The first map shows the distribution of the BRIER variation of the BRYER surname based upon where the people enumerated were living at the time. By far the largest concentration is in Yorkshire, with 351 BRIERs, and Lancashire a very long way behind with 28.

The actual counts per County were as follows:

BKM 14	CHS 8	DEV 6	DUR 6	GLA 1
HAM 21	HRT 2	LAN 28	LKS 1	NFK 1
NTH 1	NTT 1	SRY 15	SSX 4	STS 4
WES 14	WIG2	WOR 1	YKS 351

Compare this with where they said they were born when enumerated on the 1881 Census:

In addition, there are three people who gave their birthplace as Unknown, one American, and one Australian. The highest concentration is again Yorkshire, with 345 people born there, with Hampshire a long way behind with 25.

The actual counts for people born in each County were as follows:

BKM 13	CHS 9	CON 1	DBY 1	DEV 5	DUR 4	GLS 1
LIN 2	HAM 25	HUN 1	HRT 2	IRL 3	LAN 24
MDX 6	LND 1	NFK 1	NTH 4	OXF 1	SCT 6
SRY 3	SSX 1	STS 3	WES 11	WOR 2	YKS 345

Movement from birthplace to census place is inevitable, and the people of the 19th century were not as stick-in-the-mud as we would like to believe. Unlike the movement observed with people named BRYER, however, the BRIERs were remarkably stable. Of the 481 BRIERs enumerated in the 1881 Census, only 59 were found to have moved from their county of birth. Click here for a full list of Strays.

As seen above, the largest concentration of BRIERs in 1881 was in Yorkshire, and within the three Ridings of Yorkshire, they were best represented in the West Riding. Indeed, the towns of Halifax and Huddersfield account for 241, a staggering 68% of the total in Yorkshire. A closeup of the three Ridings reveals this pattern [the larger the dot the higher the number]: