Notes for: Michael Brewer
Many newspaper advertisements between 1824 and April 1862, including the following:
Cambridgeshire Chronicle and Journal, 29 Oct 1824. M. Brewer, Nurseryman, Seedsman and Florist, London Nursery, Trumpington Road, and Regent Street, Cambridge, has for sale etc. etc.
The Huntingdon, Bedford & Peterborough Gazette, 23 Apr 1831: Michael Brewer, Nurseryman, Seedsman and Florist, Trumpington Causeway, and Market Hill, Cambridge, . . .
The Huntingdon, Bedford and Peterborough Gazette, 1 Jan 1831, has: Monday last, at his uncle's residence, Trumpington Causeway, aged 28, after a lingering illness, Mr J. Brewer, late Gardener to Lord Lyndhurst. Josiah Brewer, age 28, was buried at Cambridge St Mary the Less in 1831. He was baptised in Grantchester in 1802, the son of Josiah and Elizabeth Brewer.
Cambridge Chronicle 15 Jan 1842:
Thomas Bradford (52), charged with stealing three trained fruit trees and four maiden fruit trees, the property of Michael Brewer of Trumpington. Verdict, guilty. Three months’ imprisonment.
Cambridge Chronicle 19 Aug 1843:
Amongst the sufferers in the immediate vicinity of the town the gardeners attract the most commiseration, and assuredly their case is a very hard one. The general effect, as we have it is by no means easy to conceive the desolate picture presented by their erstwhile smiling and bountiful premises after the storm had passed over them. The destruction of glass alone was enormous, but this was a minor matter when compared with the devastation committed amongst expensive fruits, and buds and plants, which were growing up into a source of future profit. Mr. Widnall’s loss would seem to be considerably greater than the amount at which we estimated it last week: it is still, however, impossible to form a correct judgment of value of the property positively lost, many of the frames which were destroyed contained very costly plants of various sorts. We understand that upwards of 2,000 hearts’-ease were destroyed , and in one of the frames which fell before the fury of this most terrific tempest were more than 60 plants of a valuable geranium. At Mr. Brewer’s, on the Trumpington-road, twenty-two thousand squares of glass, exclusive of hand-lights, were broken: a statement has been published to the effect that the number of squares broken at Mr. Brewer’s was about 10,000, but we have every reason to believe the fact to be as we have stated.
Cambridge Chronicle 19 Aug 1843:
THE LATE STORM
The well-known Benevolence of the University, Town and County of Cambridge, which has been so frequently manifested in cases of far a less distressing nature than one now presented for consideration, has moved several compassionate and influential persons to begin a SUBCRIPTION in behalf of Mr. Brewer, of the London Road Nursery, Trumpington, whose property was entirely Devastated by the awful storm of the 9th August, his Greenhouses, Frames, Lights &c. smashed to atoms his Stock of rare and valuable Shrubs, Plants and Flowers Destroyed; and himself, after a life of honest and successful industry, reduced to a state of comparative ruin.
In this Statement, no attempt is made to stimulate the public sympathy by a laboured circumstantial detail of Mr. Brewer’s losses. A bare recital is felt to be sufficient where the facts are so notorious; and a charitable spirit requires, only to call it into action, an object and a direction.
Subscriptions thankfully received at the different Banks in the town, and at the offices of the Cambridge Chronicle and Independent Press.
LIST OF SUBCRIBERS follows