Thomas Brown (minister)
The Very Rev Dr Thomas Brown DD FRSE (1811–1893) was a Scottish minister in the Free Church of Scotland who rose to its highest rank, Moderator of the General Assembly in 1890. He was a noted geologist and botanist. He wrote prolifically on the history of the Disruption of 1843.
Life
He was born on 23 April 1811 in the manse at Langton, Berwickshire in south-east Scotland, the son of the Rev Dr John Brown DD, minister of that parish.
He trained in theology at Edinburgh University and began working as a minister in 1837 at Kinneff in Aberdeenshire. He left the Church of Scotland at the point of the Disruption of 1843. He spent some years without a ministry before being placed in the relatively prestigious Dean Free Church on Belford Road in north-west Edinburgh in 1849. He remained in the Free Church of Scotland for the rest of his life, serving as its Moderator for 1890/91 and the age of 79[1] in succession to Rev John Laird.[2]
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1861. His address was then listed as 16 Carlton Street in Stockbridge, Edinburgh.[3]
Edinburgh University honoured him with a Doctor of Divinity in 1880.
He died at home, 16 Carlton Street[4] in Edinburgh on 4 April 1893.[5]
Family
He married Mary Ann Wood, sister of physician Alexander Wood, in 1848. Their children included the physician and neurologist, John James Graham Brown (1853–1925).
Publications
- Botany of Langton – part of the New Statistical Account of Scotland, 1834
- A Sketch of the Life and Work of Alexander Wood MD FRCP (1886)
- Commentary on the Gospels (1854)
- Church and State in Scotland, 1560 to 1843 (1891)
- Annals of the Disruption (1893)
- A History of Berwickshire Nationalist Club (proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1893)
References
- "Former Fellows of The Royal Society of Edinburgh - 1783 – 2002" (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
- Ewing, William Annals of the Free Church
- "List of the Ordinary Fellows of the Society". 26 (1). 1 January 1870: xi–xiii. doi:10.1017/S008045680002648X. Retrieved 26 January 2017 – via Cambridge Core. Cite journal requires
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(help) - Edinburgh Post Office Directory 1893
- Desmond, Ray (25 February 1994). "Dictionary Of British And Irish Botanists And Horticulturists Including plant collectors, flower painters and garden designers". CRC Press. Retrieved 26 January 2017 – via Google Books.
- "Browse authors with titles: Brown, Thomas, 1811-1893 - The Online Books Page". Retrieved 26 January 2017.
- "Brown, Thomas, 1811-1893 - The Online Books Page". Retrieved 26 January 2017.