General Notes

Adopted child of brother and sister, Sarah and John Brewster according to Moira.

Given as granddaughter of Robert Brewster in 1901 census - this seemed strange as I thought that Robert had only one married child and that was my great grandmother, Anne Brewster Gray and all her children are accounted for and Mary is NOT one of them.  It turned out, I did not know that there was a married son in Scotland called Thomas. 

By the 1911 census, Robert Brewster is dead, his son John is the Head of Household, and he gives Mary as his niece.  

1911 Census:
Residents of a house 12 in Dromore (Drumcroon, Londonderry)
Show all informationSurname Forename Age Sex Relation to head Religion Birthplace Occupation Literacy Irish Language Marital Status Specified Illnesses Years Married Children Born Children Living
Brewster John 67 Male Head of Family O Seceeder Co Derry Stone Mason Read - Single - - - -
Brewster Sarah 64 Female Sister O Seceeder Co Derry Seamstress Read and write - Single - - - -
Brewster Mary 35 Female Niece O Seceeder Scotland Seamstress Read and write - Single - - - -

Info taken from The Presbytery of Coleraine by Julia Mullin:
Ballylintagh Presbyterian Church was built in 1812 when some of the Crossgar Presbyterian congregation quarrelled with their minister and left to form a new church.  In 1841, the Ballylintagh congregation decided to adhere to the United Original Secession Church and in 1843 appointed the Reverend William Mathews,  In 1852, the Reverend Mathews and a minority of the congregation joined the Free Church of Scotland against the wishes of the majority but the landowners, the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers, gave the key to the church to the Reverend Mathews.  In 1857, the majority built a new Seceder church at Dromore.  In 1863, Ballylintagh was received into the General Assembly.  Its congregation dwindled and the church became neglected, was sold to the Aghadowey Creamery in 1905, and demolished in 1912 (not sure of this date).  All this explains why the main grave of my Brewsters, who were members of the "Original Secession", according to their entry in the 1901 census, are buried in Ballylintagh and yet Mary Brewster was the caretaker of Dromore.

David,
Ballytaggart is the next townland to Dromore Co. Londonderry.  I recall a conversation between Mary Brewster of Dromore and our father in which she stated that grandfather’s brother also named John and who never married remained at Ballytaggert after grandfather James moved to Landhead, Ballymoney.
Regards,
Trevor

Trevor Brewster, 080412, "Yes I recognise her [Mary Brewster]. Dad, James and I use to cycle to her cottage a couple of times each year and when I was a student I used to visit her in Marlborough Park Old Peoples’ Home, where she died."

BG: This is fascinating news.  It seems we are definitely related then.  They would hardly have bothered visiting her just because she had the same name, though it IS possible that they were simply friends.
This begs the question, whats the relationship and there are two main possibilities.
The man I am calling John [Drumcroon] Brewster on my tree, father of Robert Brewster 1811-1904) and Mary Brewster, born 1797, might be a brother of your Robert Brewster, buried in Camus.  However, this John is a pure guess on my behalf.  I have no idea what the father of my Robert was called and it is entirely possible that he was your Robert, the one buried in Camus.
This second possibility would make my Robert and Mary siblings of your Charles and James and this in turn would make my John, Sarah and Ann cousins of your John and James.  Another generation down and your father would be a second cousin of Mary Brewster, the woman he took Trevor to visit.  If you went for the first possibility = that my "John" and your Robert were brothers, that would stretch the relationship between your father and Mary Brewster out to third cousins which seems to be pushing it a bit far to me.
These are my only thoughts at the moment.  I am unsure how I would start to prove any of this.
However, if my "John" and your Robert were the same person, that would mean that my Robert and your James managed to acquire separate farms, one in Dromore and one in Ballintaggart.  But then again, Ballintaggart and Dromore are contiguous so that would not be uncommon, that a man had a farm crossing townland borders and divided it between two sons.
We need more evidence.

BG: My theory works for Mary Boyd.
If my Robert is the son of Robert in Camus gvyd and his wife is Sarah who went to Philly, that means my Sarah, daughter of Robert was named for Robert's mother and my great grandmother, Anne was named for............. Nancy Gage, the ancestor of Ringland Boyd!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alan Brewster: As a boy, I cycled with Dad and maybe James to Mary Brewster's, near Lislagan. She lived alone in a small cottage with an earthen floor. I think she gave Dad some eggs in a paper bag which he had trouble with on the way home; I believe some got cracked. I have a notion she attended the seceder church; similar to RP.
Years later on vacation, perhaps 1990, I tried to track down the cottage. I ended up in a farm house in Lislagan area with some Covenanters who knew about her. Hence, the orphan from Scotland story. I was told the cottage had been levelled recently and her belongings and book collection burned (after the valuable ones had been salvaged). I was able to track down her grave; across the road from Aghadowey Creamery in a small unmarked cemetry beside a row of houses. Very unkempt site. The grave stone has simply her name (and perhaps dates) on it. I may have a photo somewhere. I might even have a record of this visit in a journal somewhere. A later journal that I just read recounts that I revisited Mary's grave on December 28th, 1993.

Trevor Brewster: I suggest you contact brother Alan who told me that Mary Brewster was an orphan who came from Scotland to N. Ireland.

Trevor Brewster: Alan took me to Mary’s grave about 1994. She died in Belfast in an Old Peoples’ Home in Marlborough Park about 1958 (I am guessing the year, but it was when I was a student.) Alan is right about her house with an earth floor in Dromore. I recall her cutting the throat of a chicken for the pot and sitting talking as it bled into the ashes of the open fire.The house was only a few hundred yards from the Original Secession Church. They had an afternoon service usually conducted by a Reformed Presbyterian minister, or the Rev. Beggs The Secession Minister of Toberdoney. On one visit to Mary at the Old Peoples’ Home the Rev. Beggs was also present. The Original Secession Church had rejoined with the Presbyterian church and she informed him that she did not approve and would die a Secessionist.

David
I have been following the exchange of emails closely and am delighted at your progress in connecting up with Boyd/barbara and lots of authenticated relations.
I was at Mary Brewster's cottage with my father on at least two occasions. Alan did a good job in researching the whereabouts of her grave and learned the oral history of her arrival at Portrush Harbour from Scotland. The character who gave him the history asked him if he was one of the boys who rode past one day with their father and on hitting a pothole someone called 'be careful of those eggs'!
Mary lived in a two room cottage. The door, a half door, was kept open to allow the hens to come into the kitchen and feed from a barrel of meal she kept just inside the door. The kitchen had an earth floor and the dining room/good room had a timber floor. The good room was furnished with one table and chairs, I don't remember the number, but no other decoration that I can recollect; no pictures or photographs. The kitchen had a table with a cutlery drawer and stools, probably three legged to allow for the uneven floor. In the corner opposite the door was a splendid four poster bed, complete with curtains.
Trevor mentioned Mary killing a chicken for us to take home. She caught it and cuddled it while talking to my father. She took an ordinary knife from the table drawer and laid the brush shaft across the bird's neck, supporting it with her feet, I presume. She sawed at the neck with the knife slowly and 'gently' and all the while kept up her conversation. The bird's initial sounds slowly died and the blood was absorbed into the floor. Quite a dignified death for a bird!
Mary had a large plum tree at the side of the house and it produced magnificent Victoria plums. I ate as many as I could!
On the other side of the cottage was her privy, a dry closet/ hole in the ground in an arbour bedecked with roses, quite a sight on a good day!
beside the privy was a gate into her vegetable and flower garden. This was at least half and acre and was very well tended. She probably had no income and subsisted on her birds and garden. I don't know if she ever sold flowers but she had lots!
We went to the Dromore Seceder Church one evening. Psalm singing with, if I remember aright a tape recorder precentor. Rev A R Wright was the preacher. Mary was the sexton. Maybe the flowers were for the church.
A few years ago I drove to the site of the cottage but everything is gone, ploughed into a field. The farmer must have had an agreement with Mary to dispose of everything after her death. It is surprising that she ended up living in Belfast in the Marlborough Park Nursing Home but perhaps she had a contact/solicitor/friendly farmer who arranged the final placement. I checked with googlemaps and the church is still there but now labelled Presbyterian. Search using 85 Coolyvenny Road, Coleraine, BT51 1SF. The church has a car p\rk beside it and is approx 300 yards from the googlemap arrow.
Happy hunting
James

Alan reported the conversation at the harbour at Portrush when a young Mary was collected by the Brewsters having arrived from Scotland. One said to the other 'she's very thin and may not last the winter'. The story/history teller then went on to add his own comment that ' she outlived them both'.

01/05/2012:
I have now made my great great grandfather, Robert Brewster, the brother of David Brewster's great grandfather, James Brewster of Ballintaggart.  This makes him the brother of the James Brewster's brother, Charles Brewster, who emigrated to Philadelphia and then erected a gravestone to his father "Robert Brewster of Camus" in Camus Old graveyard.  This meant I had a new great great great grandfather, Robert Brewster.
The original evidence for this was that David's father took him and his brothers to visit my Mary Brewster of Dromore.  She told them that their grandfather, James Brewster (son of James brewster) of Ballintaggart had a brother called John and we concluded that this John was probably a full cousin of my great grandmother, Annie Brewster, and her brother, also a John Brewster.  Ballintaggart and Domore are contiguous.
This was all speculation until David Brewster located a family tree he had drawn in 1973 based on information given to him by his father in that year.  This tree was amazingly accurate in confirming details we already knew to be correct such as my great great grandmother being called Boyd and that she had four children (though they were not named and there was no mention of a twin who died in infancy).  And it also showed that my John Brewster of Dromore was indeed a first cousin of David's John Brewster of Ballintaggart.
Even more surprisingly, it showed that Mary Brewster was not the illegitimate daughter of either Annie Brewster or Sarah Brewster but the daughter of a Thomas Brewster who was a brother of these two women.  And it showed that he was married twice, with Mary seeming to be the second daughter from the first marriage.

I have now found the birth of Mary where her father was a "Puddler" living at 6 Martin's Land, Marystown, married to Mary McMaster on 13th July 1866 in Glasgow.

Mary had an older sister called Margaret but she died an infant.

Mary's mother died when she was 2 so this is probably why she returned to Ireland.