The first map shows the distribution of the BRYER surname based upon where the people enumerated were living at the time.
Compare this with where they said they were born when enumerated on the 1881 Census:
In addition, there were twelve people who cannot be shown on the map: four did not give their place of birth, four were born in USA, two were born in Germany although British subjects, and two just gave their place of birth as Scotland. The three people who said they were born in Ireland (no county specified) I have shown as coming from County Down, just for convenience of mapping.
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. The movement of the BRYER people is an interesting case in point. Of the 397 BRYERs enumerated in the 1881 Census, nearly one-third (122) had strayed from their birthplace. Click
here for a full list of Strays.
Of the BRYERs born in
Buckinghamshire one moved to Lewisham in Kent; three others moved to Lancashire; and two moved to Oxfordshire. Whilst the moves to Kent and Oxfordshire are easy to explain, all three counties are relatively close together, it is harder to explain the migration northwards. Two of the people who made this move were George BRYER (aged 53) and his wife Eliza (aged 52). Their son John F. Bryer (aged 21 and born in Middlesex) was living with them at 114 Duke Street, Stretford, Barton-upon-Irwell in 1881. George had been born in Brombrough and Eliza in Burton, both given in the 1881 index as Buckinghamshire, but I confess I have been unable to locate either village in that county. George was a
Carpenter & Joiner, a trade which he could have pursued closer to his place of origin, so why did they move to Lancashire? Another John, who just gave his place of birth as Buckinghamshire, had moved to Chorlton; he was 33 years old and also a
Joiner. With him was his wife Mary, aged 28, who had also moved some distance from her birthplace in
Carnarvon. It is possible, that John in Chorlton is related to George in Barton, although not his son, as George had his son John living with him. This family certainly bears closer scrutiny.
One BRYER born in Reading
Berkshire made her way to London, not a particularly surprising migration as far as distance is concerned. Esther Bryer was a widow of 46, a
Charwoman living with Isaac and Hannah Potter in Paddington.
Of the BRYERs born in
Cheshire, only one seems to have moved out of county, and that was only as far as Manchester. William BRYER, born in Buckleys Hill in about 1836, was a
Cotton Printer, and seems to have made the move some years before, as all his children give Manchester as their place of birth, although his wife Bridget was born in Ireland.
Elizabeth BRYER was born in Mylor,
Cornwall, in about 1851. Thirty years later she was found living in Luton Bedfordshire. She was the wife of the musician George Bryer, who had been born in Dorchester
Dorset in about 1852. With them lived her widowed sister, also born in Mylor, and her two small children, both born in Luton.
Charles BRYER, born in Markeaton
Derbyshire in about 1837, was living in Altrincham Cheshire in 1881. He is described in the census as
Salesman For Manch. Merchant (Warehouseman). His children were all born in Sale Cheshire, and so he probably migrated to Cheshire in his youth, although his wife Louisa was born in Bow, east
London. He presumably belongs to the large family of Markeaton BRYERs, most of whom did not stray far from home, except for John, born c. 1863, who was found living in Ipswich Suffolk in 1881. He was an Engineer's Apprentice aged 18, and was in lodgings. A third Derbyshire BRYER, Richard (no exact birthplace given, born c. 1843), was living in Driffield Yorkshire in 1881. He is described as
Independent Min. Without Pastorals Schoolmaster Under Graduate London University. It is not unusual for a minister to have moved around the country, and so a migration from Derbyshire to Yorkshire in the space of 38 years is not surprising. Both his children were born in Driffield, although his wife Jane gave her birthplace as Amtle (?)
Northumberland.
The BRYERs of
Devon seemed to be keen to migrate. Of the seven who gave their place of birth as Devon, only two were still living in the county in 1881. Of the people who migrated, perhaps the most curious was Bernard Baldwin BRYER (aged 8) who had been born in Tiverton but in 1881 was found living at the Infant Orphan Asylum in Wanstead West Ham Essex in 1881. Harriet (aged 39) just gave her birthplace as Devon. In 1881 she was living in Poplar, the wife of greengrocer John (born circa 1838 in Somerset). Three others, Mary A. from Brushford, Hannah from Clayhidon, and Mary E. from Plymouth, all moved to Somerset (Taunton, Bridgwater and Bedminster respectively).
Another resident of West Ham Essex in 1881 was Joseph BRYER, who had been born in Abbotsbury
Dorset in about 1847. Joseph had fallen foul of the law and was a prisoner in the Barking Road police station on census night. His occupation was given as
General Labourer. The Abbotsbury BRYERs were a large clan, most of whom were still in Dorset in 1881, although George (born c.1862) and Harry (born c.1851) had migrated to Itchen Stoke, Alresford in Hampshire, where they were living with Harry's wife Harriet (also born in Dorset, in Toller Porcorum, about 1850) and three children all born in Itchen Stoke. The last Dorset Stray, also living in Hampshire, at Popham Barracks near Basingstoke, was Charles BRYER. He gives only Dorset at his place of birth (in 1860) but he is almost certainly of the same Abbotsbury family. He was a gamekeeper.
Caroline BRYER, born circa 1842 in Hornsey
Essex, was an unmarried
Lodging House Keeper in 1881, living in Holdenhurst near Christchurch Hampshire. She is the only Essex-born BRYER in the 1881 census.
Frederick BRYER, born Cheltenham
Gloucestershire circa 1844, was a gunmaker, and lived in Holloway Road Islington with his wife Harriett (born in Aylsham Norfolk in about 1843) and children (all born in and around London). There is much more to be found in the main body of research on this family. Other Gloucestershire BRYERs did not stray far, Albert J. (born c.1880) and John (born c.1856), both born in Bristol, moved to Bedminster in Somerset. John was a
Coal Haulier, and Albert was his son. His wife was Mary E., born in Plymouth Devon and mentioned earlier.
The
Hampshire BRYERs by and large stayed put, only three of them venturing out of county, one to Dartford in Kent, one to Richmond in Surrey and the third to Alderbury in Wiltshire. William, born 1821 somewhere in Hampshire strayed the furthest, to Erith near Dartford. He was a
General Labourer and was married to Eliza P. who had been born in Erith in about 1831. All their children appear to have been born in Erith also. George, born in Alton Hampshire in about 1837, was a
Greengrocer living at 4 Compton Terrace, Mortlake Road Richmond in 1881 with wife and daughter both of whom had been born in Richmond. Ellen BRYER had been born in Southampton in about 1845, but in 1881 was to be found in Salisbury St Edmund in Alderbury, an unmarried lodger and
Supported by Relatives.
William BRYER, born in Fletton
Huntingdon in about 1868, was living in Peterborough with his mother Sarah Ann (born in Peterborough circa 1843), and his grandfather Thomas Johnson a
Retired Builder No mention is made of his father, but Sarah Ann is described as married and not widowed, so perhaps his father was away on census night.
Two of the three
Irish BRYERs were living in South Shields Durham in 1881. They were Owen (born c. 1821) and Margaret (born c.1826); Owen was a Labourer at a Chemical Works and his children were born variously in Newcastle, Blyth, Bellingham and Hebburn. The third Irish stray has been mentioned above. She was Bridget BRYER born around 1836, and living in Prestwich Lancashire with husband William, who was born in Cheshire.
Lancashire-born Robert BRYER, born circa 1838 in Ulverstone, was living in Lambeth Surrey with his wife, Jane (born Scotland circa 1841). Robert was a
Commercial Traveller, and suffered a tragic end; his son William died of Phthisis in September 1888 and in May 1889 Robert himself died of alcoholic poisoning - presumably he had drunk himself to death. I shall be examining this family in more detail in the main body of my research. Two other Lancashire-born BRYERs migrated; Betsey (also born in Ulverstone in about 1831) was visiting her sick sister in Meriden Warwickshire in 1881; Louisa Jane BRYER (born Barton in about 1868) was living in Halifax West Yorkshire as a
Scholar Orphan at Crossley Orphan Home & School Savile Park.
The only
Glasgow-born BRYER enumerated in 1881, Alexander, had been born in about 1855, but migrated and was a boarder in Largs, Ayr. He was a
Tailor Clothier.
Sixteen people born in
Middlesex had moved by 1881. Jane Swain BRYER moved to Dorchester Dorset and was the wife of Thomas Grey BRYER an Auctioneers Bailiff; she had been born around 1823 but her birthplace was not given exactly. Samuel A. BRYER was born in Uxbridge circa 1859, a
Carpenter and lodger, in 1881, in West Ham Essex. William BRYER was a patient at the Metropolitan District Asylum, Leavesden, Watford in 1881. He had been born in Whitechapel in about 1815. The rest of the Middlesex-born BRYERs were living in Kent in 1881, a short trip across the River Thames.
Two
Suffolk-born BRYERs had strayed in 1881; Adelaide, born in Debenham circa 1836 was found widowed living in Ramsgate Kent as a
Housekeeper; John, born Hadleigh circa 1807, was living in Stoke Newington, and was a
Watchmaker - I shall be examining his family in more detail later.
The BRYERs of
Somerset mostly stayed at home, but there were a few exceptions. Willie W BRYER, born c. 1874 in Wells was living in Stapleton Barton Regis Gloucestershire in 1881 with father Clement and mother Candace. This family will be examined in more detail later. James, born in Taunton circa 1858, was an unmarried
Weaver living with his grandparents William and Jane Keatley in Leicester. Mary born in Bath in about 1805, and Thomas born in Wellington circa 1805, had moved to Lewisham Kent and had been in the London area since before 1849 (their daughter Kate was born in Hornsey Middlesex in 1849). Thomas was a
Retired Draper. Emma (1832), Sophia (1841) and John (1838) had all moved from Somerset to London. Emma was an unmarried
Cook living in Paddington, Sophia was an unmarried
servant living in Islington, and John was a
Greengrocer Carman (already mentioned under Devon as his wife Harriett came from there).
