LA BRUYÈRE.
(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 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.