(Vol. vii., p. 38.)
I am unable to reply to URSULA'S questions; but I would ask permission to
solicit from such of your better-informed correspondents as may become
votaries to URSULA, that they would extend the range of their genealogical
pilgrimage so far as to pay a visit to the ruins of Tor Abbey. I should be
glad to learn whether either William Lord _Briewere_ or William de la
_Bruere_ (both of whom were connected with the foundation of that religious
house) were of the same family as Thibault de la _Bruyère_, the Crusader,
who is one of the subjects of URSULA'S inquiry. Dr. Oliver (_Monast.
Exon._, note at p. 179.) thinks that these two William Brewers may have
represented families originally distinct from each other:
"There is some doubt," he says, "whether the family _De Brueriâ_ or
_Bruerâ_, which was settled in Devon at the time of the Domesday, and
then held some of the lands afterwards given by W. _Briwere_ to Torr
Abbey, was the same as that of the founder. In this cartulary the two
names are spelt differently, and Briwere seems {115} to have been a
purchaser of De Bruerâ. See, upon this subject, Dugdale's _Baronage_,
vol. i. p. 700., and Lysons' _Devonshire_, vol. i. p. 106. The names of
Brieguerre and De Bruera existed contemporaneously in Normandy. See
_Rot. Scacc. Norm. Indices_."
Whether these two William Brewers represented distinct families or not, it
appears that they became closely allied by marriage. At fol. 81. of an
"Abstract of the Tor Cartulary, at Trinity College, Dublin," given by
Oliver, p. 187., the following grants occur; viz.:
"Grant from William Briewere to William de la Brueriâ, of four librates
of land in Wodeberi, with Engelesia his sister, _in liberum
maritagium_, &c.
"Grant from said William de la Bruera, with the assent of Engelesia his
wife, of all their land in Grendle to William Briewere, brother of the
said Engelesia, &c.
"Confirmation thereof by said Engelesia."
Both families appear to have given the name of _Brewer_ to their places of
residence.
"The tything of _Teign Grace_," says Risdon, "anciently _Teign Brewer_,
was in the time of King Henry the Second the land of Anthony de la
Brewer, whom divers knights of that race succeeded. Sir William de la
Brewer, the last of the male line, left this inheritance among
co-heirs, Eva, wife of Thomas le _Grace_, and Isabel, &c.... Concerning
which lands these lines I found in the leger-book of the Abbey of Torr:
'_Galfridus de Breweria dominus de Teigne pro salut. animæ Will. de
Breweria & Argalesia uxor ejus conc. abbat. de Torr liberum transitum
in Teigne._'"--P. 135.
_Buckland Brewer_, on the other hand, derived its name (according to the
same authority) from the family of which William Lord Brewer was the
representative.
The Brewers appear to have founded other religious houses, and to have held
possessions in other parts of England. It was from Welbeck Abbey, in
Nottinghamshire, that William Lord Briwere obtained subjects for his abbey
at Tor; and Bruern, or Temple Bruer, in Lincolnshire, belonging to the
Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, Clerkenwell (see Dugdale's _Monast._,
new edition, vol. vi. par. ii. p. 801.), would seem to owe its name to some
connexion with the Brewer family, as did also, perhaps, Bruera in Chester,
&c.
Mention is made of a William de la Bruera in the _History of
Northamptonshire_ (edit. Oxon., 1791, tom. i. p. 233.), in connexion with
the township of Grafton, to which manor Joane, his wife, and her sister
Bruna, appear to have been co-heirs, as daughters of Ralph de S. Samson,
temp. Henry III.
William Brewer, Bishop of Exeter (_brother_ of the William Lord Briewere
already mentioned), was "put in trust" by King Henry III. "to conduct his
sister, the Lady Isabella, into Germany, to her intended marriage with the
Emperor Frederic." See Jenkins's _History of Exeter_, 1806, p. 252.
"This Bishop Brewer also went into the Holy Land (_transfretavit, cruce
signat._) the eleventh of Henry the Third."--Risdon, edit. Lond., 1811,
p. 137.
There was another William Brewer, a _son_ of William Lord Brewer; but he
died without male issue.
I fear these few notices bear no very precise relation to URSULA'S
inquiries. Still I send them, in the hope of discovering, by the kindness
of some of your erudite contributors, what is the difference (if any)
between the names _La Bruyère_, _De la Bruere_, and _Briewere_; and also
whether, _originally_, these names belonged to _two_ or _three_ distinct
families, or only to so many different branches of the same family.