175 
CAPTAIN THOMAS BROWN, 
CHIEF FIRE-MASTER IN THE WEST INDIES, 1693. 
BY 
CHARLES DALTON, 
Liditor of English Army Lists and Commission Registers, 1661-1714. 
On 27th February, 168%, a Royal Warrant, signed by Wm. III. at 
Whitehall, directed the Board of Ordnance to send 1,000 fire-arms, with 
ammunition and appurtenances proportionable, to Liverpool to be de- 
livered to the officer commanding the troops at said town. “And 
you are also to send to the said Town of Liverpool” (so runs this 
warrant) “6 gunners, 6 gun-smiths, 4 miners, an engineer and a store- 
keeper to be employed in Our Service in our Kingdom of Ireland.” 
In pursuance of the above warrant a master-gunner (Thos. Holman), 
five gunners (one of whom was Wm. Bousfield who was destined to plant 
his foot on the topmost rung of the artillery ladder in a later reign), 
6 gun-smiths, 4 miners, an engineer (Captain Jacob Richards who had 
served his apprenticeship at the siege of Buda), and a store-keeper were 
sent to Liverpool. The commissions of all the above were dated 12th 
March, 168$, and, with one exception, they each received 91 days’ pay 
om advance. The exception was Capt. Jacob Richards, who received 102 
days’ pay in advance. The King’s Warrant, quoted above, makes no 
mention of a fire-master being sent to Liverpool with the artillery de- 
tachment, but the “ List of officers sent to Liverpool” given in Vol. X. 
of Ordnance Warrants gives the name of a fire-master, viz.: Thomas 
Browne. The date of Brown’s commission is given in above list as 
20th April, 1689, and his pay is stated to have been 4 shillings a day. 
But, unlike the others, he received no pay in advance, and we may 
safely presume he came off in the end worse than his companions in 
this matter. No mention is made in the Ordnance Warrant Books of 
the particular service in Ireland in which this detachment was to be 
employed, but another source gives us the desired information—“ Cap- 
tain Richards the engineer,” wrote Narcissus Luttrell in his Brief 
Rotation of State Affairs, under date of 17th June, 1689, “ with several 
others, that went a pretty while since for Londonderry, are returned, 
having not been able to get into the town, very narrowly escaping the 
losse of themselves and ship.” Judging from the date of Fire-master 
Brown’s commission (20th April), it is evident he did not accom- 
pany Richards’s party to Liverpool, in March, but was sent thither a 
month later. ‘Turning to Military Entry Book No. 2 (Home Office 
Series) we find, under date of 29th April, 1689 :— Instructions to 
Piercy Kirk, Hsq., Maj-Gen. of the Forces, to go to Liverpool with all 
AY VOL. Xx 24 
