BROWN, Thomas, of facetious memory, as he is styled by Addison, was the son of a farmer at Shifnal in Shropshire, and was entered of Christ-church College, Oxford, whence he soon was obliged to abscond on account of the irregularities of his life. He afterwards went to London, where he had recourse to the usual refuge of half-starved wits, scribbling for bread. He published a great variety of poems, letters, dialogues, &c., full of humour and erudition, but coarse and indelicate. Though a good-natured man, he had one pernicious quality, which was—rather to lose his friend than his joke.
Towards the end of his life, as we are informed by Jacob, Brown was invited by the Earl of Dorset to a Christmas dinner along with Dryden and several other wits; on which occasion, to his agreeable surprise, he found a L50 bank-note under his plate, and Dryden at the same time received one of L100. Brown died in 1704, and was interred in the cloister of Westminster Abbey. His works were published in 1707, in 4 vols. 12mo.