Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 07.djvu/10

Brown for Madras, which was wrecked on the voyage down the Bay of Bengal. The passengers and crew were rescued by another vessel and taken back to Calcutta, where Brown died on 14 June 1812. Charles Philip Brown [q. v.] was his son.

[Bengal Obituary; Memoir of Rev. Claudius Buchanan, D.D., by Rev. Hugh Pearson, London, 1819; Memoir of Rev. Thomas Thomason, by Rev. Thomas Sargent, 1833.]

 BROWN, GEORGE (d. 1628), an English Benedictine monk who in religion assumed the christian name of Gregory, is believed to have been the translator from the Italian of the 'Life of St Mary Magdalen de Pazzi,' 1619. It is dedicated to Lady Mary Percy, abbess of the English convent of St Benet at Brussels. Brown died at Celle, near Paris, on 21 Oct 1628.

[Oliver's Hist. of the Catholic Religion in Cornwall, 508; Weldon's Chronological Notes (1881), 158, Append. 6.]

 BROWN, GEORGE (1650–1730), arithmetician, was born in 1650, and was appointed minister of the parish of Kilmaurs, in the presbytery of Irvine and county of Ayr, about 1680 (, Fasti, ii. pt. i. p. 178), having been ‘translated from Stranraer’ (ibid. p. 384). ‘About 1700 he was frequently charged for exercising discipline and marrying without proclamation’ (ibid. p. 178). ‘He invented an instrument called Rotula Arithmetica, to teach those of very ordinary capacity who can but read figures to add, subtract, multiply, and divide, on which the privy council, 13 Dec. 1698, recommended the lords of the treasury “to give a reasonable allowance to be ane encouragement to him”’ (ibid. p. 384). In explanation of this instrument he published ‘Rotula Arithmetica, with an Account thereof,’ 12mo, Edinburgh, 1700, and in the same year produced ‘A Specie Book serving at one View to turn any pure Number of any Pieces of Silver, current in this Kingdom, into Pounds Scots or Sterling,’ 12mo, Edinburgh, 1700. He next published ‘A Compendious, but a Compleat System of Decimal Arithmetick, containing more Exact Rules for ordering Infinites than any hitherto extant,’ 4to, Edinburgh, 1701, which he dedicated ‘to John Spotiswood, Baron of Spotiswood, Advocate;’ on the title-page he described himself as ‘minister of Killmarice.’ His last work was ‘Arithmetica Infinita; or the Accurate Accomptant's Best Companion, contriv'd and calculated by the Reverend George Brown, A.M., and printed for the Author,’ sq. 12mo, Edinburgh, 1718. This work, which was commended by Dr. Keill, F.R.S., Savilian professor of astronomy at Oxford, was published by subscription. Brown died in 1730.

[Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Sinclair's New Statistical Account of Scotland, 1845; Scott's Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ, 1868.]  BROWN GEORGE (1790–1865), general, third son of George Brown, provost of Elgin, was born at Linkwood near Elgin on 3 July 1790. He was educated at the Elgin academy, and showed an inclination to enter the army. His uncle, Colonel John Brown, procured him a commission, and he was gazetted an ensign in the 43rd regiment on 23. Jan 1806. He joined his regiment in Sicily, and was promoted lieutenant on 18 Sept 1806, and served in the expedition to Copenhagen in 1807, at the battle of Vimeiro, and in the retreat upon Corunna under Sir John Moore. In 1809 the 43rd was brigaded with the 52nd and 95th, and formed part of the famous light brigade. Brown was present in all its actions until in June 1811 he was promoted captain into the 3rd garrison battalion, and obtained leave to join the staff college at Great Marlow. Brown exchanged into the 85th regiment in July 1812, which in August 1813 was sent to the Peninsula, and formed one of the regiments in the unattached brigade under the command of Major-general Lord Aylmer. The brigade was engaged in the battles of the Nivelle and the Nive, in which Brown so greatly distinguished himself that he was promoted major on 26 May 1814. The 85th was then sent to join the expedition under General Ross in America, and at the battle of Bladensburg Brown was wounded so severely that his life was despaired of, and for his gallant conduct there he was promoted lieutenant-colonel on 26 Sept 1814.

So far Brown had had a brilliant military career. He was now selected for various staff appointments at home and abroad, and while serving as assistant quartermaster-general at Malta in 1826 he married a Miss Macdonell, third daughter of Hugh Macdonell. In 1828 Lord Hill, the commander-in-chief appointed him deputy assistant adjutant-general at headquarters. At the Horse Guards he remained in various staff appointments for more than twenty-five years, and in such capacities he rose to the highest ranks in the army without seeing any further service. In 1831 he was promoted colonel and made a K.H. and some years afterwards was appointed deputy adjutant-general at the Horse Guards. In 1841 he was promoted major-general, and in 1850 he was appointed adjutant-general at the Horse Guards by the Duke of Wellington; he was promoted lieutenant-general in 1851; and, in recognition of his long official services, 