A Thought Experiment: Where Were Michael Hawkins and Eleanor Brewer Before 1786?

One small notice in the Christian Visitor may give us one of the most important clues about Michael Hawkins and Eleanor / Leaney Brewer’s earliest years in New Brunswick.

Their son, John Michael Hawkins, was born on May 12, 1786. He died in Douglas, York County, New Brunswick, on May 22, 1877.

The only direct notice I have found for John Michael Hawkins comes from the Christian Visitor, published at Saint John, New Brunswick, on June 6, 1877:

“d. At his residence, Mouth of the Keswick (York Co.) 22nd ult., John M. HAWKINS, age 91 years 9 days. This aged man died on the farm on which he was born. He was never known to have been out of this Province. The services were participated in by Rev. J.E. Ruel and his remains interred in the old grave yard near the Parish Church.”

That sentence is extremely important:

“This aged man died on the farm on which he was born.”

If true, it suggests that Michael Hawkins and Eleanor / Leaney Brewer were already living on, or at least occupying, the Keswick/Douglas-area farm by the time John Michael Hawkins was born in May 1786.

That raises a fascinating question:

When did Michael and Eleanor actually arrive in the Keswick/Douglas area?

Michael’s own memorial says he came to New Brunswick in the May Fleet of 1783. But John Michael was not born until nearly three years later, in May 1786. That leaves a gap:

May/June 1783 → May 1786

Where were Michael and Eleanor during those years?

The Pregnancy Window

If John Michael Hawkins was born on May 12, 1786, then Eleanor / Leaney was likely pregnant by about August 1785, give or take a few weeks.

That matters because travel in New Brunswick was difficult, especially in winter. It is hard to imagine a heavily pregnant woman making a major overland or upriver move from Saint John toward the Keswick/Douglas area in the dead of winter, especially between November 1785 and March 1786.

So if John Michael truly was born on the same farm where he died, it seems reasonable to ask whether Michael and Eleanor were already settled there before the winter of 1785–1786.

This does not prove they were there by then. But it makes it a very strong possibility.

Possible Timeline

A cautious working timeline might look like this:

May/June 1783
Michael Hawkins arrives in New Brunswick with the May/Spring Fleet.

1783–1784
Michael and possibly Eleanor may have remained near Saint John, Parrtown, Carleton, or another Loyalist staging/settlement area while land was being sorted out.

Summer/Fall 1784 or Summer/Fall 1785
Michael and Eleanor may have moved upriver or inland toward the Keswick/Douglas area.

By late 1785
If John Michael was born on the Keswick/Douglas farm in May 1786, then Michael and Eleanor may already have been occupying that land before winter set in.

May 12, 1786
John Michael Hawkins is born.

1788
Michael Hawkins officially purchases or secures the land associated with Lewis Fraser.

That creates an interesting possibility:

Michael and Eleanor may have lived on Lewis Fraser’s land for roughly two and a half years before Michael formally acquired it in 1788.

If the obituary is accurate, then Michael did not simply appear on that land when the paperwork was finalized. He may have been living there earlier.

Why This Matters

This changes the way we search for Michael and Eleanor.

Instead of only asking, “Where was Michael granted land?” we should also ask:

Where was he actually living?
Who allowed him to occupy the land before purchase?
Was there an informal settlement arrangement before the legal transfer?
Was Lewis Fraser connected to Michael Hawkins?
Were other Loyalist families nearby before official land titles were finalized?
Did Michael and Eleanor marry before arriving in New Brunswick, or after arrival?
If they married in New Brunswick, where would that record likely be?
Was Eleanor on the same ship as Michael, or did she arrive separately with the Brewer/Brower family?

These are not small questions. They may help locate the missing records.

The Marriage Question

If Michael and Eleanor’s son was born in May 1786, then Michael and Eleanor were almost certainly married before that date. The real question is where and when.

Possible locations include:

New Jersey / New York before evacuation
They may have married before leaving the old colonies, especially if the Hawkins and Brewer/Brower families were already connected in the Loyalist refugee world.

British-held New York or Staten Island refugee zone
If Eleanor’s family was part of the refugee population around New York, a marriage may have occurred there before the fleet sailed.

Saint John / Parrtown / Carleton after arrival
If they arrived separately or married after evacuation, the marriage may have taken place in the early Loyalist settlement world around Saint John.

Keswick / Douglas / Maugerville area
If they moved upriver before 1786, a marriage or informal family record may have been connected to the early inland Loyalist settlements.

The problem is that early Loyalist records can be scattered, incomplete, or lost. But the obituary gives us a new way to think about the search.

A Working Theory

Here is the theory I would test:

If John Michael Hawkins was truly born on the same farm where he died in 1877, then Michael Hawkins and Eleanor / Leaney Brewer were likely living in the Keswick/Douglas area by late 1785, before John Michael’s birth in May 1786. This means they may have occupied the land before Michael’s formal 1788 transaction, possibly living on Lewis Fraser’s land for two or more years before officially acquiring it.

That is not proven.

But it is a very reasonable deduction — and it gives us a direction.

Where to Search Next

This line of reasoning points toward several record sets:

Early Saint John / Parrtown / Carleton church records
Possible marriage, baptism, or settlement references between 1783 and 1786.

Early York County / Maugerville / St. Mary’s / Douglas-area church records
Possible baptism of John Michael Hawkins or early family references.

Land petitions and memorials
Especially anything involving Michael Hawkins, Lewis Fraser, Robert McCargo, Keswick, Madam Keswick, Douglas, or Lot 10.

Deeds and land transfers
To determine when Michael first occupied the farm versus when he officially purchased or received title.

Loyalist refugee lists and ship records
To determine whether Eleanor / Leaney Brewer arrived with Michael, with the Brewer/Brower family, or separately.

Brewer / Brower family records
Especially any record placing Eleanor, Leaney, Lanny, or her family in New York, New Jersey, Staten Island, Saint John, or York County between 1783 and 1786.

Why the Obituary Matters

One obituary sentence may be the clue that connects Michael’s migration to his first real New Brunswick home.

“This aged man died on the farm on which he was born.”

If accurate, that sentence places Michael and Eleanor on the Keswick/Douglas farm by May 1786.

That means the Hawkins family’s New Brunswick story may have begun there earlier than the formal land paperwork suggests.

And if that is true, then the missing years between the May Fleet of 1783 and John Michael’s birth in 1786 become one of the most important windows in the entire Hawkins investigation.

That is where we need to look.

The Hudson Corridor Migration of Michael Hawkins: From Revolutionary War Borderlands to New Brunswick

 

Michael Hawkins was not just a New Brunswick settler. He was a wounded Loyalist veteran whose life appears to have moved through one of the most dangerous corridors of the American Revolution: New Jersey, British-held New York, the Hudson River war zone, the Spring Fleet of 1783, and finally New Brunswick.

When researching Michael Hawkins, also remembered in family material as John Michael Hawkins, it is tempting to begin his story in New Brunswick.

That is where he settled.
That is where his descendants grew.
That is where later Hawkins family history took root.

But Michael’s own records point us backward — away from New Brunswick, across the sea route of the Loyalist evacuation, and back into the violent New York–New Jersey borderlands of the American Revolutionary War.

His story belongs to what I call the Hudson Corridor Migration.

This was not a simple move from one colony to another. It was a wartime journey from rebellion, danger, service, injury, exile, and survival into a new Loyalist world in British North America.

Michael Hawkins in His Own Words

The most important record for Michael Hawkins is his 1788 land memorial to the government of New Brunswick.

In that petition, Michael stated that he was a native of New Jersey, that he had joined the Royal Army early in the late Rebellion, and that in 1777 he had engaged in Major Ward’s Company of Refugees.

He also stated that, during the defence of the Block House, he received a wound that disabled him for nine months.

Finally, he said that he emigrated to New Brunswick in the May Fleet of 1783.

That short memorial gives us the backbone of his migration story:

New Jersey → Royal Army service → Major Ward’s Refugees → Block House wound → May Fleet of 1783 → New Brunswick

That is the route of a Loyalist survivor.

The Hudson Corridor Was Not Just a Place. It Was a War Zone.

When Michael Hawkins said he was a native of New Jersey, that does not mean his world was limited to one side of a modern state line.

During the American Revolution, the area around New Jersey, Bergen County, Weehawken, Bull’s Ferry, Fort Lee, British-held New York, Long Island, and the Hudson River formed one connected military landscape.

This corridor was full of roads, rivers, landing places, farms, wooded routes, ferry points, safe houses, blockhouses, refugee camps, and contested loyalties.

It was not clean.
It was not peaceful.
It was not distant from the war.

It was the edge.

For Loyalists, the Hudson corridor was both a refuge and a trap. British New York offered protection, but the surrounding countryside was dangerous. Loyalist refugees moved between army lines, river crossings, wooded ground, and military posts. Men who knew the landscape became valuable. They could cut wood, guide troops, scout movement, carry information, and help hold exposed positions.

This is the world where Michael Hawkins appears.

Major Ward’s Company of Refugees

Michael’s memorial places him in Major Ward’s Company of Refugees in 1777.

The word “Refugees” can sound soft to modern ears. It was not soft.

These were Loyalist men living in a brutal borderland world. Many had been driven from their homes or forced into British lines because of their loyalty to King George III. They were not always regular soldiers in the traditional sense. They were men of the ground — men who knew the roads, forests, ferry landings, riverbanks, farms, and families.

Ward’s Company is often associated with woodcutters, but that word should not be dismissed as simple labour.

Wood was essential to the British army. It meant fuel, heat, shelter, transport, and fortification. But woodcutting also gave men a reason to move through dangerous country. A woodcutter could observe roads. A woodcutter could watch enemy movement. A woodcutter could learn who was loyal and who was not. A woodcutter could carry information. A woodcutter could be a scout in plain sight.

In that sense, Ward’s men may have been part of the practical intelligence world of the British army: refugees, woodcutters, scouts, guides, and blockhouse defenders operating under the cover of necessity.

Michael Hawkins was not just standing around waiting for land in New Brunswick.

He was in the machinery of the war.

The Block House Wound

Michael’s memorial says that he was wounded in the defence of the Block House and disabled for nine months.

That detail matters.

Nine months of disability was not a scratch. It suggests a serious wound — the kind of injury that could change a man’s body, his work, his survival, and his memory.

We do not yet know exactly where he was wounded, what kind of wound he suffered, or who treated him. But we do know that, years later, when he petitioned the New Brunswick government, this was one of the facts he chose to present.

He wanted the government to know that he had served.
He wanted them to know that he had suffered.
He wanted them to know that he had paid for his loyalty in blood.

That should not be forgotten.

From the War Zone to the Spring Fleet

After years of war, the Loyalist world in New York collapsed into evacuation.

Michael stated that he came to New Brunswick in the May Fleet of 1783, also commonly remembered as part of the Spring Fleet.

For the purposes of mapping Michael’s journey, the exact ship is not yet confirmed. That means the safest way to describe his route is:

New Jersey / Hudson Corridor war zone → British-held New York evacuation world → Spring or May Fleet of 1783 → Saint John River, New Brunswick

This is why the Hudson Corridor Migration Map matters.

It helps us see Michael’s life as movement:

From the interior danger of New Jersey and the Hudson borderlands,
to the British evacuation world around New York,
across the water with thousands of Loyalist refugees,
to the mouth of the Saint John River,
and finally inland into New Brunswick settlement.

The map turns scattered records into a story.

The 1786 Washademoak Lake Grant

After arrival in New Brunswick, Michael Hawkins appears in a Crown land grant dated 12 May 1786 and registered at Saint John on 18 May 1786.

In that grant, Michael was assigned Lot Number Sixteen on the southeast tract around Washademoak Lake, in Kings and Queens Counties, containing about 200 acres.

This is another important piece of the migration story.

Michael did not simply arrive in New Brunswick and vanish. He entered the Loyalist land system. He became one of the men expected to take wilderness land and turn it into settlement.

The 1786 grant shows how hard that bargain was. Grantees were expected to improve the land: clear it, drain it, keep cattle, build a dwelling house, or otherwise make it productive.

The Crown gave land, but the Loyalist had to survive it.

For Michael Hawkins, the migration did not end when the ship reached New Brunswick. In some ways, that was only the beginning.

The 1788 Land Memorial and the Search for a Better Lot

There is an interesting problem.

Michael was granted Lot 16 at Washademoak Lake in 1786. Yet in 1788, he petitioned for another piece of land: Lot No. 10 on the Madam Kishvie, previously granted to Robert McCargo, who had died.

This raises an important question.

Did Michael not know about the Washademoak Lake grant?
Did he not want it?
Was it too far from where he actually settled?
Was the land unsuitable?
Was he trying to secure land closer to his family, associates, or community?

At this point, the answer is not proven.

But the 1788 memorial is valuable because it tells us how Michael represented himself: native of New Jersey, early Loyalist, Ward’s Refugee, wounded blockhouse defender, and May Fleet immigrant.

That is the identity he carried into New Brunswick.

The New Brunswick Settlement World

The later Hawkins story belongs to the Keswick / Douglas / York County settlement world.

This is where Michael Hawkins and Eleanor Brewer/Brower become part of the New Brunswick Loyalist community. It is also where the Hawkins family connects with other Loyalist families, including the Yerxa / Jurckse family.

John Yerxa, also remembered as Johannes Jurckse, belonged to the Loyalist world of Cortlandt Manor, Westchester County, New York. The Yerxa family later became closely connected with the Hawkins family in New Brunswick.

This matters because it suggests that Michael Hawkins’s world did not consist of disconnected points on a map.

New Jersey.
New York.
Cortlandt Manor.
British lines.
The Spring Fleet.
Saint John.
Keswick.
Douglas.
Washademoak.

These places may represent a larger Loyalist network: families who had known war, displacement, military service, exile, and resettlement.

Why the Hudson Corridor Matters

The Hudson Corridor matters because it helps us stop treating Michael Hawkins as an isolated New Brunswick brick wall.

He was not just “Michael Hawkins of New Brunswick.”

He was:

• a native of New Jersey
• an early supporter of the Royal Army
• a man connected to Major Ward’s Company of Refugees
• a wounded defender of the Block House
• a May Fleet Loyalist immigrant
• a Crown land grantee
• a New Brunswick settler
• the husband of Eleanor Brewer/Brower
• part of the Hawkins-Yerxa Loyalist settlement world

The Hudson Corridor gives us a way to look for him before New Brunswick.

It tells us where to search.

Not just in Canadian records.
Not just in family trees.
Not just in later census material.

But in the wartime world of New Jersey, Bergen County, British New York, Ward’s Refugees, blockhouse defenders, refugee camps, evacuation lists, Loyalist claims, land petitions, and associated families.

A Journey of Hope and Heritage

The Hudson Corridor Migration Map is not meant to prove every relationship. It is meant to show the geography of possibility.

It shows the places that shaped the lives of Michael Hawkins, Eleanor Brewer/Brower, John Yerxa, and the Loyalist families who moved from the Revolutionary War borderlands into New Brunswick.

The map begins in the old world of danger: New Jersey, New York, Cortlandt Manor, Bayard’s Estate, the Spring Fleet departure zone.

It ends in the new world of settlement: Saint John, Washademoak Lake, Keswick, Douglas, and the homestead lands of the Hawkins and Yerxa families.

Between those points lies the story of exile.

Michael Hawkins crossed that distance not as a tourist, not as an adventurer, and not as a nameless settler.

He crossed it as a wounded Loyalist veteran.

A man who had served.
A man who had suffered.
A man who had survived the war.
A man who carried his past into the forests and rivers of New Brunswick.

Research Questions Going Forward

This map raises several important questions:

Where exactly was Michael Hawkins living before he entered Ward’s Company?
What was the precise Block House where he was wounded?
Who else served with him in Ward’s Company of Refugees?
Did he know the Brewer/Brower family before New Brunswick?
Was Eleanor Brewer/Brower part of the same refugee migration network?
Did the Hawkins and Yerxa families know each other before settlement in New Brunswick?
Was Michael’s New Jersey identity connected to the Bergen-Hudson Loyalist world?
Can DNA evidence help identify Michael’s deeper Hawkins line?

These are the questions this project will continue to explore.

Closing

Michael Hawkins deserves to be remembered as more than a name in a land petition.

His life crossed the central geography of Loyalist survival: New Jersey, the Hudson corridor, British New York, the Spring Fleet, and New Brunswick.

The Hudson Corridor Migration Map helps us see that movement.

It gives shape to the story.

It reminds us that Michael Hawkins was not lost in history because he was unimportant. He was lost because his story was scattered across borders, wars, petitions, land grants, family memories, and unfinished research.

This blog exists to bring those pieces back together.

Michael Hawkins was a Loyalist.
A refugee.
A wounded blockhouse defender.
A May Fleet immigrant.
A New Brunswick settler.
And an ancestor whose story deserves to be found.

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Michael Hawkins: Loyalist, Refugee, Wounded Blockhouse Defender

Before Michael Hawkins became a settler in New Brunswick, he had already lived through war, displacement, injury, and exile.

His own 1788 land petition tells us exactly how he wanted the government of New Brunswick to understand him:

He was a native of New Jersey.
He had joined the Royal Army early in the late Rebellion.
In 1777, he engaged in Major Ward’s Company of Refugees.
During the defence of the Block House, he received a wound that disabled him for nine months.
In 1783, he emigrated to New Brunswick in the May Fleet.

That is not the biography of a passive bystander.

That is the profile of a Loyalist who entered the war early, served in one of the roughest and most dangerous borderland environments of the American Revolution, was wounded badly enough to be disabled for most of a year, and then left the old colonies for British North America.

The 1786 Land Grant

Michael Hawkins appears in a major New Brunswick land grant dated 12 May 1786 and registered at Saint John on 18 May 1786.

The grant was issued under King George III and included land in Kings and Queens Counties, around Washademoak Lake. Michael Hawkins was named among the grantees and was assigned Lot Number Sixteen, containing approximately 200 acres.

The document is long, formal, and heavy with royal language, but its meaning is simple:

Michael Hawkins was recognized as one of the Loyalist settlers receiving land after the war.

The land grant also shows the expectations placed on these early settlers. They were not simply handed land and left alone. The grant required improvement: clearing land, draining swamp or marsh, keeping cattle, building a dwelling, or otherwise making the land productive.

This was not an easy reward. It was a hard bargain.

The Crown gave land.
The Loyalist had to survive it.

Original Document Verbiage

GEORGE the THIRD, by the Grace of GOD of GREAT BRITAIN, FRANCE and IRELAND, KING, Defender of the Faith, and so forth.

To all to whom these Presents shall come, Greeting: KNOW ye, that We, of our special Grace, certain Knowledge, and mere Motion, have given and Granted, and by these Presents, for Us, our Heirs and Successors, do give and grant unto William Caldwell, James Easting, Benjamin Atwood Senior, Seymore Jarvis and Hannah Jarvis, Fauconier Valleau, Joseph Demill, Michael Hawkins, Elias Card and Benjamin Archibald McNeil, John Wilson, James Berry, Edward Lane, John Clauson and William Drurie, Thomas Gay and Henry Dryer, in severalty unto each of them and unto each and every of their several and respective Heirs and Assigns several lots and plantations of Land being the lots from number eight to number twenty one both inclusive, and the lots number thirty nine to number forty one both inclusive, except the lots number eight number twelve and number eighteen which are not hereby granted comprehended within two tracts of Land situate lying and being on the northwest and South east sides of the Washademoak Lake in Kings and Queens Counties in our Province of New Brunswick in America and abutted as follows, to wit, The northwest tract beginning at a marked Oak tree on the northwest bank of the said Lake being the South East corner on bounds of lot number thirty eight granted to John Jarvis in the grant of Charles Thomas and others, thence running along the easterly line of the said Lot north thirty nine degrees west by the magnet, one hundred and twenty chains of four poles each or until it meets the upper or easterly line of lot number thirty six in the aforesaid Grant then north fifty six degrees and forty six chains or until it meets the lower or westerly line of lot number one of the said Lot South forty five degrees East one hundred and thirty Six chains or to the northwest bank of the said lake thence along the said Bank following the several courses thereof down stream to the Bounds first mentioned, containing Six hundred and forty acres more or less, and the South East tract beginning at an Oak tree marked on the South East bank of the said Lake being the upper or South East corner or bounds of lot number seven granted to John Sharp in the grant to Charles Thomas and others aforesaid, thence along the Easterly line of the said lot South, Forty five degrees East by the magnet one hundred and forty six chains thence north five degrees East one hundred and five chains thence South seventy seven degrees and thirty minutes East one hundred and thirty three chains or until it meets the lower line of Lot number twenty in this tract along the said line of the said Lot South [  ] five degrees East one hundred and nine chains, thence north forty five degrees East thirty chains or until it meets the lower or westerly line of lot number one in Micheaus late Survey. Thence along the said line north forty five degrees west one hundred and thirty five chains or to the South east bank of the said lake, thence along the said Bank following the several course thereof down stream to the bounds first mentioned, containing two thousand eight hundred acres more or less, and both tracts containing in the whole three thousand four hundred and forty acres more or less with allowance for roads, all Wilderness Lands, and have such shape form and marks as appear by the actual survey thereof made under the direction of our Surveyor General of our said Province of which Survey the plot hereunto annexed is a representation.

Together with all woods, underwoods, timber and timber trees, lakes, ponds, fishing, waters, water courses, profits, commodities, appurtenances, and hereditaments whatsoever thereunto belonging, or in any wise appertaining; together also with the privileges of hunting, hawking, and fowling; in and upon the same, and mines and minerals; SAVING and receiving NEVERLTHELESS [sic] to us, our heirs and successors, all white pine trees, if any such shall be found growing thereon, and also SAVING and reserving to us, our heirs and successors, all mines of gold, silver, copper, lead, and coals, TO HAVE AND TO HOLD the said Two tracts of Land containing together three thousand four hundred and forty acres more or less, with the exceptions before mentioned, and an and singular other premises hereby unto the said, Several and respective Grantees in the lots shares quantities and proportions as do follow, to wit, unto the said William Caldwell the lot number Nine, unto the said James Eastin the lot number Ten, unto the said Benjamin Atwood Senior the lot number Eleven, unto the said Seymore Jarvis and Hannah Jarvis the lot number thirteen, unto the said Fauconier Valleau the lot number fourteen, unto the said Joseph Demill the lot number fifteen, unto the said Michael Hawkins the lot number sixteen, unto the said Elias Card and Archibald McNeil the lot number seventeen, unto the said John Wilson the lot number nineteen, unto the said James Berry the lot number twenty and unto the said Edward Lane the Lot number twenty one, the Lots being is the South East tract before described and containing two hundred acres more or less severally apiece and the said John Clawson and William Drurie the lot number thirty nine, unto the said Thomas Gay the lot Number Forty and unto the said Henry Dryer the Lot number Forty one the said three last mentioned Lots being the Northwest Tract before described and containing Two Hundred Acres each except the Lot Number Thirty nine which contains Two Hundred and forty acres more or less in severalty unto each of them and unto each and every of their several and respective Heirs and Assigns for ever they the said several and respective Grantees and their several and respective --- heirs and assigns YIELDING and PAYING therefore unto us, our heirs and successors, or to our receiver general for the time being, or his deputy for the time being yearly, that is to say, at the feast of Saint Michael in every year, at the rate of two shillings for every hundred acres, and, so in proportion according to the quantities of acres hereby granted; the same to commence and be payable from the said feast of Saint Michael which shall first happen after the expiration of Ten -- years from the date hereof PROVIDED always and this present grant is upon condition that the said several Grantees their several and respective heirs and assigns shall and do within three years after the date hereof or every fifty acres of plantable land hereby granted, clear and work three acres at least, in such part thereof as ---- they shall judge most convenient and advantageous; or else to clear and drain three acres of swampy or sunken ground, or drain three acres of marsh, if any such contained therein. AND shall and do within the time aforesaid, put and keep upon every fifty acres thereon, [  ] bar en [ ] three neat cattle, and continue the same thereon, until three acres for every fifty be fully cleared and improved, and if there shall be no part of the said tract fit for present cultivation without manuring and improving the same ---they within the time aforesaid shall be obliged to erect on same part of the said land, one good dwelling-house, to be at least twenty feet in length and sixteen feet in breadth, and to put on the said land the like number of three neat cattle for every fifty acres; or otherwise if any part of the said tract shall be stony or rocky ground, and not fit for planting or pasture, shall and do within three years as aforesaid, begin to employ thereon and continue to work for three years then next ensuing, in digging any stony quarry or mine, one good and able hand for every fifty acres, it shall be accounted a sufficient cultivation and improvement; PROVIDED [ ] that every three acres that shall be cleared and worked, or cleared and drained as aforesaid shall be accounted a sufficient seating, cultivation and improvement, to save forever from forfeiture fifty acres of land in any part of the tract hereby granted; and the said Grantees their several and respective heirs and assigns be at liberty to withdraw their stock, or forbear working on said lands, tenements and hereditaments hereby granted or if this grant shall not be duly registered in the Register's office of our said province within six months from the date hereof, and a docket also entered in the Auditor's office of the same, then this grant shall be void, and the said lands, tenements and hereditaments hereby granted, and every part and parcel thereof shall revert to us, our heirs and successors: AND PROVIDED also, upon this further condition, that if the and hereby given and granted as aforesaid, shall at any time or times hereafter come into the possession and [ ] of any person or persons whatever, inhabitants of our said province of New Brunswick, either by virtue of any deed of sale, conveyance, or exchange, or by gift, inheritance, descent, devise, or marriage, such person or persons being inhabitants as aforesaid, shall within twelve months after his, her or their entry and possession of the same, take the oaths prescribed by law, before some one of the magistrates of the said province, and a certificate of the magistrate, that such oaths have been taken, being recorded in the Secretary's office of the said province, the person or persons so taking the oath aforesaid, shall be deemed the lawful possessor or possessors of the limits hereby granted; AND in case of default on the part of such person or persons in taking the oaths, within twelve months as aforesaid, This present grant, and every part thereof, shall and We do hereby declare the same to be null and void to all intents and promises, and the lands hereby granted and every part and parcel thereof, shall in like manner be and become voided by us, our heirs and successors, any thing herein contained to the contrary notwithstanding.

GIVEN under the Great Seal of our Province of New Brunswick, WITNESS our trusty and well beloved Thomas Carleton Esquire Our Captain General and Governor in Chief, in and over said Province, this Twelfth Day of May in the Year of our LORD One Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighty six and in the Twenty sixth Year of our Reign.

 

By command of his Excellency in Council. Jon^th Odell

Saint John, New Brunswick

Registered the 18^th day of May 1786

The 1788 Memorial: Michael Hawkins Speaks for Himself

Either Michael did not like his Lot 16 on Washademoak Lake or he didn't know he was granted it because he petitioned for land on May 1, 1788.

Two years later, on 1 May 1788, Michael Hawkins submitted a petition, also called a memorial, to Thomas Carleton, Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick.

This is one of the most important records for understanding Michael Hawkins because it gives us his own service summary.

In that memorial, Michael stated that he was a native of New Jersey, that he had joined the Royal Army early in the Revolution, and that in 1777 he served in Major Ward’s Company of Refugees. He also stated that he was wounded in the defence of the Block House and was disabled for nine months.

This short statement opens a much larger world.

Michael was not just “a Loyalist.”
He was not just “from New Jersey.”
He was not just “an early settler.”

He was part of Ward’s Company of Refugees, a group operating in the violent New York–New Jersey borderlands during the Revolutionary War.

 Michael Hawkins’s Petition for Land (Memorial)

 To His Excellency Thomas Carleton Esquire Lieut. Governor & Commander in chief over the Province of New Brunswick -- Chancellor & Vice Admiral of the same &c &c

The Memorial of Micheal Hawkins

Most Humble Sheweth

 

That your Memorialist is a Native of New Jersey but join'd the Royal Army early in the late Rebellion and in 1777 engaged in Major Ward's Company of Refugees and in the defense of the Block House he received a Wound from which he was disabled for Nine months. That he emigrated to this Country in the May fleet of 1783.

That your Memorialist has never obtained any Land whatsoever from Government but as Lott No.10 on the Madam Kishvie Granted to Robert McCargo, but is now unoccupied by the Death of Said Robert McCargo last Spring. Your Memorialist Humble prays' that Your Excellency would be pleas'd to assign said Lott to Your Memorialist as his Quota of Land.

 

St. Mary's                                                                      his

1st of May l788                                                  Michael x Hawkins

                                                                                     mark

Major Ward’s Company of Refugees

The word Refugee can sound harmless today, but in the Revolutionary War context it meant something much more intense.

Loyalist refugees were people driven from their homes, farms, churches, and communities because they remained loyal to the Crown. Some became soldiers. Some became guides. Some became scouts. Some became suppliers. Some worked as woodcutters. Some defended blockhouses. Some moved between British lines and contested territory.

Ward’s Company belonged to that hard, shadowy world.

These were not parade-ground soldiers living safely behind walls. These men operated in the dangerous corridor around New York, New Jersey, Bergen County, Bull’s Ferry, Fort Lee, Weehawken, Hackensack, and the Hudson River.

They knew roads.
They knew river crossings.
They knew farms and landing places.
They knew who was loyal, who was rebel, and who was pretending.

The term woodcutter may sound ordinary, but in wartime it could be anything but ordinary. Wood was essential to the British army. It meant fuel, shelter, fortification, transport, and survival. But woodcutting also gave men a reason to move through contested country.

A woodcutter could observe roads.
A woodcutter could watch enemy movement.
A woodcutter could learn which families were safe.
A woodcutter could carry information.
A woodcutter could be a scout in plain sight.

In that sense, Ward’s men may have functioned as part of the practical intelligence network of the British war effort: men who knew the land, moved through danger, gathered information, supplied posts, and defended exposed positions under the plain cover of refugee service and woodcutting.

Michael Hawkins was one of those men.

The Wound at the Block House

Michael’s memorial says he was wounded during the defence of the Block House and was disabled for nine months.

That one sentence deserves attention.

A nine-month disability was not a scratch. It suggests a serious wound — the kind that changed a man’s life, limited his ability to work, and stayed with him long after the shooting stopped.

We do not yet know the exact details of Michael’s injury. We do not know where he was struck, who treated him, or how he survived. But we do know that, years later, when he asked the New Brunswick government for land, this wound was one of the facts he chose to present.

He wanted it remembered.

And it should be.

From War to New Brunswick

Michael Hawkins came to New Brunswick in the May Fleet of 1783, part of the Loyalist migration after the American Revolution.

Like many Loyalists, he left behind the world of New Jersey and New York and began again in British North America. His later life in New Brunswick should not be separated from his wartime service. The man who settled in New Brunswick was also the man who had served under Ward, defended a blockhouse, suffered a serious wound, and survived the collapse of the Loyalist cause in the former colonies.

He was not just a settler.

He was a wounded Loyalist veteran.

Why This Matters

Michael Hawkins has too often appeared as a single name in scattered records: a Loyalist, a grantee, a petitioner, a husband, a father, an ancestor.

But when the records are read together, a fuller picture appears.

Michael Hawkins was:

• a native of New Jersey
• an early Loyalist supporter of the Crown
• a member of Major Ward’s Company of Refugees
• a defender of the Block House
• a wounded veteran disabled for nine months
• a 1783 May Fleet Loyalist immigrant
• a New Brunswick land petitioner
• a grantee of Crown land
• the husband of Eleanor Brewer/Brower
• the beginning of a major Hawkins Loyalist line in New Brunswick

This is the man this blog is trying to recover.

Not a footnote.
Not a forgotten name.
Not just a brick wall.

A Loyalist.
A refugee.
A wounded blockhouse defender.
A survivor.

And a man whose story deserves to be found.

Major Ward’s Company of Refugees: The Shadow World Around Michael Hawkins

 Before Michael Hawkins became a New Brunswick Loyalist settler, he appears in a much more dangerous setting: the wartime refugee world around British-held New York, New Jersey, Bergen County, Bull’s Ferry, and the Hudson River corridor.

One of the most important clues to understanding Michael Hawkins is his connection to Thomas Ward’s Company of Refugees.

Ward is often remembered as Major Thomas Ward, though at the time Michael Hawkins may have reported to him, Ward was likely functioning as Captain Thomas Ward. Either way, Ward’s company was not simply a group of ordinary soldiers in neat uniforms marching in straight lines. These men belonged to the rougher, darker, more practical side of the Revolutionary War.

They were called Refugees.
They were associated with woodcutting.
But that plain word — woodcutters — may hide what they really were.

These men operated in the contested borderland between British and American power. They knew the roads, rivers, farms, forests, landing places, blockhouses, and back channels. They knew which families were Loyalist, which were Patriot, which houses were safe, and which paths could get a man killed.

In that world, cutting wood was not just manual labour. It was cover. It gave men a reason to move through dangerous ground, scout terrain, gather intelligence, watch rebel movement, supply British positions, and support military operations around the Hudson and Bergen war zone.

In plain language, Ward’s Refugees may have been part of the working intelligence arm of the British war effort, hidden under the practical title of woodcutters.

They were the men between the army and the wilderness.
Between the blockhouse and the enemy line.
Between British New York and rebel New Jersey.
Between survival and capture.

This matters because Michael Hawkins was not merely sitting quietly in New Jersey waiting for a ship to New Brunswick. His association with Ward’s Refugees places him in a hard, dangerous, and highly mobile Loyalist network.

The same world included places like Bull’s Ferry, Fort Lee, Weehawken, Hackensack, and the British lines around New York. It was a corridor of refugees, guides, pilots, woodcutters, spies, scouts, displaced families, and men who knew how to survive in contested country.

Michael Hawkins should be understood in that context.

Not as a forgotten name on a list.
Not as a lonely settler who appears only after 1783.
But as a man who likely lived through the violent border war before becoming part of the Loyalist migration to New Brunswick.

Men Associated with Captain Thomas Ward’s Company of Refugees

I believe the following are 36 of the 75 members associated with Captain Thomas Ward’s Company of Refugees:

1. Captain Benjamin Babcock
2. David Babcock
3. Lieutenant Absolam Bull
4. Lieutenant George Bull
5. John Burnet
6. Thomas Burnet
7. William Burnett
8. John Edgar
9. John Everet
10. Ezekiel Fealey
11. John Fealey
12. James Feudal
13. Cornelius Hall
14. George Harding, Jr.
15. William Harding
16. Michael Hawkins
17. Nazareth Hill
18. William Howe
19. James Huston, Sr.
20. John Lawson
21. Simon Leroy
22. John Longly
23. Captain Philip Luke
24. Samuel Miller
25. John Mullan
26. Nicholas Peterson, Jr.
27. Nicholas Peterson, Sr.
28. Christopher Peterson
29. Paul Peterson
30. Nicholas Power(s)
31. Stephen Roblin
32. Alexander Russell
33. Alexander Sharp
34. Alexander Snider
35. Captain, late Major Thomas Ward
36. Samuel Williams

Why This List Matters

This list is not just a roll call.

For anyone researching Michael Hawkins, these names are a map.

Every man on this list may represent a possible clue: a neighbour, a military associate, a witness, a fellow refugee, a land petitioner, a shipmate, or a postwar New Brunswick connection.

The names around Michael Hawkins may tell us what the records have not yet told us directly.

Who did he serve with?
Who did he trust?
Who migrated with him?
Who settled near him?
Who had ties to New York, New Jersey, Bergen County, Bull’s Ferry, or the Hudson River?

This is how brick walls break.

Not by staring only at Michael Hawkins in isolation, but by rebuilding the world around him — one associate, one company list, one Loyalist claim, one land petition, and one family connection at a time.

Michael Hawkins was part of Ward’s world.

And Ward’s world was not ordinary.

It was the shadow edge of the Revolutionary War: refugees, woodcutters, scouts, guides, blockhouse defenders, intelligence gatherers, and Loyalist survivors operating in one of the most dangerous corridors in North America.

Michael Hawkins and Eleanor Brewer: A Loyalist Family Research Project

 Researching Michael / John Michael Hawkins, Loyalist of New Jersey and New Brunswick, and his wife Eleanor / Elaney / Lanny Brower-Brewer

This blog is dedicated to the research of Michael Hawkins, also remembered in family material as John Michael Hawkins, and his wife Eleanor Brewer, whose name also appears or is remembered as Eleanor Brower, Elaney Brewer, Elaney Brower, or Lanny Brower.

Michael Hawkins and Eleanor Brewer are the foundation of a Hawkins Loyalist family that settled in New Brunswick, Canada after the American Revolutionary War. Yet despite decades of research, their deeper origins remain unresolved.

This blog exists to bring their story out of scattered notes, family files, old records, and private research folders — and place it somewhere public, searchable, and useful for future researchers.

Why This Blog Exists

For many years, Alan Hawkins researched and preserved the descendants of Michael Hawkins and Eleanor Brewer. His work gave later researchers a foundation to build from. Without that work, much of this family history may have remained disconnected, forgotten, or lost.

But Michael Hawkins remains a major brick wall.

Who were his parents?
Was his full name Michael Hawkins or John Michael Hawkins?
Was he born in New Jersey?
Did he come from New York?
Were George Hawkins and Martin Hawkins his brothers?
Who were the parents of Eleanor Brewer or Eleanor Brower?
Was her family connected to the Dutch Brower/Brouwer families of New York or New Jersey?
Did Michael and Eleanor know one another before New Brunswick?
Did their families belong to the same Loyalist refugee network during the Revolutionary War?

These are the questions this blog will explore.

This is not just about building a family tree. It is about restoring historical visibility to two people whose lives were shaped by war, displacement, loyalty, migration, and survival.

Who Was Michael Hawkins?

Michael Hawkins was a Loyalist associated with New Jersey who came to New Brunswick after the American Revolutionary War. Family material also remembers him as John Michael Hawkins and says he “came from New York.”

That difference matters.

Official Loyalist records may point toward New Jersey, while family tradition points toward New York. But during the Revolutionary War, those two places were not separate worlds. The area around British-held New York City, Bergen County, Weehawken, Bull’s Ferry, Fort Lee, Hackensack, and the Hudson River formed one connected wartime zone.

Families moved across this region. Loyalists fled into British lines. Refugees, guides, pilots, woodcutters, soldiers, and displaced families operated across both sides of the New York-New Jersey border.

So when family tradition says Michael came from New York, and official records connect him to New Jersey, both may contain part of the truth.

Michael Hawkins was not simply a name on a Loyalist list. He appears to have been part of the dangerous Revolutionary War world of Loyalist refugees, woodcutters, blockhouse defenders, and families forced to choose sides.

After the war, Michael came north with the Loyalist migration and settled in New Brunswick, where he became part of the early Loyalist community in the Keswick / Douglas / York County area.

Who Was Eleanor Brewer?

Michael’s wife was Eleanor Brewer, but her name appears in several forms.

The surname may originally have been Brower or Brouwer, later written as Brewer. Her given name may appear as Eleanor, Elaney, or Lanny.

These variations are extremely important for genealogy research.

A person searching only for “Eleanor Brewer” may miss records under “Eleanor Brower.”
A person searching only for “Brower” may miss later New Brunswick records under “Brewer.”
A person searching only for “Eleanor” may miss family references to “Elaney” or “Lanny.”

For that reason, this blog will use all known name variations:

Eleanor Brewer
Eleanor Brower
Elaney Brewer
Elaney Brower
Lanny Brewer
Lanny Brower
Brouwer / Brower / Brewer

The main research question is simple:

Who were the parents of Eleanor Brewer/Brower, wife of Michael Hawkins?

Answering that question may be the key to unlocking the Hawkins line as well.

If Michael came north “with the Brewers,” as family tradition suggests, then the Hawkins-Brewer connection may not have started in New Brunswick. It may have started earlier, in the New York-New Jersey Loyalist world before the 1783 evacuation.

The Hawkins and Brewer Connection

Family tradition says Michael Hawkins came out with the Brewer family.

That statement may be one of the most important clues in this entire family history.

It suggests that Michael Hawkins and Eleanor Brewer were not random people who met only after settlement in New Brunswick. They may have already been connected through family, community, military service, refugee networks, or church ties before they arrived in Canada.

The surname Brewer may also connect back to the Dutch surname Brower or Brouwer, which appears in New York and New Jersey records. This matters because the Revolutionary War world of New York, Bergen County, Westchester County, and New Jersey included many Dutch families whose surnames changed spelling over time.

So when researching Eleanor, it is necessary to search not only New Brunswick records, but also:

New York records
New Jersey records
Dutch Reformed Church records
Brower / Brouwer genealogy
Brewer family records
Loyalist claims
land petitions
military records
family Bibles
old letters and compiled genealogies

Eleanor Brewer should not be treated as a footnote to Michael Hawkins. She may be the central clue.

The Loyalist Context

Michael Hawkins and Eleanor Brewer lived through one of the most disruptive periods in North American history: the American Revolutionary War.

For Loyalist families, the war was not abstract politics. It affected homes, farms, churches, property, safety, inheritance, identity, and migration.

Many Loyalists were forced to leave their communities. Some entered British lines around New York City. Some served in military or semi-military roles. Some worked as woodcutters, guides, pilots, refugees, suppliers, or defenders of strategic posts.

After the war, thousands of Loyalists evacuated to what became New Brunswick.

Michael Hawkins was one of them.

Understanding Michael and Eleanor requires understanding this world. They were not simply early settlers. They were part of the Loyalist migration that reshaped New Brunswick after 1783.

The Main Research Questions

This blog will focus on the following questions:

1. Who were the parents of Michael Hawkins?
2. Was Michael Hawkins also known as John Michael Hawkins?
3. Was Michael born in New Jersey, New York, or somewhere else?
4. Were George Hawkins and Martin Hawkins his brothers?
5. Who were the parents of Eleanor Brewer / Brower?
6. Was Eleanor connected to the Brower/Brouwer families of New York or New Jersey?
7. Did Michael and Eleanor know each other before New Brunswick?
8. Did Michael Hawkins come to New Brunswick with the Brewer family?
9. What was Michael’s exact Loyalist service?
10. Can Hawkins yDNA help identify Michael’s deeper paternal line?

These questions will guide the research posted here.

Why Michael Hawkins Deserves More Attention

Michael Hawkins should not remain a forgotten Loyalist ancestor buried in scattered records.

He was part of the generation that lived through the American Revolution, chose the Loyalist side, left the old colonies, and helped build a new life in New Brunswick.

He represents a larger story: the story of families caught between New York, New Jersey, and New Brunswick; between British and American loyalties; between old homes and new settlements; between family memory and official records.

His wife, Eleanor Brewer, deserves equal attention. Too often in genealogy, wives are reduced to uncertain names and approximate dates. But Eleanor may be the key to understanding where Michael came from, who he traveled with, and what family network surrounded him.

This blog will treat Michael Hawkins and Eleanor Brewer as a couple, a family, and a historical research problem worthy of serious attention.

A Note to Hawkins, Brewer, Brower, Brouwer, and Loyalist Researchers

If you descend from Michael Hawkins and Eleanor Brewer, or if you have any records connected to this family, I would be grateful to compare notes.

I am especially interested in:

• Michael Hawkins
• John Michael Hawkins
• Eleanor Brewer
• Eleanor Brower
• Elaney Brewer
• Elaney Brower
• Lanny Brower
• George Hawkins
• Martin Hawkins
• Hawkins families of New Jersey
• Hawkins families of New York
• Brewer / Brower / Brouwer families of New York or New Jersey
• Loyalist Hawkins families
• New Brunswick Hawkins families
• Keswick / Douglas / York County Hawkins records
• Ward’s Refugees
• Bull’s Ferry
• Bergen County Loyalists
• Weehawken Loyalists
• Hawkins yDNA
• Hawkins Big Y DNA
• I-Y20202 Hawkins line

If you have family notes, old letters, land records, church records, Bible entries, DNA results, or anything that may connect to Michael Hawkins and Eleanor Brewer, please reach out.

Purpose of This Research Project

The goal of this blog is simple:

To make Michael Hawkins and Eleanor Brewer searchable, visible, and impossible to forget.

Alan Hawkins spent decades preserving this family history. This blog continues that work by bringing the research into a public space where descendants, genealogists, DNA testers, and historians can find it.

Michael Hawkins and Eleanor Brewer were real people who lived through a dangerous time, made difficult choices, crossed borders, and helped create a family whose descendants are still searching for them.

Their story deserves to be known.

This blog is the beginning.

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Search Terms and Keywords

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