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(Page 649)
The subject of this biographical sketch is the grandson of John Brunyate, and the son of Peter and Christiana Brunyate, and was born May 29, 1834, at West Haddlesey, Yorkshire, England. His father, whose occupations were those of a farmer, married the daughter of William Bervers, a hotel keeper and farmer at Killington, Yorkshire, England.
Their family consisted of seven sons and two daughters, Ann Mary, who married Thomas Holmes, of Haddlesey, England and died in 1862, and Elizabeth B. Their son John is a cattle raiser at Port Natal, Africa; Peter is a minister of the Methodist Church and a merchant in Derbyshire, England; Wesley is a clergyman of distinction in the Methodist Church, residing in Halifax, England; Fletcher, is an iron merchant in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia; Samuel is a merchant at Skipton, England; and Edwin R. is a clergyman of the Methodist Church, residing at Seaville, N. J., who first removed to Halifax, Nova Scotia, joining that Conference in 1872 or 1873, and married Miss Eliza, daughter of Rev. James England, of the same Conference. He emigrated to the United States in 1881, with his family, and became a member of the New Jersey Conference.
William, whose life is here briefly sketched, was born at West Haddlesey, Yorkshire, England, May 29, 1834, and attended school in his native village until the age of ten years, when he became a pupil of the Methodist training school at Wakefield, England, and remained four and a half years, when, at the age of fifteen he was apprenticed to Thomas Routledge, a merchant, of Pontefract, England. At the expiration of his fifth year he became assistant at the grocery establishment of John Lee Smith & Co., of Hull, in the same county. In 1855 he entered the wholesale house of Adam Oldroyd, of Huddersfield, as an assistant, and remained two years, after which a year was spent at home. In 1859 he repaired again to Pontefract as manager of the branch house of John Wilton. Early during the year 1861, Mr. Brunyate determined to emigrate to America, and having spent a brief time in Philadelphia, engaged as an employee of the government at Washington, D. C., when he was assigned to the commissary department, and ordered to Acquia Creek, Va. He was for three years thus occupied in the various departments, after which he became identified with the water as a sailor or in the oyster business. He did not, however, meet with success in his commercial ventures, and in 1872 entered the employ of John A. English, the most extensive oyster dealer in Philadelphia, as a laborer. This gentleman, who was not slow to discover his thorough business training, nor to appreciate his energy and integrity, gave him charge of the shipping department, and subsequently advanced him to the position of buyer, which he at present fills. He gradually regained his financial status, became a successful businessman, and is now interested in a number of vessels, and extensively engaged in the oyster business, while still holding his position with Mr. English. In politics he is a Republican, though not an active partisan. He is an attendant upon the services of the Methodist Episcopal Church, as are also his family. He is a member of the Masonic Order, of the Independent Order of Odd-Fellows, Knights of Birmingham, and Improved Order of Red Man.
Mr. Brunyate was married to Miss Rebecca Fithian, born March 5, 1840, daughter of Rev. Samuel Lawrence, late of Lewiston, Pa., a Presbyterian clergyman, born in Philadelphia, December 28, 1795, and married, January 3, 1825, to Sarah Dare Fithian, born May 10, 1807, and daughter of Samuel Fithian. Mr. and Mrs. Brunyate have one daughter, Ella Dowdney, who is now in her sixth year.
