BROWN, JOHN, D.D., an English divine, and ingenious writer, born at Rothbury in Northumberland in November 1715. He was the son of John Brown, a descendant of the Browns of Colstown, near Haddington; and who at the time of his son's birth was curate to Dr Tomlinson, rector of Rothbury. He was educated at St John's, Cambridge; and after taking the degree of bachelor of arts with great reputation, being senior wrangler, he returned to his father's house at Wigton; received deacon's and priest's orders from Sir George Fleming, bishop of Carlisle; and in 1739 went to Cambridge to take his degree of master of arts. In 1745 he distinguished himself as a volunteer in the king's service, and behaved with great intrepidity at the siege of Carlisle.
The attachment displayed by Brown to the royal cause and to the whig party, procured him the friendship of Dr Osbaldeston, afterwards bishop of Carlisle. This gentleman continued to be his friend through life; a remarkable fact, since the peculiarities of Brown's temper involved him in quarrels with almost all his acquaintances. When advanced to the see of Carlisle, Dr Osbaldeston appointed Brown one of his chaplains.
It was probably during his residence at Carlisle that Mr Brown wrote his poem entitled Honour, inscribed to Lord Viscount Lonsdale. His next poetical production was his Essay on Satire, addressed to Dr Warburton, to whom it was so acceptable, that he took Brown into his friendship. He also introduced him to Ralph Allen, Esq. of Prior Park, near Bath, who believed to him with great generosity, and to whom in 1751 Brown dedicated his Essay on the characteristics of Lord Shaftesbury. In 1754 he was promoted by the Earl of Hardwicke to the living of Great Horksey in Essex; and in the following year took the degree of doctor of divinity at Cambridge. In this year also he published his
tragedy of Barbarossa; which, under the management of Garrick, was acted with considerable applause, though when published it was sharply censured. This tragedy was followed by a second, entitled Athelstane, which was represented at Drury-Lane theatre. This was also well received by the public, but did not become so popular as Barbarossa.
In 1757 appeared his well-known Estimate of the Manners and Principles of the Times, which was shortly followed by a second volume, containing additional remarks on the ruling manners and principles, and on their public effects. This was treated with uncommon severity by the periodical critics; and such was the multitude of his antagonists, that he retired for a while into the country. In his retreat he wrote an explanatory defence of the work above mentioned.
In 1760 he published an Additional Dialogue of the Dead, between Pericles and Aristides; being a sequel to Lord Lyttleton's dialogue between Pericles and Cosmo. One design of this additional dialogue was to vindicate the measures of Mr Pitt, against whose administration Lord Lyttleton had been supposed to have thrown out some hints. His next work, in 1763, was the Cure of Saul, a sacred ode; which was followed by A Dissertation on the Rise, Union, and Power, the Progressions, Separations, and Corruptions of Poetry and Music. This is one of the most pleasing of his performances, and abounds with a variety of critical discussions. In reply to various strictures on this piece, he wrote Remarks on some Observations on Dr Brown's Dissertation on Poetry and Music. In 1764 he published, in octavo, The History of the Rise and Progress of Poetry through its several Species; which is no more than the substance of the dissertation above mentioned. The same year he published a volume of sermons, dedicated to his patron Dr Osbaldston, bishop of London; but most of these had been separately published. In the beginning of 1765 he published Thoughts on Civil Liberty, Licentiousness, and Faction; and in conclusion prescribed a code of education, upon which Dr Priestley made remarks at the end of his Essay on the Course of a liberal Education for civil and active Life. The same year he published a sermon On the Female Character and Education, preached before the guardians of the asylum for deserted female orphans. His last work, published in 1766, was a Letter to the Rev. Dr Lowth, occasioned by his late "Letter to the Right Reverend Author of the Divine Legation of Moses," in which Dr Brown is pointed at as one of the extravagant adulators of Bishop Warburton. Besides these works, Dr Brown published a poem on Liberty, and two or three anonymous pamphlets. Dr Brown, who had an hereditary tendency to insanity, and from early life had been subject at times to fits of excessive melancholy, put a period to his life on the 23d of September 1766.