Brewer was obviously a serious scholar

Couldn't agree more, Bill - as witness all these delightful and informative derivations that you have been passing on from the man (for which we are all very grateful).

However, he is only human. He may have made a mistake in this instance, or he may even be dropping in a little joke.

being a Brit,would have had no motive to award undeserved fame to any Bostonian
I don't think Brits are (or were) invariably anti-US by any means, and especially in pockets there has been (and is) a very close relationship indeed. Tom Paine, friend to Benjamin Franklin, and a man with local connections - and a local brew named after him! - springs to mind:
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRpaine.htm

No, I'm only basing my (cross-threadable) skepticism on an intuition that Mother Goose is far older than implied here, as are fairy tales about geese and golden eggs and so forth. Mrs Goose's name was a bit more like serendipity from this viewpoint.

I've no evidence whatsoever to support. But then, what's new?