shillings, and 10 pence.37 His wife, Eleanor inherited all of his personal and real estate.38
He left his "Dwelling Plantation known by the name of Larkinton" to his son, William, which he would inherit after his mother's death.39 If William died without children, then the land was to go to Brewer's son, Joseph. If William lived, then Joseph, John, and Nicholas were each given the "Sum of Twenty pound Sterling Money of Great Britain."40
He left his "Beloved" daughters Dinah, Eleanor, Elizabeth, Rachel, Jane, and Mary all his personal estate, after their mother's death, "to be Equally divided between them and their Heirs."41 His wife, Eleanor, was appointed "Sole Executrix" of his will.42
1. F. Edward Wright, Anne Arundel County Church Records of the 17th and 18th Centuries, (Westminster, MD: Family Line Publications), 27.
2. Ibid., 11.
3. Ibid., 24.
4. Ibid., 27.
5. Ibid., 30, 34.
6. Ibid., 34.
7. Ibid., 32, 34.
8. Ibid., 34.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid., 38.
11. Ibid., 41.
12. Ibid., 52.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid., 44.
15. Ibid., 50.
16. Joshua Dorsey Warfield, The Founders of Anne Arundel and Howard Counties, Maryland, (Baltimore: Kohn and Pollock, 1905), 320.
17. Wright, 43.
18. Ibid., 50.
19. Ibid., 48.
20. Ibid., 50.
21. Ibid.
22. Ibid.
23. Ibid., 51.
24. Ibid., 52.
25. Ibid.
26. Warfield, 320.
27. Wright, 59.
28. Ibid., 58.
29. PREROGATIVE COURT (Wills) John Brewer, 1730, Liber 19, folio 908, MSA S538-28, MdHR 1297-2.
30. PREROGATIVE COURT (Testamentary Proceedings) John Brewer, 1730, Liber 28, folio 472, MSA S529-45, MdHR 984.
32. PREROGATIVE COURT (Inventories) John Brewer, 1755, Liber 60, folio 177, MSA S534-60, MdHR 1167-1.
33. Ibid.
34. "Run away," Maryland Gazette, July 19, 1745.
35. "Run away," Maryland Gazette, August 4, 1747.
36. PREROGATIVE COURT (Inventories) John Brewer, 1755, Liber 60, folio 177, MSA S534-60, MdHR 1167-1.
PREROGATIVE COURT (Inventories) John Brewer, 1756, Liber 61, folio 423, MSA S534-62, MdHR 1168.
37. Ibid.
38. PREROGATIVE COURT (Will) John Brewer, 1754, Liber 29, folio 272, MSA S538-42, MdHR 1307-1.
39. Ibid.
40. Ibid.
41. Ibid.
42. Ibid.
Researched and written by Sarah Hartge, 2012.
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