Jan. 29. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



115 



to have been a purchaser of De Bniera. See, upon 

 this sul>ject, D.iigdale's Buronage, vol. i. p. 700., and 

 Lysons' Devonshire, vol. i. p. 106. The names of Brie- 

 fjuerre and De Bruera existed contemporaneously in 

 Normandy. See Rot. Scacc. Norm. Jndiees." 



Whether these two William Brewers represented 

 distinct families or not, it uppears that they be- 

 came closely allied by marriaire. At fol.81. of an 

 " Abstract of the Tor Cartulary, at Trinity C(A- 

 lege, Dublin," given by Oliver, p. 187., the follow- 

 ing grants occur ; viz. : 



" Grant from William Briewere to William de la 

 Brueria, of four librates of land in Wodeberi, with 

 Engelesia his sister, in liberum maritaginm, &c. 



" Grant from said William de la Bruera, with the 

 assent of Engelesia his wife, of all their land in 

 Grendle to William Briewere, brother of the said 

 Engelesia, &e. 



" Confirmation thereof by said Engelesia." 



Both families appear to have given the name of 

 Brevier to their places of residence. 



"The tything of Teign Grace" says Risdon, "an- 

 ciently Teigii Brewer, was in the time of King Henry 

 the Second the land of Anthony de la Brewer, whom 

 divers knights of that race succeeded. Sir William de 

 la Brewer, the last of the male line, left this inherit- 

 ance among co-heirs, Eva, wife of Thomas le Grace, 



and Isabel, &c Concerning which lands these 



lines I found in the leger-book of the Abbey of Torr : 

 ' Galfridus de Brewcria dominus de Teigne pro sahit. 

 animcB Will, de Breweria §• Argalesia uxor ejus cone, 

 abbat. de Torr liberum iraiisitum in Teigne.^'" — P. 135. 



JBuchland Sreive); on the other hand, derived 

 its name (according to the same authority) from 

 the family of which William Lord Brewer was 

 the representative. 



The Brewers appear to have founded other reli- 

 gious houses, and to have held possessions in other 

 parts of England. It was from Welbeck Abbey, 

 in Xottinghamshire, that William Lord Briwere 

 obtained subjects for his abbey at Tor ; and 

 Bruern, or Temple Bruer, in Lincolnshire, be- 

 longing to the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, 

 ■Clerkenwell (see Dugdale's Moiiasf., new edition, 

 vol. vi. par. ii. p. 801.), would seem to owe its 

 name to some connexion with the Brewer family, 

 as did also, perhaps, Bruera in Chester, &c. 



Mention is made of a William de la Bruera 

 in the History of Northamptonshire (edit. Oxon., 

 1791, toni. i. p. 233.), in connexion with the town- 

 ship of Grafton, to which manor Joaue, his wife, 

 and her sister Bruna, appear to have been co- 

 heirs, as daughters of Ralph de S. Samson, temp. 

 Henry IIL 



William Brewer, Bishop of Exeter {hrother of 

 the William Lord Briewere already mentioned), 

 was " put in trust " by King Henry III. " to con- 

 duct his sister, the Lady Isabella, into Germany, 

 to her intended marriage with the Emperor Fre- 



deric." See Jenkins's History of Exeter, 1806, 

 p. 252. 



" This Bishop Brewer also went into the Holy Land 

 (trunsfretavit, cruce signal.) the eleventl. of Henry .the 

 Third." — Risdon, edit. Lond., 1811, p. l.S". 



There was another William Brewer, a son of 

 William Lord Brewer ; but be died withautnaale 

 issue. 



I fear these few notices bear no very precise 

 relation to IJESUiiA's inquiries. Still I send them, 

 in the hope of discovering, by the kindness of 

 some of your erudite contributors, what is tlie 

 difference (if any) between the names La Hniyere, 

 De la JBruere, and Briewere; and also whether, 

 originally^ these names belonged to two or three 

 distinct families, or only to so many different 

 branches of the same family. J. Sansom. 



P. S. — The name Bruere is probably not yet 

 extinct, either in France or in England. In the 

 Bodleian Library there is a letter, addressed by 

 John Bruere to the clergy of the diocese of Ox- 

 ford, written within the last century, and bearing 

 date "May 19, 1793," " Odington, near Islip," of 

 which place the author was probably the rector. 

 And in the Biitish IVIuseura Catalogue, under the 

 name of {M. de la) Bruere, is mentioned Histoire dii 

 Regne de Charlemagne, 2 torn. 12°^ Paris, 1745. 



60UTHEY S CRITICISM UPON ST. MATHIAS DAT IN 

 LEAP-YEAR. 



(Vol.vii., p. 58.) 



Mr. Yarrum's expose of Southey's singular 

 blunder is perfectly just ; but it does not include 

 tlie whole truth, a consideration of which renders 

 the lapsus even more notable and unaccountable 

 than if it arose oidy from a want of acquaintance 

 with the distribution of Roman Catholic Feriae. 



The allegati(m of error against the historians, 

 because they had " fixed the appointed dny on the 

 eve of Mathias," would seem to imply that they 

 might .have fixed upon some other i'east-day with 

 more correctness ; whereas there is no other in 

 the calendar which could by any possibility be 

 affected by leap-year : but the most extraordinary 

 part of the mistake is, the ignorance it display.^ 

 (scarcely credible in Soulhey) of the origin and 

 etymology of the bissextile institution — the very 

 subject he was criticising. 



Because the name " bissextile," as every body 

 knows, arose from the repetition in leap-year of 

 the identical day in question : the sixth of the 

 kalends of March ; the 24th of February ; the 

 feast of the Regifugium amongst the Romans ; 

 and of its substitute, that of St. Mathias, amongst 

 the Christians. 



It is clear, that since the Regifugium was held 

 upon the sixth day before the 1st of Mai'ch (both 

 inclusive), that day must, according to our reckon- 



