Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

1275, and Nicholas de Bere held the
manor of Bere's Court in the twentieth
year of Henry III. Of this same family
was Roger Bere, who died in the reign of
Queen Mary, and whose son John, in
1542, purchased the Horsman place in
Dartford, said to have been a mansion of
some note. In his will, 1572, this John
Bere founded four almshouses in Dart-
ford and devised his mansion to his son
Henry. His grandson Edward died unmarried
in 1627, bequeathing Horsman
place to John Twistleton, of Drax.
Martin de Bere, the first of the family
to whom an unbroken line is traced from
the American pioneer, lived at Rochester,
County Kent, in i486; married a daughter
of Thomas Nyssell, of Wrotham, and
had a son John.
John Beers, son of Martin de Bere,
married Faith, daughter of John Royden,
Esq., and had James, mentioned below,
and Mary.
James Beers, son of John Beers, married
Dorothy, daughter of John Kingswood,
of Rochester. Sons : John and
James.
John Beers, son of James Beers, of
Gravesend, married Mary, daughter of
Robert Selby, of Yorkshire. Children
Richard, born 1607, came
John ; Samuel ;
to America in 1635 and settled in Watertown,
Massachusetts, captain of a company
in the Pequot War, killed by Indians
in 1675 5 James, mentioned below
Mary.
James Beers, son of John Beers, of
Gravesend, was a mariner, married Hes-
ter, who died in 1635. He died before
1635. Children: I. Anthony, born at
Gravesend, came to America in 1635 with
his Uncle Richard, lived at Watertown,
Roxbury, and in 1658 removed to Fair-
field, Connecticut ; lost at sea in 1676. 2.
James, also came to Fairfield, 1657; was
in Greenfield in 1661 ; died 1694; ancestor
of many of the Beers of Connecticut.
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
279
Eliphalet Beers, a descendant in a later
generation of James Beers, mentioned
above, belonged to the Chatham, Con-
necticut, branch. He was a farmer dur-
ing his active life in Chatham. His last
years were spent in the family of his
daughter. He married Arminda Brown.
Children: Janette, J. Leander, William
Edward.
William Edward Beers, son of Elipha-
let Beers, was born in Chatham, in 1840,
and died in New Britain in 1886. He
attended the schools of his native town
was a brass founder; a member of sev-
eral fraternal bodies. He married (first)
Hannah Jane Hart, daughter of William
Hart, of New Britain (see Hart). She
died in June, 1874. He married (sec-
ond) Jane Gladwin, of Guilford, who died
in 1914, the mother of one child, H. Edna.
William Edward Beers, son of William
Edward and Hannah Jane (Hart) Beers,
was born in New Britain, April 5, 1872.
He attended the schools of his native
town, was secretary of the City Coal &
Wood Company twelve of the seventeen
years of his association with that corporation.
After six years with the Amer-
ican Hardware Corporation, he organized
the Morgan & Beers Piano Company,
Inc., of Hartford, of which he is secretary
and treasurer. He is a thirty-second de-
gree Mason, a member of the A. U. A. M.,
a past exalted ruler and chairman of the
board of trustees of New Britain lodge of
Elks, is a major of the Putnam Phalanx,
and a member of many clubs.
Mr. Beers married Nellie L. Corbin,
daughter of Hon. Philip Corbin, of New
Britain (see Corbin). They have one
daughter, Francina Corbin, born March
12, 1897, married Raymond Adams Burr,
of Hartford.
(The Hart Line).
Deacon Stephen Hart, the immigrant
ancestor, was born about 1605 at Brain-