William Laurence Brown

The Rev Prof William Laurence Brown STP (7 January 1755 – 11 May 1830) was a Scottish minister.

Life
The grave of Rev William Laurence Brown, Kirk of St Nicholas, Aberdeen

Brown was born in Utrecht. His father was minister of the English church there, but was then appointed professor of ecclesiastical history at St Andrews, and returned to Scotland in 1757. His son went to the grammar school there, and then to the university. After passing through the divinity classes, he went in 1774 to the university of Utrecht, where he studied theology and civil law.[1]

In 1777 he was appointed to the English church in Utrecht, and about 1788 to the professorship of moral philosophy and ecclesiastical history in the university, to which was soon added the professorship of the law of nature. The war which followed the French Revolution drove Brown in January 1795 to London.[1]

In 1795 the magistrates of Aberdeen appointed him to the chair of divinity, and soon after he was made principal of Marischal College. In the year 1800 he was appointed chaplain in ordinary to the king, and in 1804 Dean of the Chapel Royal, and of the order of the Thistle.[1]

From 1824 to 1828 he was Patron of the Seven Incorporated Trades of Aberdeen.[2]

At the end of his life he lived at 1 Castlebrae in Aberdeen.[3]

He is buried in the Kirk of St Nicholas on Union Street in Aberdeen. The grave lies in the north west corner.

Family

He married his first cousin, Ann Elizabeth Brown (1764–1844), daughter of Rev Robert Brown of Utrecht (1728–1777).

Their eight children included Robert James Brown, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland in 1846/47.[4]

Works

His best-known works were:

  • Essay on the Natural Equality of Men (1793), which gained the Teylers Eerste Genootschap's prize;
  • On the Existence of the Supreme Creator (1826), to which was awarded the first Burnet prize of £1250; and
  • A Comparative View of Christianity, and of the other Forms of Religion with regard to their Moral Tendency (2 vols, 1826).

References
  1. Chisholm 1911.
  2. "Patrons". Seven Incorporated Trades of Aberdeen.
  3. Aberdeen Post Office Directory 1830
  4. Ewing, William Annals of the Free Church of Scotland

Attribution:  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Brown, William Laurence". Encyclopædia Britannica. 4 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

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