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Obituary jS'otice of the Rev. Thomas Brown, D.D. By 

 Professor Duns, D.D., F.R.S.E. 



Thomas Brown was born on 23rd April 1811, in the Manse 

 of Langton, Berwickshire, of which parish his father, the 

 Rev. John Brown, D.D., was minister. Mr Brown entered 

 the University of Edinburgh in 1826. At the close of his 

 Arts Course, he was enrolled as a student of Divinity. His 

 academical record was that of a diligent and earnest student, 

 who worked well in the several classes, and took a lively 

 interest in more than one University Debating Society. His 

 fellow students regarded him as a man of good parts, a 

 conscientious worker, a pleasant, gentlemanly companion, and 

 one who promised to be an excellent Parish Minister. 



Mr Brown was licensed as a Probationer of the Church 

 of Scotland in 1835, and in 1837 was settled as minister of 

 Kineff, Kincardineshire. As a student he had devoted a good 

 deal of attention to Natural Science, and was well qualified 

 to describe the geological and botanical features of the district 

 to which he had been appointed. There is proof that he 

 had begun to take note of its flora and that its geology, 

 which is characterised by interesting peculiarities, soon 

 attracted his attention. But the, so called, "Ten Years 

 Conflict" had already begun in earnest, and as he had 

 strong convictions touching the ecclesiastical principles that 

 were so warmly discussed, and heartily threw himself into 

 the controversy of the times, his Natural Science accom- 

 plishments fell into abeyance. He had to live into quieter 

 times, and to come nearer the place of his birth, before they 

 sought and got, once more, free exercise and favourable 

 opportunity. 



In 1843 Mr Brown joined the ministers and laymen who 

 formed the Free Church. In 1848 he was married to Miss 

 Wood, a member of an old and well known Edinburgh 

 family. In 1849 he became minister of the Dean Free 

 Church, Edinburgh, and, in this position, made full proof 

 of a ministry, solid, full of instruction, and, withal, attractive. 

 As the years passed, the favourite studies of his youth 

 revived. He came willingly under, what Goethe calls, the 

 zeit geist — the temper of the time — and was able to appreciate 

 the trend of recent thought. 



