A Hawkins researcher who lives in New Brunswick sent me the following information about his ancestor, Michael Hawkins who was a Loyalist in the American Revolution. Michael's introduction for his ancestor says:
I want to introduce a man who has become the central brick wall in my paternal line:
# Michael Hawkins, Loyalist
born about 1750 | died about 1845 | Keswick/Douglas, York County, New Brunswick
Michael Hawkins is my direct paternal-line ancestor. He is often described as Michael Hawkins, Loyalist, a native of New Jersey, who emigrated to New Brunswick in the Spring Fleet of 1783. But I believe he deserves to be studied as more than a name on a Loyalist list.
I think Michael Hawkins belonged to the dangerous, complicated world of the Bergen–Hudson Loyalist corridor: New Jersey, New York, Weehawken, Bull’s Ferry, Fort Lee, Bergen Woods, British-held New York City, and eventually New Brunswick.
I am hoping this post becomes a place where other researchers can connect Hawkins, Brower/Brewer, Yerxa/Jurckse, Bergen County, Westchester, Loyalist, and Y-DNA clues.
If you have answers for Jaime, write to him at jaimedeanhawkins@gmail.com
But also feel free to add a comment below that anyone can read.
Map of New Brunswick
## What we know about Michael Hawkins
The major compiled source I am working from is Alan H. Hawkins’s 2004 work:
The Descendants of Michael Hawkins, Loyalist, a native of New Jersey who emigrated to New Brunswick in the Spring Fleet of 1783
Alan Hawkins identifies Michael as the first of this Hawkins family to settle in New Brunswick. He notes that Michael’s parentage has not been ascertained, but that Michael is treated as the first generation of the New Brunswick family.
Alan gives Michael’s wife as:
Eleanor / Elaney Brower, later often written Brewer
She is described as a woman of Dutch descent, and family records preserve her name as Eleanor Brower. In New Brunswick, the name commonly became Brewer.
An old family paper quoted by Alan Hawkins says:
The major compiled source I am working from is Alan H. Hawkins’s 2004 work:
The Descendants of Michael Hawkins, Loyalist, a native of New Jersey who emigrated to New Brunswick in the Spring Fleet of 1783
Alan Hawkins identifies Michael as the first of this Hawkins family to settle in New Brunswick. He notes that Michael’s parentage has not been ascertained, but that Michael is treated as the first generation of the New Brunswick family.
Alan gives Michael’s wife as:
Eleanor / Elaney Brower, later often written Brewer
She is described as a woman of Dutch descent, and family records preserve her name as Eleanor Brower. In New Brunswick, the name commonly became Brewer.
An old family paper quoted by Alan Hawkins says:
“Your grandfather died about 1845 about 95 years old … grandmothers name was Eleanor Brower died about 1837 age 74 years old.”
So Michael was probably born about 1750, and Eleanor about 1763.
That means Michael was old enough to be an adult during the American Revolution, old enough to serve as a Loyalist, and old enough to have had prewar ties that are now very difficult to recover.
## Michael Hawkins before and during the Revolution
Michael’s own memorial/petition identifies him as a native of New Jersey and says he joined the Royal Army early in the rebellion. He served in:
Major Ward’s Company of Refugees
and was involved in the:
defence of the Blockhouse
This was not ordinary militia service in a clean battlefield setting.
Major Ward’s men were operating in the brutal borderland between British-held New York and Patriot-controlled New Jersey. The so-called “woodcutters” were not just chopping firewood in a peaceful forest. They were moving through contested territory, supplying British forces, defending exposed positions, and relying on local knowledge of roads, woods, landings, farms, ferries, passes, and who could or could not be trusted.
In practical terms, a Loyalist “woodcutter” in this environment was part logistics, part armed labour, part scout, and often part intelligence network.
Michael’s service around the Blockhouse places him in the same world as Bull’s Ferry, Bergen Woods, Fort Lee, Weehawken, and the Hudson River corridor opposite Manhattan.
That is important because there was another Hawkins in that same wartime space:
I cannot prove Joseph and Michael were kin. But I now consider Joseph Hawkins of Weehawken one of the strongest possible network clues for Michael Hawkins’s origin.
Michael’s own memorial/petition identifies him as a native of New Jersey and says he joined the Royal Army early in the rebellion. He served in:
Major Ward’s Company of Refugees
and was involved in the:
defence of the Blockhouse
This was not ordinary militia service in a clean battlefield setting.
Major Ward’s men were operating in the brutal borderland between British-held New York and Patriot-controlled New Jersey. The so-called “woodcutters” were not just chopping firewood in a peaceful forest. They were moving through contested territory, supplying British forces, defending exposed positions, and relying on local knowledge of roads, woods, landings, farms, ferries, passes, and who could or could not be trusted.
In practical terms, a Loyalist “woodcutter” in this environment was part logistics, part armed labour, part scout, and often part intelligence network.
Michael’s service around the Blockhouse places him in the same world as Bull’s Ferry, Bergen Woods, Fort Lee, Weehawken, and the Hudson River corridor opposite Manhattan.
That is important because there was another Hawkins in that same wartime space:
## Joseph Hawkins of Weehawken — possible clue?
A Loyalist named Joseph Hawkins of Weehawken appears in Revolutionary War accounts as a guide.
The Journal of the American Revolution describes Joseph Hawkins as the son of a tenant of the same name who lived on William Bayard’s estate at Weehawken. Joseph served as a guide to Lord Cornwallis at the taking of Fort Lee, and later acted as a guide and pilot for British army and navy operations.
The Bergen County Historical Society also identifies Joseph Hawkins of Weehawken as one of three Bergen County Loyalists who guided British and Hessian troops up the Palisades during the Fort Lee operation.
That puts Joseph Hawkins in the same narrow Hudson-Palisades corridor where Michael Hawkins’s Loyalist service appears to belong.
So the question becomes:
How many Hawkins Loyalists were operating in the same Bergen–Hudson war zone, doing guide/woodcutter/refugee/blockhouse/intelligence-adjacent work, and yet had no connection to each other?
A Loyalist named Joseph Hawkins of Weehawken appears in Revolutionary War accounts as a guide.
The Journal of the American Revolution describes Joseph Hawkins as the son of a tenant of the same name who lived on William Bayard’s estate at Weehawken. Joseph served as a guide to Lord Cornwallis at the taking of Fort Lee, and later acted as a guide and pilot for British army and navy operations.
The Bergen County Historical Society also identifies Joseph Hawkins of Weehawken as one of three Bergen County Loyalists who guided British and Hessian troops up the Palisades during the Fort Lee operation.
That puts Joseph Hawkins in the same narrow Hudson-Palisades corridor where Michael Hawkins’s Loyalist service appears to belong.
So the question becomes:
How many Hawkins Loyalists were operating in the same Bergen–Hudson war zone, doing guide/woodcutter/refugee/blockhouse/intelligence-adjacent work, and yet had no connection to each other?
I cannot prove Joseph and Michael were kin. But I now consider Joseph Hawkins of Weehawken one of the strongest possible network clues for Michael Hawkins’s origin.
## The Brower / Brewer clue
Michael’s wife was Eleanor / Elaney Brower, later Brewer.
This may be the key.
Alan Hawkins preserved family memory that Michael “came out with the family of Brewers.” That is a huge clue. It suggests the Hawkins-Brower/Brewer relationship may have existed before New Brunswick, not merely after settlement there.
The Brouwer Genealogy blog has discussed Eleanor Brewer / Lanny Brower, wife of Michael Hawkins, and the uncertainty around her parents. Possible parentage theories point toward Brouwer/Brower families in Hackensack, Bergen County, New Jersey, and Dutchess County, New York.
There is also a wartime clue: Bergen County history identifies a Jacob Brower as serving in Thomas Ward’s corps of woodcutters and defending the blockhouse at Bull’s Ferry.
That means we may have:
Michael Hawkins — Major Ward’s Refugees / Blockhouse
Jacob Brower — Ward’s woodcutters / Bull’s Ferry
Eleanor Brower/Brewer — Michael’s wife
Joseph Hawkins — Weehawken / Bayard estate / guide
William Bayard’s estate — Loyalist Weehawken world
This is starting to look like a network, not coincidence.
Michael’s wife was Eleanor / Elaney Brower, later Brewer.
This may be the key.
Alan Hawkins preserved family memory that Michael “came out with the family of Brewers.” That is a huge clue. It suggests the Hawkins-Brower/Brewer relationship may have existed before New Brunswick, not merely after settlement there.
The Brouwer Genealogy blog has discussed Eleanor Brewer / Lanny Brower, wife of Michael Hawkins, and the uncertainty around her parents. Possible parentage theories point toward Brouwer/Brower families in Hackensack, Bergen County, New Jersey, and Dutchess County, New York.
There is also a wartime clue: Bergen County history identifies a Jacob Brower as serving in Thomas Ward’s corps of woodcutters and defending the blockhouse at Bull’s Ferry.
That means we may have:
Michael Hawkins — Major Ward’s Refugees / Blockhouse
Jacob Brower — Ward’s woodcutters / Bull’s Ferry
Eleanor Brower/Brewer — Michael’s wife
Joseph Hawkins — Weehawken / Bayard estate / guide
William Bayard’s estate — Loyalist Weehawken world
This is starting to look like a network, not coincidence.
## The family memory: “John Michael Hawkins from New York”
One of the most interesting items Alan Hawkins preserved is a family letter saying that great-grandfather Michael Hawkins was actually remembered as:
John Michael Hawkins
The same letter says he came from New York, came out with the Brewer family, and was the only Hawkins who went to New Brunswick. It says two brothers remained in New York:
George Hawkins
Martin Hawkins
and that two unmarried sisters also remained in New York.
This does not necessarily contradict Michael’s official description as a native of New Jersey.
During the Revolution, the New York/New Jersey border was not a modern administrative wall. Loyalists moved through New Jersey, British-held New York City, Staten Island, Long Island, Bergen County, the Hudson River, and evacuation routes to Nova Scotia/New Brunswick.
So Michael may have been:
One of the most interesting items Alan Hawkins preserved is a family letter saying that great-grandfather Michael Hawkins was actually remembered as:
John Michael Hawkins
The same letter says he came from New York, came out with the Brewer family, and was the only Hawkins who went to New Brunswick. It says two brothers remained in New York:
George Hawkins
Martin Hawkins
and that two unmarried sisters also remained in New York.
This does not necessarily contradict Michael’s official description as a native of New Jersey.
During the Revolution, the New York/New Jersey border was not a modern administrative wall. Loyalists moved through New Jersey, British-held New York City, Staten Island, Long Island, Bergen County, the Hudson River, and evacuation routes to Nova Scotia/New Brunswick.
So Michael may have been:
- born in New Jersey,
- connected to New York through the Brower/Brewer family,
- operating in the British New York/Bergen corridor,
- and later remembered by descendants as coming “from New York.”
That is exactly the kind of mixed identity one would expect from a Loyalist refugee.
---
- connected to New York through the Brower/Brewer family,
- operating in the British New York/Bergen corridor,
- and later remembered by descendants as coming “from New York.”
That is exactly the kind of mixed identity one would expect from a Loyalist refugee.
---
## The Yerxa / Cortlandt Manor connection
After the war, Michael Hawkins became connected to the Yerxa family.
John Yerxa / Johannes Jurckse was a Loyalist from Cortlandt Manor, Westchester County, New York. His memorial says he joined the refugees under Colonel DeLancey in 1780 and later came to New Brunswick.
Michael’s daughter:
Sarah Hawkins
married
James Yerxa
on 8 July 1817.
James was the son of John Yerxa.
Even more importantly, Michael Hawkins Sr. was one of the men attached to the appraisal/valuation of John Yerxa’s estate. That means Michael was not merely a distant in-law. He was trusted enough to be involved in the estate affairs of a major Cortlandt Manor Loyalist family in New Brunswick.
So Michael’s postwar world included:
Hawkins
Brower/Brewer
Yerxa/Jurckse
Gerow/Giraud
Keswick/Douglas, New Brunswick
Cortlandt Manor / Westchester Loyalist memory
I am not claiming Michael Hawkins came from Cortlandt Manor. But the Yerxa connection means the Cortlandt Manor Loyalist network cannot be ignored.
After the war, Michael Hawkins became connected to the Yerxa family.
John Yerxa / Johannes Jurckse was a Loyalist from Cortlandt Manor, Westchester County, New York. His memorial says he joined the refugees under Colonel DeLancey in 1780 and later came to New Brunswick.
Michael’s daughter:
Sarah Hawkins
married
James Yerxa
on 8 July 1817.
James was the son of John Yerxa.
Even more importantly, Michael Hawkins Sr. was one of the men attached to the appraisal/valuation of John Yerxa’s estate. That means Michael was not merely a distant in-law. He was trusted enough to be involved in the estate affairs of a major Cortlandt Manor Loyalist family in New Brunswick.
So Michael’s postwar world included:
Hawkins
Brower/Brewer
Yerxa/Jurckse
Gerow/Giraud
Keswick/Douglas, New Brunswick
Cortlandt Manor / Westchester Loyalist memory
I am not claiming Michael Hawkins came from Cortlandt Manor. But the Yerxa connection means the Cortlandt Manor Loyalist network cannot be ignored.
## Michael Hawkins after the war
Michael came to New Brunswick in 1783 and survived the brutal Loyalist settlement period.
The early New Brunswick Loyalists arrived with promises of land, supplies, and support, but many faced cold, hunger, poor shelter, and wilderness conditions. Michael outlived almost everyone around him. If born about 1750 and dying about 1845, he lived to about 95 years old.
He outlived John Yerxa.
He outlived many of the first Loyalist settlers around Keswick.
He outlived the Revolution itself by six decades.
That alone is remarkable.
Alan Hawkins’s work shows Michael as a man who steadily built a life after the war. He acquired land, bought and sold parcels, and became part of the emerging community in York County, New Brunswick. His land activity suggests a man who was not passive or marginal. He was rebuilding, investing, moving, buying, selling, and establishing his family in a new province.
One particularly meaningful act was his donation of land connected to St. Mary’s Anglican Church at Keswick. Alan Hawkins notes that in 1824, Michael Hawkins of Douglas deeded land to the Rector, Church Wardens, and Vestry of St. Mary’s Church in the Parish of Douglas. The land was described as containing one or more acres, on which the church already stood.
That tells me something about the man.
Michael Hawkins was not only a former refugee. He became a community elder. A landholder. A church supporter. A man whose mark was literally attached to the religious and social landscape of early Keswick.
Michael came to New Brunswick in 1783 and survived the brutal Loyalist settlement period.
The early New Brunswick Loyalists arrived with promises of land, supplies, and support, but many faced cold, hunger, poor shelter, and wilderness conditions. Michael outlived almost everyone around him. If born about 1750 and dying about 1845, he lived to about 95 years old.
He outlived John Yerxa.
He outlived many of the first Loyalist settlers around Keswick.
He outlived the Revolution itself by six decades.
That alone is remarkable.
Alan Hawkins’s work shows Michael as a man who steadily built a life after the war. He acquired land, bought and sold parcels, and became part of the emerging community in York County, New Brunswick. His land activity suggests a man who was not passive or marginal. He was rebuilding, investing, moving, buying, selling, and establishing his family in a new province.
One particularly meaningful act was his donation of land connected to St. Mary’s Anglican Church at Keswick. Alan Hawkins notes that in 1824, Michael Hawkins of Douglas deeded land to the Rector, Church Wardens, and Vestry of St. Mary’s Church in the Parish of Douglas. The land was described as containing one or more acres, on which the church already stood.
That tells me something about the man.
Michael Hawkins was not only a former refugee. He became a community elder. A landholder. A church supporter. A man whose mark was literally attached to the religious and social landscape of early Keswick.
## What would Michael have looked like?
I have not found a surviving physical description of Michael Hawkins.
But the role tells us something.
A man serving as a woodcutter/refugee/blockhouse defender in the Bergen-Hudson war zone had to be physically capable. This was hard labour and dangerous service. Woodcutting for the British was not gentle work. These men worked in exposed conditions, often under threat of attack, while moving through contested territory.
Michael may not have left us a portrait, but the record gives us a silhouette:
An adult Loyalist male, probably in his late 20s during the war.
Physically able enough for woodcutting and blockhouse defence.
Hardy enough to survive war, displacement, migration, wilderness settlement, and old age.
Resilient enough to live into his nineties.
That is a picture, even without a face.
I have not found a surviving physical description of Michael Hawkins.
But the role tells us something.
A man serving as a woodcutter/refugee/blockhouse defender in the Bergen-Hudson war zone had to be physically capable. This was hard labour and dangerous service. Woodcutting for the British was not gentle work. These men worked in exposed conditions, often under threat of attack, while moving through contested territory.
Michael may not have left us a portrait, but the record gives us a silhouette:
An adult Loyalist male, probably in his late 20s during the war.
Physically able enough for woodcutting and blockhouse defence.
Hardy enough to survive war, displacement, migration, wilderness settlement, and old age.
Resilient enough to live into his nineties.
That is a picture, even without a face.
## Y-DNA: I-Y20202
My direct paternal line descends from Michael Hawkins.
My current Big Y / paternal haplogroup line is:
I-Y20202
This is a rare branch in my results. I have not yet found the clean Hawkins Y-DNA match that solves Michael’s parentage. That is part of the frustration. The paper trail points to Michael. The Y-DNA gives me a rare line. But the matching pool has not yet delivered the obvious Hawkins cousin who breaks the wall.
That said, the Y-DNA matters because if another direct male-line descendant of Michael Hawkins, Joseph Hawkins of Weehawken, George Hawkins, Martin Hawkins, or another Bergen-Hudson Hawkins line ever tests, the comparison could be decisive.
If any Hawkins male from one of these suspected lines has done Big Y or is considering it, this could be the thing that finally separates coincidence from kinship.
My direct paternal line descends from Michael Hawkins.
My current Big Y / paternal haplogroup line is:
I-Y20202
This is a rare branch in my results. I have not yet found the clean Hawkins Y-DNA match that solves Michael’s parentage. That is part of the frustration. The paper trail points to Michael. The Y-DNA gives me a rare line. But the matching pool has not yet delivered the obvious Hawkins cousin who breaks the wall.
That said, the Y-DNA matters because if another direct male-line descendant of Michael Hawkins, Joseph Hawkins of Weehawken, George Hawkins, Martin Hawkins, or another Bergen-Hudson Hawkins line ever tests, the comparison could be decisive.
If any Hawkins male from one of these suspected lines has done Big Y or is considering it, this could be the thing that finally separates coincidence from kinship.
## My working theory
Here is the theory I am currently testing:
Michael Hawkins was not just a generic Loyalist from New Jersey.
He was probably part of a Bergen–Hudson Loyalist network involving:
- Hawkins families in or near Weehawken / Bergen County
- Joseph Hawkins of Bayard’s estate
- Major Ward’s refugees and woodcutters
- Bull’s Ferry / Blockhouse service
- Brower/Brewer families from Bergen/New York/Dutch networks
- British-held New York evacuation routes
- and postwar New Brunswick settlement networks including Yerxa/Jurckse of Cortlandt Manor
The strongest clue right now may be the overlap between:
Michael Hawkins
Joseph Hawkins of Weehawken
Jacob Brower
Eleanor Brower/Brewer
Major Ward’s Company
Bayard’s estate
Bull’s Ferry / Fort Lee / Bergen corridor
That is the cluster I want to put in front of other researchers.
Here is the theory I am currently testing:
Michael Hawkins was not just a generic Loyalist from New Jersey.
He was probably part of a Bergen–Hudson Loyalist network involving:
- Hawkins families in or near Weehawken / Bergen County
- Joseph Hawkins of Bayard’s estate
- Major Ward’s refugees and woodcutters
- Bull’s Ferry / Blockhouse service
- Brower/Brewer families from Bergen/New York/Dutch networks
- British-held New York evacuation routes
- and postwar New Brunswick settlement networks including Yerxa/Jurckse of Cortlandt Manor
The strongest clue right now may be the overlap between:
Michael Hawkins
Joseph Hawkins of Weehawken
Jacob Brower
Eleanor Brower/Brewer
Major Ward’s Company
Bayard’s estate
Bull’s Ferry / Fort Lee / Bergen corridor
That is the cluster I want to put in front of other researchers.
## Names I am looking for
I would love to hear from anyone researching:
- Michael Hawkins / John Michael Hawkins
- Eleanor / Elaney / Lanny Brower / Brewer
- Joseph Hawkins of Weehawken
- Joseph Hawkins Sr., tenant on William Bayard’s estate
- George Hawkins, possibly brother of Michael
- Martin Hawkins, possibly brother of Michael
- Jacob Brower of Ward’s woodcutters
- Major Thomas Ward’s Company of Refugees
- Bull’s Ferry blockhouse
- Bayard estate, Weehawken
- Hawkins families in Bergen County, NJ
- Hawkins families in New York connected to Loyalist evacuation
- Yerxa / Jurckse families from Cortlandt Manor to New Brunswick
- Hawkins Y-DNA connected to I-Y20202
I would love to hear from anyone researching:
- Michael Hawkins / John Michael Hawkins
- Eleanor / Elaney / Lanny Brower / Brewer
- Joseph Hawkins of Weehawken
- Joseph Hawkins Sr., tenant on William Bayard’s estate
- George Hawkins, possibly brother of Michael
- Martin Hawkins, possibly brother of Michael
- Jacob Brower of Ward’s woodcutters
- Major Thomas Ward’s Company of Refugees
- Bull’s Ferry blockhouse
- Bayard estate, Weehawken
- Hawkins families in Bergen County, NJ
- Hawkins families in New York connected to Loyalist evacuation
- Yerxa / Jurckse families from Cortlandt Manor to New Brunswick
- Hawkins Y-DNA connected to I-Y20202
## Why I am posting
I want Michael Hawkins to stop being just a name buried in Loyalist descendant charts.
He was a man who lived through the Revolution, served in a dangerous borderland role, survived exile, came to New Brunswick, built a family, bought land, gave land to the church, became tied to the Yerxa family, and lived into extreme old age.
He is the kind of ancestor who disappears because records are scattered across New Jersey, New York, Loyalist claims, New Brunswick land petitions, church records, family letters, and DNA databases.
I am trying to pull him back into one place.
If you have Hawkins, Brower/Brewer, Yerxa, Bergen County, Weehawken, Bull’s Ferry, Fort Lee, Ward’s Refugees, or Loyalist New Brunswick material, I would be grateful to compare notes.
This post is meant to be a marker for future researchers:
Michael Hawkins, Loyalist, probably belongs in the Bergen–Hudson corridor story.
Jaime Hawkins
I want Michael Hawkins to stop being just a name buried in Loyalist descendant charts.
He was a man who lived through the Revolution, served in a dangerous borderland role, survived exile, came to New Brunswick, built a family, bought land, gave land to the church, became tied to the Yerxa family, and lived into extreme old age.
He is the kind of ancestor who disappears because records are scattered across New Jersey, New York, Loyalist claims, New Brunswick land petitions, church records, family letters, and DNA databases.
I am trying to pull him back into one place.
If you have Hawkins, Brower/Brewer, Yerxa, Bergen County, Weehawken, Bull’s Ferry, Fort Lee, Ward’s Refugees, or Loyalist New Brunswick material, I would be grateful to compare notes.
This post is meant to be a marker for future researchers:
Michael Hawkins, Loyalist, probably belongs in the Bergen–Hudson corridor story.
Jaime Hawkins
From Wikipedia
This illustration as well as map earlier in the post from website:
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