82 High Street, the John Brewer House (1680)

On the north side of the intersection of Lord’s Square, Linebrook Rd., and High St. was a large lot known as “Brewer’s Corner” in the 17th and 18th Centuries. John Brewer arrived in Ipswich with his father Thomas Brewer before 1639 as a teenager. The father eventually moved to Hampton, but John stayed and married Mary Whitmore in 1647. He was a surveyor of highways, and in 1662 he charged the town of Ipswich for “building a fort.” In 1683, John Brewer was chosen as the Town Clerk, but he died the following year. It is believed that this house was built by his son John Brewer Jr. a tailor, on part of his father’s large homestead.

Thomas Franklin Waters wrote the following in Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (1905, Ipswich Historical Society):

“From the corner now occupied by Mr. Nathaniel Burnham’s grocery, lots were assigned and houses built at the beginning of the settlement. This corner was known as early as 1728, and probably much before, as Brewer’s Corner.”

“The Brewer house lot was of goodly size, and Mr. Brewer sold it in several pieces. To Daniel Low, he sold a quarter of an acre on the corner, with a dwelling, and the land on Boxford Road extended to the ditch that drains the lands, June 13, 1717.”

“A lot on the northwest side, abutting on “the widow Setchwell,” (John Shatswell house) and bounded by the County Road northeast and the “County Road leading to Topsfield or however otherwise,” he sold to Capt. Stephen Perkins at about the same time.”

“Francis Sawyer owned the intervening tract in 1734, and he may have bought it when the others made their purchases. Sawyer and his wife, Susanna, being administratrix of Daniel Low, mariner, sold the Low homestead on the corner to Samuel Williams, saddler, on Dec. 5, 1743. It came later into the hands of Nathaniel Hart. The executors of Sarah Hart sold to Hannah Goodhue, widow, the east part of the present dwelling, June 10, 1805, and Isaac Kimball sold the western end to Jonathan Haskell, with a quarter acre, Jan. 11, 1817.”

Who was John Brewer?

In old records the name Brewer is often spelled Breuer or Bruer. John Brewer Sr. was born in 1626 or 1627 and came to Ipswich with his father Thomas Brewer, who is shown living in Ipswich in 1639. Town records show that in 1662 the town constables were ordered to pay John Brewer 20 schillings, charges he was due “about constructing the fort”. John Brewer Sr. died on June 23, 1684, in either Ipswich or Sudbury, MA.”

The senior John Brewer and his wife Mary Whitmore had a son, also named John, who was born in Ipswich in 1653 and died in 1697 at the age of 43. He was a tailor in Ipswich and lived on his father’s homestead. In January 1674, John Brewer married Susanna Warner. He married his second wife Martha Perkins in 1689. They had four children, Hannah, Martha, Margaret, and John. On October 2, 1683, “John Bruer” was chosen as Town Clerk and was instructed to copy the two old Town Books (Town Records). He was the likely builder of this house.

John Brewer Jr. sold the lot with the house to Daniel Low and his wife Sussanah in 1717 for £25. (Salem Deeds 32:237). In 1725, Susannah Low, now a widow, married Francis Sawyer. Being the administratrix of Daniel Low, mariner, she sold the homestead for £50 to Samuel Williams, saddler, on Dec. 5, 1743 (89: 142). In 1805 & 1817, the left and right sides of the house were sold separately.

Sources and further reading:

• Wikitree: John Brewer
• Waters, Thomas Franklin: Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Vol. 1
• MACRIS