Reproduced from CJ's Metal Detecting Pages. This website also has a lot of interesting information on the purpose and history of these seals.

Jeffrey Bruer migrated to Australia from England in 1878. His parents and sister followed a few years later.

The Bruers lived in London before they migrated. At the time of the 1860 census, the family lived at 31 Gospall Street in the Parish of St Leonard Shoreditch, a working class area associated with the joinery trade. Joseph Bruer, Jeffrey's father, was a joiner who had been born in Maldon, Essex. Elizabeth, Jeffrey's mother, was from Heybridge, also in Essex.

But by 2004 there were only two Bruers listed in the London telephone directory – and only a handful at best in the entire United Kingdom. There are many, many more Bruers in the United States.

So where did the Bruer family name come from? Until recent times it was common for people to change the spelling of their family names. Many family trees around the world contain Bruers who changed their name to, or from, Brewer, Brouwer or Breuer at some point. Could the current spelling be the result of such a change?

However, the name Bruer, with variant spellings, does have a long history in England. It is closely related, and quite possibly derived, from the French word bruyere, for heath.

The seal on this page, and reproduced down the right hand side, was the seal of Robert de la Bruere of the Temple Bruer Preceptory in Lincolnshire, England. Temple Bruer itself has long been thought to have an association with the Bruer surname (see separate section).

Records show that a William de la Bruer was born in Stoke, Devonshire, in 1145, a descendant of William the Conquerer. His children's names were spelled both as de la Bruer and de la Briwere. A romantic 12th-Century tale, perhaps fictional, of Ludlow Castle includes a young woman called Marion de la Bruer who arranged for her lover to flee the castle.

Elsewhere in England a locale in Devon was known as Teign-Bruer for many centuries after it was originally owned by one Ralph de Brueria. It is now known as Teigngrace. A prosperous Robert Bruer lived in Lancashire in 1642 The Bruer surname also appears in County Dublin, Ireland. But there are also many Bruers in Germany and other countries.

So the source of the family name still has some mystery: we know the first Bruers to set foot in Australia were English, but does the name itself date back to William the Conquerer, or is it just a spelling quirk?

Investigations will continue and we hope to shed some light on the topic through this website. If you know anything that might be useful, please email us.