Person:Adam Brouwer (18)

Ancestry

In spite of various attempts to tie Adam Brouwer to parents in the Netherlands, Chris Chester (author of Brouwer Genealogy) believes that Adam Brouwer was of German origin, born in Cologne, and likely from the lower classes.^[3] As of 2012, his parents are unknown.^[4]

Notes from Various Sources (not all of which might be accurate)

Adam Brouwer arrived in New Netherland about 1642 (or 1644), having recently been a soldier in the Dutch West India Company, stationed in Brazil^[2], bought land on Beaver St. in Manhattan, but sold it and went to Brooklyn, where he owned and operated a grist mill at the mouth of Gowanus Creek, which remained in the family till 1798 when it was sold to John Freeke.

The wedding of Adam Brouwer by Dominie Bogardus in the house called "the Tavern", near the Battery, was followed by a drink-fest, which aroused wide-spread and prolonged comment. This Dominie called Governor Kieft harsh names, and the dispute which followed occupied the attention of the States General and the West India CO. for ten Years!

Adam left the Dutch West Co. and bought from John Fricke a tide-water gristmill on the Gowanus, the first mill ever operated in New Netherlands. In 1647 the Company awarded him a patent to land on Manhattan but Adam Brouwer continued to run his mill on Gowanus Kil, which two of his sons continued after him. Their houses were at the present site of Third Ave. and 27th St. in Brooklyn, a section famous for the drowning of hundreds of soldiers in Washington's retreat from Long Island in 1776, when the routed colonials were trapped against the swamps of Gowanus Kil. LINK: Early Dutch Windmills & Gristmills on Long Island

In 1664 Adam petitioned the Governor to let him dig a canal through the sand-bar at the mouth of Gowanus Kil so that boats might row up the Kil to his grist mill. The canal completed, Adam's customers complained that he "on frivolous pretenses would not at all times grind their corn." He was warned by the Governor Lovelace that he must grind upon demand, first come, first served. This mill stood at present corner of Nevin St. and Sackett St.

In 1692, Adam Brouwer made his will cutting off his dau. Aeltje and two of his sons: "I leave to my eldest son Peter, 3 shillings by reason he has been disobedient to his father, and also Jacob and Aeltje for reason of their disobedience shall not receive a penny." But he later revised his will to give Aeltje's son, John Drake (Jan DeRaet), the land at Gowanus Kil from his grandfather in 1750.

Adam Brouwer is said to have sailed in 1641 to Brazil in the ship Swol^[4] as a soldier in the service of the West India Company. He came to New Netherlands about 1642, for when he took the Oath of Allegiance in September 1687, being then a resident of Brooklyn, he made the statement that he had been in this country for 45 years. He settled first in New Amsterdam where he bought a house and garden lot from Hendrick Jansen, blacksmith, on 21 February 1645. On that some day he had given a power-of-attorney to collect money due him from the West India Company, which he repeated on 21 September 1646.

At his wedding party on 21 March 1645, Domine Bogardus criticized Director Keift.

Together with Isaac de Forest, Adam Brouwer built and operated at Gowanus a flour mill on land patented 8 July 1645, to Jan Evertse Bout.

The will of Adam Brouwer Berchoven of "Bruckland" was dated 22 January 1691/92. He left his wife Magdalena his entire estate. Sons Pieter and Jacob, and daughter Aeltje were "cut off with a shilling for disobedience, but their children are to inherit their parents' share." He named his other children: Mathys, William, Adam, Abraham, Nicholaes, Mary, Fytie, Helena, Anna, Sarah, and Rachel. He left 3 pieces of eight to Adolphus, the son of William; and 1 piece of eight each to Magdalena, daughter of Matthys; Magdalena, daughter of Pieter; Vrouwtje, daughter of Fytie; and Magdalena, daughter of Mary. Executors were Barent van Tilburg and William Nazareth. Witnesses were Henry Sleght, Cornelis Siebring, and John Fredericks.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 message posted 23 Jan 2000 3:47pm GMT, by Michelle Barr, in Ancestry.com message board Brouwer/Brower.

   'This was taken out of the entry log of the port of New Netherlands; Disembarked on the 5th day of September 1642, Adam Van den Berkhoven of Cologne, Germany, on the ship the Romyn, Van den Berkhoven here in after will be known as Adam Brower.'

   Chris Chester, the author of the Brouwer Genealogy, and the recipient of a large collection of Brouwer records in 2008, as recently as Jun 2012 speculated that Adam Brouwer arrived in New Amsterdam in 1644. Therefore, the legitimacy of this reference is questionable.

2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4} Chester, Chris. New Insight into the Origins of Adam Brouwer. New Netherland Connections (Koenig, Dorothy A). (2008)
   13:86.
3. ↑ ^3.0 3.1 Chester, Chris. New Insight into the Origins of Adam Brouwer. New Netherland Connections (Koenig, Dorothy A). (2008)
   13:88.
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2} The Family of Adam Brouwer and Magdalena Verdon, in Brouwer Genealogy.