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The Brewer Family: Quarrymen of Rudloe The Strange Journey of Humphries Brewer Martin Stower and Jean Coburn February 2019 (Reviewed July 2019) We recently received an email from the authors of this two-part work, explaining that “For many years, David Pollard helped us with information for our book on Humphries Brewer (son of quarry master and tunnel builder, William Jones Brewer) which we dedicated to David’s memory. The book was finally published in two parts earlier this year on Amazon.” We wanted to know more, and the authors shared the following extracts from their marvellous research. Left: Jean-Léon Gérôme, View of Medinet El-Fayoum (1868/1870), courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington |
Brewer Family Background
Humphries Brewer’s father, William Jones Brewer, was born in 1785 in the Wiltshire village of Box, into a family who had traditionally worked with stone. His own father, William Brewer (1749-1819), was a native of Colerne, a village not far from Box. In 1761, Brewer was apprenticed to a well-known craftsman, Henry (Carver) Hill of Marlborough. William evidently had some ability as a carver of stone, for his sculptures are to be found in the churches of Corsham and Atworth. In 1769, Henry Hill undertook some work as part of the refurbishment of Corsham Court, the home of Lord Methuen, a local landowner, and William perhaps assisted with this. Some seventy-five or so years later, a further refurbishment at Corsham Court was to play an important role in the lives of his son and grandson.
In the late 18th century, a fire at Colerne caused many villagers, including William Brewer himself, to leave their homes. William moved to nearby Box, and, in 1782, married Jane Jones (1751-1811), daughter of Robert Jones of Swindon. The couple had five children, including two boys: William Jones Brewer and Thomas Brewer. Little is known about the earlier life of William Jones Brewer, until 4 February 1815, when he married a cousin, Jane Jones (1786-1866), in Westminster; confusingly, his bride bore the same name as his mother. By January 1816, the newly-married pair had returned to Box in time for the birth of their eldest son, also named William Jones Brewer. Humphries, the next son, was born on 28 February 1817, and on 13 June 1817, he was christened in the nearby hamlet of Ditteridge, scene of several Brewer christenings; the third brother, Robert, born in 1818, was also christened there.
Quarrying Partnership
At this time, the Brewer family was said to have included several generations of quarry masters. William Jones Brewer described himself as a mason of Box Quarries, and, in late 1828, appears to have set up at Box in partnership with his brother, Thomas. Until the dissolution of their partnership nearly ten years later, the two brothers were responsible for working one of the largest underground quarries there.
The end of the Brewer brothers’ partnership did not mark the end of William Jones Brewer’s career at Box: instead, that career was poised to undergo a radical change of direction. In September and October 1837, he and a new partner, Thomas Lewis of Bath, were the first to take up some of the contracts for construction of one of the more challenging projects of the early Victorian railway age: Box Tunnel.
Box Tunnel
From the very outset, Box Tunnel had been considered a highly daring engineering proposal, and great concern was expressed about its practicability. But Isambard Kingdom Brunel was undeterred. In February 1836, he arranged for trial shafts to be sunk by two contractors, one of whom was Brunel’s old colleague, Horatio Orton. Brunel later explained how Orton and Orton’s partner, Errington Paxton, had come to him from another contractor, George Burge, of Herne Bay in Kent. Burge was later to play a significant role in Humphries Brewer’s career.
Humphries Brewer’s father, William Jones Brewer, was born in 1785 in the Wiltshire village of Box, into a family who had traditionally worked with stone. His own father, William Brewer (1749-1819), was a native of Colerne, a village not far from Box. In 1761, Brewer was apprenticed to a well-known craftsman, Henry (Carver) Hill of Marlborough. William evidently had some ability as a carver of stone, for his sculptures are to be found in the churches of Corsham and Atworth. In 1769, Henry Hill undertook some work as part of the refurbishment of Corsham Court, the home of Lord Methuen, a local landowner, and William perhaps assisted with this. Some seventy-five or so years later, a further refurbishment at Corsham Court was to play an important role in the lives of his son and grandson.
In the late 18th century, a fire at Colerne caused many villagers, including William Brewer himself, to leave their homes. William moved to nearby Box, and, in 1782, married Jane Jones (1751-1811), daughter of Robert Jones of Swindon. The couple had five children, including two boys: William Jones Brewer and Thomas Brewer. Little is known about the earlier life of William Jones Brewer, until 4 February 1815, when he married a cousin, Jane Jones (1786-1866), in Westminster; confusingly, his bride bore the same name as his mother. By January 1816, the newly-married pair had returned to Box in time for the birth of their eldest son, also named William Jones Brewer. Humphries, the next son, was born on 28 February 1817, and on 13 June 1817, he was christened in the nearby hamlet of Ditteridge, scene of several Brewer christenings; the third brother, Robert, born in 1818, was also christened there.
Quarrying Partnership
At this time, the Brewer family was said to have included several generations of quarry masters. William Jones Brewer described himself as a mason of Box Quarries, and, in late 1828, appears to have set up at Box in partnership with his brother, Thomas. Until the dissolution of their partnership nearly ten years later, the two brothers were responsible for working one of the largest underground quarries there.
The end of the Brewer brothers’ partnership did not mark the end of William Jones Brewer’s career at Box: instead, that career was poised to undergo a radical change of direction. In September and October 1837, he and a new partner, Thomas Lewis of Bath, were the first to take up some of the contracts for construction of one of the more challenging projects of the early Victorian railway age: Box Tunnel.
Box Tunnel
From the very outset, Box Tunnel had been considered a highly daring engineering proposal, and great concern was expressed about its practicability. But Isambard Kingdom Brunel was undeterred. In February 1836, he arranged for trial shafts to be sunk by two contractors, one of whom was Brunel’s old colleague, Horatio Orton. Brunel later explained how Orton and Orton’s partner, Errington Paxton, had come to him from another contractor, George Burge, of Herne Bay in Kent. Burge was later to play a significant role in Humphries Brewer’s career.
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By October 1836, having successfully completed the excavation of two temporary shafts, Orton and Paxton were awarded the tunnel shafts contract. Unfortunately, that winter, the shafts flooded – a recurrent problem at Box – which meant that expensive steam-pumps had to be brought in. By the following spring, the pair were in financial difficulties. Their problems were exacerbated by the fact that, while employed on the Box Tunnel shafts, they had at the same time been working on the Clifton Suspension Bridge, an undertaking which generated its own set of complications. Brunel, meanwhile, was faced with the formidable task of finding contractors to undertake the work of digging the tunnel itself. Eventually, in the winter of 1837-1838, Brewer and Lewis agreed to take two of the contracts, for about half a mile of the tunnel from the eastern or Corsham end, to be worked through Bath Stone, or Great Oolite limestone: these were difficult strata, but no one knew them better than William Jones Brewer. Right: Two of William Jones Brewer’s sons, Robert and William (courtesy the Estate of Walter Allen) |
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Samuel Hansard Yockney (1813-1893), a former pupil of the Bath engineering company, Stothert & Pitt, described as “a very intelligent person,” was appointed as engineer and manager to Brewer and Lewis. Then, in November 1837, catastrophe struck in the form of yet more flooding. In one of the shafts, the water rose to 56 feet; the steam-pumps initially brought in proved inadequate to the task and had to be replaced by more robust equipment. The question of who was to undertake the longer western section of the tunnel was eventually settled in early 1838, when George Burge stepped into the breach. Whilst this western segment was far from straightforward, much of it lay through easier strata consisting of fuller’s earth, and Burge undertook to have the whole thing finished in two and a half years.
This review is just a small extract of the book. If you are interested in further details about Box Tunnel or the quarry families of Rudloe, "The Strange Journey of Humphries Brewer, Part 1" is an excellent source for understanding the complexities of the excavations of the tunnel and the relationships of the quarry families who undertook the work. It is a fascinating read and can be purchased on-line from Amazon at:
The Strange Journey of Humphries Brewer: Witness to a Forgery in the Great Pyramid? Part 1: Investigating the Legend
In the next issue of the website, we intend to publish extracts from Part 2 which covers the amazing story of Humphries Brewer, son of William Jones Brewer. He may have travelled to Egypt and seen the cartouches at the Great Pyramid of Giza. In modern times he has been associated with the possibility that aliens created the site with their advanced technology. How on earth did an ordinary Rudloe boy become involved in the conspiracy? Read the next issue to find out more about this amazing theory.
This review is just a small extract of the book. If you are interested in further details about Box Tunnel or the quarry families of Rudloe, "The Strange Journey of Humphries Brewer, Part 1" is an excellent source for understanding the complexities of the excavations of the tunnel and the relationships of the quarry families who undertook the work. It is a fascinating read and can be purchased on-line from Amazon at:
The Strange Journey of Humphries Brewer: Witness to a Forgery in the Great Pyramid? Part 1: Investigating the Legend
In the next issue of the website, we intend to publish extracts from Part 2 which covers the amazing story of Humphries Brewer, son of William Jones Brewer. He may have travelled to Egypt and seen the cartouches at the Great Pyramid of Giza. In modern times he has been associated with the possibility that aliens created the site with their advanced technology. How on earth did an ordinary Rudloe boy become involved in the conspiracy? Read the next issue to find out more about this amazing theory.
Appendix
The authors have generously shared with the website their preliminary research on other family members which does not feature in their book (with the proviso that this part of their information has not yet been fully checked for accuracy). They write:
Thomas Brewer
Thomas Brewer was the son of William Brewer (1748-1819) and Jane Jones (1751-1811) and was born in 1787, and christened 3 Oct 1790, in Box. David Pollard recounted that Thomas kept an inn at Holt (possibly somewhere east of the brook) after 1837, after the dissolution of his partnership with his brother, William Jones Brewer (1785-1857). Things can’t have gone too well at the inn, for David added that, by 1849 (or possibly even some years earlier), Thomas was in the workhouse. Recently, we found a date of burial for a Thomas Brewer of Chippenham of 25 July 1854; this might be our Thomas Brewer. He appears to have married Elizabeth Bundy (approximate dates 1793-1855) at some time in the mid-1820s. We have notes of the births of the following children (but have not checked them against official records):
Ann Frances, 5 Feb 1828;
Sarah, 5 Nov 1829;
Harriet, 29 Sep 1833. Christened 9 Aug 1835. Married George Wolff Gough (1812-1889), a Bank of England cashier who lived in Tottenham. They had a daughter, Kate (b Jan 1860); she may have subsequently lived in Hampshire;
Thomas, 5 Jan 1836;
Robert, 1840;
Walter, 1841.
Katherine (Kate) Elizabeth (1836–1925) (daughter of Thomas Brewer).
She perhaps led the most interesting life. She was born 18 December 1836, in Box, and christened 18 Feb 1838 in Ditteridge. She appears to have emigrated to the USA in August 1850, accompanying Julia Brewer (née Orton) on the steamer Niagara from Liverpool. Julia and her two infant daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, were travelling to join Julia’s husband, Humphries Brewer (Kate’s cousin), who was working as a civil engineer in Pennsylvania. On 3 January 1855, she married John C Decker (b 1831), a farmer in Addison, NY, who probably died some time after the turn of the century. It seems that one of their daughters, Katherine (1861-1942), married Alfred G Wooster (1853-1923), a street inspector. They acquired a house in Seattle (1553 N 38th St N, Wallingford, Seattle, King, Washington) which is now noted as an historic building.
The authors have generously shared with the website their preliminary research on other family members which does not feature in their book (with the proviso that this part of their information has not yet been fully checked for accuracy). They write:
Thomas Brewer
Thomas Brewer was the son of William Brewer (1748-1819) and Jane Jones (1751-1811) and was born in 1787, and christened 3 Oct 1790, in Box. David Pollard recounted that Thomas kept an inn at Holt (possibly somewhere east of the brook) after 1837, after the dissolution of his partnership with his brother, William Jones Brewer (1785-1857). Things can’t have gone too well at the inn, for David added that, by 1849 (or possibly even some years earlier), Thomas was in the workhouse. Recently, we found a date of burial for a Thomas Brewer of Chippenham of 25 July 1854; this might be our Thomas Brewer. He appears to have married Elizabeth Bundy (approximate dates 1793-1855) at some time in the mid-1820s. We have notes of the births of the following children (but have not checked them against official records):
Ann Frances, 5 Feb 1828;
Sarah, 5 Nov 1829;
Harriet, 29 Sep 1833. Christened 9 Aug 1835. Married George Wolff Gough (1812-1889), a Bank of England cashier who lived in Tottenham. They had a daughter, Kate (b Jan 1860); she may have subsequently lived in Hampshire;
Thomas, 5 Jan 1836;
Robert, 1840;
Walter, 1841.
Katherine (Kate) Elizabeth (1836–1925) (daughter of Thomas Brewer).
She perhaps led the most interesting life. She was born 18 December 1836, in Box, and christened 18 Feb 1838 in Ditteridge. She appears to have emigrated to the USA in August 1850, accompanying Julia Brewer (née Orton) on the steamer Niagara from Liverpool. Julia and her two infant daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, were travelling to join Julia’s husband, Humphries Brewer (Kate’s cousin), who was working as a civil engineer in Pennsylvania. On 3 January 1855, she married John C Decker (b 1831), a farmer in Addison, NY, who probably died some time after the turn of the century. It seems that one of their daughters, Katherine (1861-1942), married Alfred G Wooster (1853-1923), a street inspector. They acquired a house in Seattle (1553 N 38th St N, Wallingford, Seattle, King, Washington) which is now noted as an historic building.
Brewer Family Tree
William Brewer (1748-1819) and Jane Jones (1751-1811). Children:
William Jones Brewer (1785-1857);
Thomas (born in 1787, and christened 3 Oct 1790 in Box) married Elizabeth Bundy (about 1793 -1855?) in the mid-1820s.
William Jones Brewer (1785-1857) married his cousin Jane Jones (born 1791) in Westminster on 4 February 1815. Children:
William Jones Brewer (1816-1844);
Humphries (b 28 February 1817 at Box Quarries – 25 Dec 1867);
Robert (b May 1818), quarry master in 1851 and stone merchant in 1861;
Elizabeth (Bess) (1820 – 1847);
Jane (b 24 January 1822 and christened July 1824 at Ditteridge;
Rebecca (b 1827 Box, d 1838 Rudloe Firs, Box).
William Brewer (1748-1819) and Jane Jones (1751-1811). Children:
William Jones Brewer (1785-1857);
Thomas (born in 1787, and christened 3 Oct 1790 in Box) married Elizabeth Bundy (about 1793 -1855?) in the mid-1820s.
William Jones Brewer (1785-1857) married his cousin Jane Jones (born 1791) in Westminster on 4 February 1815. Children:
William Jones Brewer (1816-1844);
Humphries (b 28 February 1817 at Box Quarries – 25 Dec 1867);
Robert (b May 1818), quarry master in 1851 and stone merchant in 1861;
Elizabeth (Bess) (1820 – 1847);
Jane (b 24 January 1822 and christened July 1824 at Ditteridge;
Rebecca (b 1827 Box, d 1838 Rudloe Firs, Box).