Daniel Brewer I
The original Daniel Brewer was born in 1596 in Somersetshire, England. This county is just south of Wales, and Daniel was possibly of Welsh descent. Sometime before 1623, Daniel married Joanna Morrill who was 6 years younger and also from Somerset. At some point, the couple moved to Stortford, Hertfordshire, just north of London. Three children were born there before the young family joined a group of 123 pilgrims on the ship Lyon sailing from London to Boston in 1632. The journey took 12 weeks with all passengers arriving safely on September 16.
The social status of the Brewer family in England during this period cannot be determined. However, there is a Daniel Brewer coat of arms recorded in Matthew's American Armory and Blue Book which implies that he owned some land.
The Brewers settled in Roxbury, a village south of Boston. Daniel's occupation was "husbandman" or subsistence farmer. Apparently, he was illiterate, signing official documents with a mark instead of a signature. This did not preclude him, however, from being elected in 1634 as a "freeman" or town councilman. Before he died in 1646 he acquired 95 acres of land around Roxbury and fathered two more children. His final days must have been difficult as related by a contemporary historian, "Brother Brewer died of an ulcer in his lungs which pierced through into his bowls & emptied thither to his great swelling & torment. - 28 March 1646."
Children:
Daniel, II (1625 - 1708)
Anne (1628 - 1659)
Joanna (1631 - ?)
Nathaniel (1635 - 1661)
Sarah (1638 - 1717)
Questions for further research:
