Genealogy Chat

All I have found so far for brewer is brewster/brewers wife, would like to know more about a brewer in 1861'ish and what he had to do, can anyone point me in the right direction? Thank you Elaine

Got this from Google:- Definitions of brewer on the Web: someone who brews beer or ale from malt and hops and water the owner or manager of a brewery www(.)cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn2.1 A person or industrialist who makes beer. Etym: From the Gallic word brai (or brace) originally meaning barley, and later barley mixed with water. www.magnotta(.)com/b_library_beerterms.html Kath. x

Thanks Kath Much better than the stuff I found Elaine

Only thing is, sometimes they erm elaborated on their job/position. I have a GGFX3 who is stated as a brewer on his sons marriage cert but was in fact a brewers labourer (as per his death cert). If someone was really a brewer they probably had a fair amount of money and may have left a will.

Well that's interesting, in 1851 he was a labourer and 1861 he is a Brewer and his wife is listed as a brewer's wife, what do you think ? (this is my first brewer!!!) Elaine

Hi Heather, I don't think a brewer would have been particularly well off. Just because someone was a brewer it doesn't mean he owned the brewery. I also have several tradesmen, who ended up as labourer's near the end of their working life. I think people worked longer years ago, and when they were older, if they couldn't carry on with their trade, were quite prepared to work as a labourer, to earn a crust - no state pensions in those days!! Your relative might easily have been a brewer when his son was married and then just a brewer's labourer when he died. Kath. x