BROWN, Simon, a dissenting minister, whose uncommon talents and singular misfortunes justly entitle him to a place in this work, was born at Shepton Mallet, in Somersetshire, 1680. Grounded and excelling in grammatical learning, he early became qualified for the ministry, and actually began to preach before he was twenty. He was first called to be a pastor at Portsmouth, and afterwards removed to the Old Jewry, where he was admired and esteemed for a number of years. But the death of his wife and only son, which happened in 1723, affected him so as to deprive him of his reason; and he became from that time lost to himself, to his family, and to the world. His congregation at the Old Jewry, in expectation of his recovery, delayed for some time to fill his office; but at length all hopes were over, when Mr Samuel Chandler was appointed to succeed him in 1725. This double misfortune affected him at first in a manner little different from distraction, but afterwards sunk him into a settled melancholy. He quitted the duties of his function, and would not be persuaded to join in any act of worship, public or private. Some time after his secession from the Old Jewry he retired to Shepton Mallet, his native place; and though in his retirement he was perpetually contending that his powers of reason and imagination were gone, yet he was as constantly exerting both with much activity and vigour. He amused himself sometimes with translating parts of the ancient Greek and Latin poets into English verse, and he composed little pieces for the use of children; an English Grammar and Spelling Book; an Abstract of the Scripture History, and a Collection of Fables, both in metre; and with much learning he brought together in a short compass all the Themata of the Greek and Latin tongues, and also compiled a Dictionary to each of those works, in order to render the learning of both these languages more easy and compendious. Of these performances none have been made public. But what showed the strength and vigour of his understanding, while he was daily bemoaning the loss of it, were the works composed during the two last years of his life, in defence of Christianity, against Woolston and Tindal. He wrote an answer to Woolston's fifth Discourse on the Miracles of our Saviour, entitled a fit Rebuke for a ludicrous Infidel; with a preface concerning the prosecution of such writers by the civil power. His book against Tindal was called a Defence of the Religion of Nature and the Christian Revelation, against the defective account of the one and the exceptions against the other, in a book entitled Christianity as old as the Creation. Mr Brown survived the publication of this last work a very short time. A complication of distempers, contracted by his sedentary life (for he could not be prevailed on to refresh himself with air and exercise) brought on a mortification, which put a period to his labours towards the close of the year 1732. Besides the two pieces above mentioned, and before he became ill, he had published some single Sermons, together with a Collection of Hymns and Spiritual Songs. He left several daughters.