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Humphries Brewer in Egypt
The Strange Journey of Humphries Brewer Martin Stower and Jean Coburn February 2019 (Reviewed October 2019) This is the second article containing edited extracts from Martin and Jean’s marvellous books about Humphries Brewer. In Part 2, the authors continue to use their extensive research to examine claims made by some of Brewer’s descendants in support of the “Great Pyramid forgery” case, and try to establish the facts of Brewer’s career in Europe and the USA. The following extracts focus on the life and journeys of this native of Box Quarries, held by some to have been instrumental in re-writing the history of Egyptology. Right: Auguste Renoir, Landscape between Storms (1874/1875) courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington |
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The story of Humphries Brewer is undeniably a fascinating one. He started out as a minor 19th century historical figure, a civil engineer struggling with inexperience, debt, difficult employers and disruptive labour forces; but, in the 20th and 21st century, metamorphosed into a semi-mythical hero hailed by those who subscribe to the views of Daniel Jackson, the fictional archaeologist in the science fiction Stargate series.
According to this school of thought, the Egyptian pyramids were built long before the time of King Khufu using the expertise of space aliens or a “lost civilisation”. The claim was made that the various painted names of Khufu inside the relieving chambers of the Great Pyramid, Giza, were in fact forged, and that Humphries Brewer, then working at Giza, was an eyewitness to that forgery. Before considering his time in Egypt, however, it is important to look at the rest of his life.
Early Life
Humphries Brewer was the son of William Jones Brewer (1785-1857) and Jane Jones (born 1791). Humphries was born on 28 February 1817 and christened in Ditteridge Church. As a young man he lived with his family at Rudloe, later helping his father and brothers work on the construction of Box Tunnel. In the course of this work he met Miss Julia Augusta French Orton of Box, step-daughter of Gustavus Edward Beckers, formerly an engineer and assistant at Box Tunnel. Julia’s uncle, Horatio Orton, began work with Errington Paxton on the trial shafts at Box and Gustavus became Orton’s foreman. In September 1838, an attempt at elopement by the young Julia and Humphries ended in failure. In the early 1840s, Humphries left Rudloe and began working on the Széchenyi Chain Bridge between Buda and Pesth (now combined as Budapest) in Hungary.
According to later family legend, Humphries studied civil engineering at the University of Berlin, and was awarded a prize for designing a bridge over the Danube. Legend also has it that, in the late 1830s, he visited Egypt and the Holy Land. In June 1997, Martin Stower eventually succeeded in contacting Walter Allen (descendant and biographer of Humphries), with a series of basic questions about Humphries. These are Martin’s notes of Allen’s replies in that telephone conversation:
He [Humphries] was sent to Memphis (sic) by the British Government, to build an eye hospital for the workers at Giza, who were affected by glaucoma, which causes blindness .... The treatment was painful, the workers objected to it and the hospital project fell through. Colonel Vyse (Colonel Howard Vyse (1784-1853), a wealthy English antiquarian) and his group were active (excavating) at the pyramids, and Humphries joined them. He measured the pyramid – its perimeter, and height by triangulation.
According to this school of thought, the Egyptian pyramids were built long before the time of King Khufu using the expertise of space aliens or a “lost civilisation”. The claim was made that the various painted names of Khufu inside the relieving chambers of the Great Pyramid, Giza, were in fact forged, and that Humphries Brewer, then working at Giza, was an eyewitness to that forgery. Before considering his time in Egypt, however, it is important to look at the rest of his life.
Early Life
Humphries Brewer was the son of William Jones Brewer (1785-1857) and Jane Jones (born 1791). Humphries was born on 28 February 1817 and christened in Ditteridge Church. As a young man he lived with his family at Rudloe, later helping his father and brothers work on the construction of Box Tunnel. In the course of this work he met Miss Julia Augusta French Orton of Box, step-daughter of Gustavus Edward Beckers, formerly an engineer and assistant at Box Tunnel. Julia’s uncle, Horatio Orton, began work with Errington Paxton on the trial shafts at Box and Gustavus became Orton’s foreman. In September 1838, an attempt at elopement by the young Julia and Humphries ended in failure. In the early 1840s, Humphries left Rudloe and began working on the Széchenyi Chain Bridge between Buda and Pesth (now combined as Budapest) in Hungary.
According to later family legend, Humphries studied civil engineering at the University of Berlin, and was awarded a prize for designing a bridge over the Danube. Legend also has it that, in the late 1830s, he visited Egypt and the Holy Land. In June 1997, Martin Stower eventually succeeded in contacting Walter Allen (descendant and biographer of Humphries), with a series of basic questions about Humphries. These are Martin’s notes of Allen’s replies in that telephone conversation:
He [Humphries] was sent to Memphis (sic) by the British Government, to build an eye hospital for the workers at Giza, who were affected by glaucoma, which causes blindness .... The treatment was painful, the workers objected to it and the hospital project fell through. Colonel Vyse (Colonel Howard Vyse (1784-1853), a wealthy English antiquarian) and his group were active (excavating) at the pyramids, and Humphries joined them. He measured the pyramid – its perimeter, and height by triangulation.
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Life in the USA
Humphries and Julia were married in 1847, and started a family in England before leaving for the New World at the end of the 1840s. Once in Pennsylvania, one of Humphries’ principal achievements was the discovery of a valuable stock of semi-bituminous coal. But Humphries had to use all his powers of persuasion, and his knowledge of geology and mining, before his employer, the Honorable John Magee, agreed not to abandon the search, but to press on until they finally found a rich seam of coal that could be worked with relative ease, making Humphries effectively the founder of the small township of Fall Brook. Thanks to the efforts of Humphries and his colleagues, the mines at Fall Brook flourished, although the American Civil War (1861-5) resulted in labour problems that Humphries and his employers had some difficulty in dealing with. In December 1867, Humphries died. His obituaries noted his many achievements, and mentioned that he had travelled in the Near East. The popularity that he inspired did not fade, and, in June 1886, there was even a proposal to erect a monument to Humphries and his employer, Duncan Magee, at Fall Brook. Right: Monument to Humphries Brewer, The Fallows, Fall Brook. Photo reproduced by kind permission of Sarah B Nevin, Tioga Co., Pennsylvania, www.insanart.com |
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Nine years after his arrival, Brewer had taken the step of becoming a US citizen, thus definitively severing his ties with England. Initially, his children received as good an education as he and Julia could give them; amongst the very few items from those days that have somehow survived is what appears to have been an educational aid known to the Brewer descendants as the Map of the World, which notes various world capitals, including Cairo.
Did this have some connection with Humphries’ travels in the Near East – travels that were to come to some prominence in the early 1980s?
Did this have some connection with Humphries’ travels in the Near East – travels that were to come to some prominence in the early 1980s?
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Above: Details from the Brewer Family Map of the World in which one circle appears with the city name Cairo, Capital of Egypt
(courtesy Jon Brewer Pattengill)
(courtesy Jon Brewer Pattengill)
Legend of the Pyramid Forgery
The Humphries Brewer “eyewitness” story first saw the light of day in the summer of 1983, in an article published in a small-circulation magazine, Ancient Skies. The article alleged that Humphries had witnessed the forgery of cartouches at the Great Pyramid of Giza, a construction which historians had wrongly attributed to King Khufu. Readers were given a few basic details about Humphries Brewer himself: his place and date of birth (28 February 1817 in Box), that he had studied at the University of Berlin and had eventually become an important quarry master and tunnel builder. In 1837, he had been employed by the British Army Medical Service (sic) to travel to Egypt to help build an eye hospital, before later becoming a member of Howard Vyse’s team excavating the Great Pyramid. He had a confrontation with the excavating team about the inscriptions in the Great Pyramid, and was denied further entry to the site. In 1842, the University of Berlin invited him to join another expedition to Giza, but he was prevented from going by Vyse.
The Humphries Brewer “eyewitness” story first saw the light of day in the summer of 1983, in an article published in a small-circulation magazine, Ancient Skies. The article alleged that Humphries had witnessed the forgery of cartouches at the Great Pyramid of Giza, a construction which historians had wrongly attributed to King Khufu. Readers were given a few basic details about Humphries Brewer himself: his place and date of birth (28 February 1817 in Box), that he had studied at the University of Berlin and had eventually become an important quarry master and tunnel builder. In 1837, he had been employed by the British Army Medical Service (sic) to travel to Egypt to help build an eye hospital, before later becoming a member of Howard Vyse’s team excavating the Great Pyramid. He had a confrontation with the excavating team about the inscriptions in the Great Pyramid, and was denied further entry to the site. In 1842, the University of Berlin invited him to join another expedition to Giza, but he was prevented from going by Vyse.
The Great Pyramid, Giza (courtesy of Jon Bodsworth)
It was about this time – perhaps in late 1837 or early 1838 – that Humphries was said to have returned to England from Egypt to join his father working on the Box Tunnel, in what was to be one of the most gruelling undertakings of the Victorian railway age. This construction would of course have required the use of vast quantities of explosives. And, whilst working at Giza, Humphries was said to have used explosives expertise acquired at Box, where, according to the Brewer family tradition, Humphries was also closely associated with the quarries themselves, eventually becoming a master mason or leading quarry master. So, one way or another, he would have had an opportunity to become expert in the use of explosives before his departure for Egypt in early 1836 or 1837 … or would he?
Whatever the truth behind his time in Egypt, Humphries’ work with tunnels was not yet over. After their marriage in 1847, Humphries and Julia moved to Monmouth where he had secured a contract to build a railway tunnel just over a hundred yards long. But Troy Tunnel (as the project was called) was to prove, not the basis of Brewer’s future fortune, but the cause of his near ruin. Nothing worked out as he planned and Brewer found himself on the verge of bankruptcy. On 24th April 1849, the plant and equipment at Troy Tunnel were auctioned off; in November, Humphries set off for America, arriving in New York on 22 December 1849, and followed by Julia in August 1850.
Later accounts have the details of the move to the USA slightly differently. It is claimed by some that Humphries was roundly condemned by Colonel Howard Vyse on his return from Egypt, accused of being a liar, publicly rebuked yet again, forced to leave England and move to the United States.
It is certainly a matter of historical record that, once in North America, working as a civil engineer, Brewer became closely associated with various rail and coal enterprises in the area of Fall Brook, Tioga County, Pennsylvania, a settlement about fifty miles southeast of Corning, in the state of New York, where some of his descendants continued to live until the later 19th century.
Whatever the truth behind his time in Egypt, Humphries’ work with tunnels was not yet over. After their marriage in 1847, Humphries and Julia moved to Monmouth where he had secured a contract to build a railway tunnel just over a hundred yards long. But Troy Tunnel (as the project was called) was to prove, not the basis of Brewer’s future fortune, but the cause of his near ruin. Nothing worked out as he planned and Brewer found himself on the verge of bankruptcy. On 24th April 1849, the plant and equipment at Troy Tunnel were auctioned off; in November, Humphries set off for America, arriving in New York on 22 December 1849, and followed by Julia in August 1850.
Later accounts have the details of the move to the USA slightly differently. It is claimed by some that Humphries was roundly condemned by Colonel Howard Vyse on his return from Egypt, accused of being a liar, publicly rebuked yet again, forced to leave England and move to the United States.
It is certainly a matter of historical record that, once in North America, working as a civil engineer, Brewer became closely associated with various rail and coal enterprises in the area of Fall Brook, Tioga County, Pennsylvania, a settlement about fifty miles southeast of Corning, in the state of New York, where some of his descendants continued to live until the later 19th century.
But what is the full truth? What can really be known about the life of Humphries Brewer? And what light can his travels throw on the supposed forgery at the Great Pyramid? The extracts above are just a small part of the book – and to discover the answers to these and other questions, you will have to read both parts of The Strange Journey of Humphries Brewer. They can be purchased on-line from Amazon:
The Strange Journey of Humphries Brewer: Witness to a Forgery in the Great Pyramid? Part 2: Uncovering the Truth
The Strange Journey of Humphries Brewer: Witness to a Forgery in the Great Pyramid? Part 2: Uncovering the Truth