Ml 



BROWN, ROBERT. 



BROWN, SIR SAMUEL, R.N. 



soap* gardener ; but certain it U, that their present appearance would 

 *eea to indicate considerable foreaight in their designer u to eventual 

 eflbo*. A* an architect, io which probation ha naturally ooofinad 

 himself to country mansions, ha excelled io what related to intarual 

 arrauguint aod aooommodatioD, for tha houae* erected by him hare 

 been allowed to b* modal* of comfort and convenience. The arti-tio 

 powor displayed was, a* may be (uppoeed, by no mean* of an elevated 

 order. Among the roaniioni executed or altered by him, U the Karl 

 of Coventry'* at Croome, with the lodge*, church, and other building*, 

 the recorded date of which (1751) ahows that he wa* then in practice 

 a* an architect At Fisherwiek he erected the house, office*, and 

 bridge for the Earl of Donegal ; be also made addition* at Burleigh 

 for the Earl of Exeter; addition* at Prior Park, near Bath, 1765; 

 built the picture-gallery at Conham ; made considerable alterations at 

 Treutham (now succeeded by more extensive one* by Barry) ; built a 

 manaion for the Earl of Newbury at Itedgrave, 1765 ; and made alter- 

 ation* at Nuneham and at the houae of Claremont This list might 

 be considerably extended, but it will be sufficient to add that he 

 designed several of the building* in the garden* at Stowe. 



(K-pton, On Gardening, by Loudon.) 



BROWN, ROBKRT, a distinguished botanist, was born in 1773 

 at Montrose, in which town ho received his early education. In 1787 

 he entered Mariechal College, Aberdeen, where he remained throe years. 

 From 1 790 to 1701 ho itndied medicine at the University of Edinburgh. 

 In 1795 he waa appointed assistant-surgeon and subaltern in a Scotch 

 Fmcible regiment, which he accompanied to Ireland, and stayed there 

 until the eud of 1800. 



Mr. Brown wa* uext engaged a* naturalist to Capt Flindera' sur- 

 veying expedition, aud sailed with that officer for Australia in July 

 1801. During this voyage the Australian continent was circumnavi- 

 gated, and many part* of the coast were visited, until the vessel was 

 finally condemned as unseaworthy at Port Jacluon in June 1803. 

 [FuMDERs] Mr. Brown remained, adding to his collection)) by 

 excursions to different part* of the colony of New South Wales and 

 to Van Diemen's Land. In October 1805 he arrived in England 

 with his collections, among which the plant* numbered nearly 3900 

 peciea. 



A few months later he became librarian of the Linmean Society. In 

 1809 he contributed an important paper to the ' Transactions ' of the 

 Wernerian Society' On the Asclepiadic.' In 1810 his |p-r ' On the 

 Natural Order of Plai.ts called Proteaceio' appeared in the 'Transac- 

 tions of the Linnteau Society;' and in the same year he published 

 the first volume of his ' Prodromus Flora; Novro Hollandia; et lusuho 

 Van Diemen,' in which, besides his own collections, he describes those 

 formed by Sir Joseph Batiks during Cook's first voyage. 



Mr. Brown was th first English botanist to write a systematic work 

 of any extent according to the natural method of Jussieu. No one 

 ha* done more than he to make that method known iu England, and, 

 aa has been truly observed, " no one has done so much in any country 

 to throw light on its intricacies." In 1811 he was elected a Fellow of 

 the Royal Society. 



In 1814, on the publication of Flinders' narrative of his voyage, an 

 appendix by Mr. Brown was printed in the second volume, entitled 

 ' General Remarks, Geographical and Systematical, on the Botany of 

 Terra Australia,' in which the subject is treated in n masterly style, and 

 the plants are compared with those of other countries. 



In 1822 Mr. Brown was elected a Fellow of the Linuuoan Society, 

 having resigned hi* official appointment. The ' Transactions ' of that 

 society have been enriched from time to time with papers from his 

 pen, remarkable for deep philosophical insight and for the clearness 

 and method with which the subjects are set forth. Those on the 

 fecundation and propagation of plant*, placed their author's name in 

 the foremost rank of scientific botanists. Arncng them the ' Observa- 

 tions on the natural family of Plant* called Composite ' (vol. xii.), and 

 ' An Account of a new genus of Plants named Rafflesia' (vol. xiii.t, are 

 especially noteworthy. In 1823 ho published in a separate form, ' A 

 Brief Account of Microscopical Observations on the particles contained 

 in the Pollen of Plant*, and on the general existence of active Mole- 

 cule* in Organic and Inorganic Bodies,' 8vo, and followed it tha next 

 year by ' Additional Remark*,' in which some of the statements of the 

 first were modified. He is the author also of the botanical appendices 

 published with the narrative* of the voyages of Ross and Parry to the 

 arctic regions, of Tuckey'a expedition to the Congo, and of Oudney, 

 Draham, aod Clappertou'i exploration of Central Africa. 



On the continent Mr. Brown'* reputation i* even higher than in 

 England. Hutiiboldt ha* called him ' Botanioorum facile Princeps;' 

 and a* ' our Prinoep*' ho U known among his fellow savants. In 1826 

 he wa* named on the council of the Royal Society, and on several 

 occasions sinoo ha* been cho*.-n to the same office. In 1827 he wa* 

 appointed keeper of the Botanical department of the liritish Museum. 

 In 1830 he pui>li*hed a ' Supplementum' to hi* ' Prodromu*,' relating 

 to Proteaoeous plants only. In 1 832 the degree of D.C.L. wa* conferred 

 on him by the University of Oxford. In 1838 he wai elected one of 

 the eight foreign tesociate* of the French Academy of Science*. In 



839 the Royal Society awarded him their Copley medal for hi* 

 ' Discoveries during a series of years on the subject of vegetable impreg- 

 nation.' In 184U he wa* elected president of the Linnsoau Society, 

 and retained that honourable post until 1853. He i* an honorary 



member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, of the Royal Irish 

 Academy, and Cambridge Philosophical Society, and is a foreign 

 member of nearly thirty of the chief learned aud scientific societies 

 of Europe. 



Mr. Brown'* separate publications are few. Besides the works 

 above mentioned, his writings are to be found in the ' Annals and 

 U.g.,in O f Natural History;' the 'Reports' of the British Assoi-i 

 and in liorsnetd'a ' Plautts JavaniotB ration*.' Those prior to 1831 

 have bsen collected, translated into German, and published in five 

 volumes. 8vo, by Neea von Eeenbeck. 



BROWN, ROBERT, the founder of the *ect of Brownists, waa born 

 about the middle of the 16th century, and was nearly connected with 

 the Lord Treasurer Cecil. He was educated at Corpus Chri-ti college, 

 Cambridge, and preached aometime* in Bennet church, where, say* 

 Neal, " the vehemence of hi* delivery gained him reputation with the 

 people." He wa* subsequently a schoolmaster, and afterwards a 

 lecturer at Islington. Neal terms him "a fiery, hot-headed young 

 man ;" and Mueueim, " an insinuating man, but very unsettled and 

 inconsistent in his views and notions of things." He went about the 

 country inveighing ogninst the discipline and ceremonies of the church, 

 and exhorting the people by no means to comply with them. In tlio 

 year 1580 the Bishop of Norwich caused him to be taken into custody ; 

 but Brown, acknowledging that he had offended, was released, in 

 1582 he published a book entitled ' The Life aud Manners of True 

 Christians;' to which was prefixed 'A Treatise of Reformation without 

 tarrying for any ; and of the wickedness of those preachers who will 

 not reform themselves and their charge, because they tarry till the 

 magistrate command and compel them.' He was again taken into 

 custody, but released ou the intercession of his relative the lord 

 treasurer. Four years afterwards he again travelled through various 

 parte of the country preaching against bishops, ceremonies, ecclesias- 

 tical courts, ordaining of ministers, &c., for which, as he afterwards 

 boasted, he had been committed to thirty-two prisons, in some of which 

 he could not see his band at noon-day. At length he formed a separate 

 congregation on his own principles ; but being forced to leave the 

 kingdom in consequence of the persccutiorjs which they met with, 

 they accompanied Brown to Middleburg in Holland. Neal observes, 

 that " when this handful of people wero delivered from the bishops 

 they crumbled into parties among themselves, insomuch that Brown, 

 being weary of his office, returned into England in the year 1589, and 

 having renounced his principles of separation, became rector of a 

 church in Northamptonshire. Here he lived an idle and dissolute life 

 (according to Fuller) far from that Sabbatarian strictness that bis 

 followers aspired after. Ho hod a wife, with whom he did not live 

 for many years, and a church in which he never preached. At length, 

 being poor and proud, he struck the constable of his parish for 

 demanding a rate of him ; and being beloved by nobody, the officer 

 summoned him before Sir Rowland St. John, who committed him to 

 Northampton gaol. The decrepit old man, not being able to walk, 

 was carried thither upon a feather-bed in a cart, where ho fell sick and 

 died in the year 1630, and eighty-first year of his age." 



After Brown's death his principles continued to gather strength iu 

 England. The Browmsts were subsequently known both in England 

 and Holland by the name of Independents. But the present very 

 largo and important community known as the Independents do not 

 acknowledge Brown as the founder of the sect ; they assert, on the 

 contrary, that the distinguishing sentiments adopted by Brown and 

 his followers had been professed in England, and churches established 

 in accordance with the.ir rules, before the time when Brown formed a 

 separate congregation. Neal, iu his ' History of the Puritans,' enume- 

 rates the leading principles of the Brownists. Ho say* : " The 

 Brownists did not differ from the Church of Kugland in any articles 

 of faith, but they were very rigid and narrow in points of discipline. 

 They denied the Church of England to be u true Church, and her 

 ministers to be rightly ordained. They maintained the ili-cip. 

 the Church of England to be popish and anti-Christian, and all her 

 ordinances and sacraments invalid. They apprehended, according to 

 scripture, that every church ought to be confined within the limits of 

 a single congregation, and that the government should bodemoci 

 The whole power of admitting and excluding members, with the 

 deciding of all controversies, was in the brotherhood. Their church 

 officers, for preaching the word and taking care of the poor, were 

 chosen from among themselves, and separated to their several offices 

 by fasting and prayer, and imposition of the hands of some of the 

 brethren. They did not allow the priesthood to be a distinct order, 

 or to give a man an indelible character ; but as the vote of the brother- 

 hood made him an officer, aud gave him authority to preach and 

 administer the sacraments among them, so the same power could 

 discharge him from his office, aud reduce him to the state of a private 

 brother. Every church or society of Christians meeting in OIK place 

 waa, according to the Browniats, a body corporate, having full power 

 within itself to admit and exclude members, to choose and ordain 

 officers, and when the good of the society required it, to depose them, 

 without being accountable to classes, convocations, synods, council*, 

 or any jurisdiction whatoever." (Vol. i., p. 378, edition 1732.) 



BROWN, CAl'T. SIR SAMUEL, U.N., was born iu Loudon in 

 1776. At the age of eighteen he entered the navy, and served with 

 distinction during the French war. He passed through the successive 



