(Robert), a schismatic divine, the founder of the Brownists, a numerous sect of dissenters in the reign of queen Elizabeth. He was the son of Mr Anthony Brown of Tolthorpe in Rutlandshire; whose father obtained the singular privilege of wearing his cap in the king's presence, by a charter of Henry VIII. Robert was educated at Cambridge, in Corpus Christi, or, according to Collier, in Bennet college, and was afterwards a schoolmaster in Southwark. About the year 1580, he began to promulgate his principles of dissension from the established church; and the following year preached at Norwich, where he soon accumulated a numerous congregation. He was violent in his abuse of the church of England; pretended to divine inspiration; and, like all other saints, pretended that he alone was the sure guide to heaven. This new sect daily increasing, Dr Freake bishop of Norwich, with other ecclesiastical commissioners, called our apostle before them. He was insolent to the court, and they committed him to the custody of the sheriff's officer: but he was released at the intercession of lord treasurer Burleigh, to whom it seems he was related. Brown now left the kingdom; and, with permission of the States, settled at Middleburg in Zealand; where he formed a church after his own plan, and preached without molestation; but here persecution, the sine qua non of fanaticism, was wanting. In 1585 we find him again in England: for in that year he was cited to appear before archbishop Whitgift; and seeming to comply with the established church, was, by lord Burleigh, sent home to his father: but, relapsing into his former obstinacy, his aged parent was obliged to turn him out of his house. He now wandered about for some time, and in the course of his mission endured great hardships. At last he fixed at Northampton; where, labouring with too much indolence to increase his sect, he was cited by the bishop of Peterborough, and, refusing to appear, was finally excommunicated for contempt. The solemnity of this censure, we are told, immediately effected his reformation. He moved for abolition, which he obtained, and from that time became a dutiful member of the church of England. This happened about the year 1590; and, in a short time after, Brown was preferred to a rectory in Northamptonshire, where he kept a curate to do his duty, and where he might probably have died in peace: but having some dispute with the constable of his parish, he proceeded to blows; and was afterwards so insolent to the justice, that he committed him to Northampton jail, where he died in 1630, aged 80. Thus ended the life of the famous Richard Brown; the greatest part of which was a series of opposition and persecution. He boasted on his deathbed, that he had been confined in no less than 32 different prisons. He wrote "A treatise of reformation without tarrying for any, and of the wickedness of those teachers which will not reform themselves and their charge, because they will tarry till the magistrate command and compel them, by me Robert Brown;" and two others, making together a thin quarto; published at Middleburg, 1582.

(Ulysses Maximilian), a celebrated general of the 18th century, was son of Ulysses, baron Brown and Camus, colonel of a regiment of cuirassiers in the emperor's service, and descended from one of the most ancient and noble families in Ireland. He was born at Ball in 1705; and having finished his first studies at Limeric in Ireland, was, in 1715, sent for into Hungary, by count George Brown, his uncle, member of the aulic council of war, and colonel of a regiment of infantry. He was present at the famous battle of Belgrade, in 1717. Next year he followed his uncle into Italy, who made him continue his studies, in the Clementine college, at Rome, till the year 1721, when he was sent to Prague in order to learn the civil law. At the end of the year 1723, he became captain in his uncle's regiment; and in 1725, lieutenant-colonel; in 1730, he went into Corsica with a battalion of his regiment; and contributed greatly to the taking of Calansara, where he received a considerable wound in his thigh. In 1732, the emperor made him chamberlain: He was raised to the rank of colonel in 1734; and distinguished himself so much in the war of Italy, especially at the battles of Parma and Guastalla, and in burning in the presence of the French army the bridge which the marshal de Noailles had caused to be thrown over the Adige, that he was made general in 1736. The following year he favoured the retreat of the army, after the unhappy battle of Banjaluca in Bosnia, by an excellent manoeuvre, and saved all the baggage. His admirable conduct upon this occasion was rewarded by his obtaining a second regiment. At his return to Vienna, in 1739, the emperor Charles VI. raised him to the rank of general-field-marshall-lieutenant, and made him counsellor in the aulic council of war. After the death of that prince, the king of Prussia entering Silesia, count Brown, with a small body of troops, disputed the country with him inch by inch. He signalized himself on several other occasions; and, in 1743, the queen of Hungary made him a privy-counsellor, at her coronation in Bohemia. He at length passed into Bavaria, where he commanded the van-guard of the Austrian army; seized Deckendorf, with a great quantity of baggage; and obliged the French to abandon the banks of the Danube, which the Austrian army passed in full security. The same year, viz. in 1743, the queen of Hungary sent him to Worms, in quality of her plenipotentiary to the king of Britain; where he put the last hand to the treaty of alliance between the courts of Vienna, London, and Turin. In 1744, he followed prince Lobkowitz into Italy; took the city of Veletri, on the 4th of August, in spite of the superior numbers of the enemy; entered their camp, overthrew several regiments, and took many prisoners. The following year he was recalled into Bavaria, where he took the town of Wilhoven by assault, and received a dangerous shot in the thigh. The same year he was made general of the artillery; and in January 1746, marched for Italy, at the head of a body of 18,000 men. He then drove the Spaniards out of the Milanese; and having joined the forces under prince de Lichtenstein, commanded the left wing of the Austrian army at the battle of Placentia on the 15th of June 1746, and defeated the right wing of the enemy's forces commanded by marshal de Maillebois. After this victory, he commanded in chief the army against the Genoese; seized the palls of Bofetta or Bochetta, though defended by above 4000 men; and took the city of Genoa. Count Brown at length joined the king of Sardinia's troops; and took, in conjunction with him, Mont-Alban, and the county of Nice. On the 30th of November he passed the Var, in spite of the French troops; entered Provence; took the isles of St Margaret and St Honorat; and thought to have rendered himself master of a much greater part of Provence, when the revolution which happened in Genoa, and marshal de Belleisle's advancing with his army, obliged him to make that fine retreat which procured him the admiration and esteem of all persons skilled in war. He employed the rest of the year 1747 in defending the states of the house of Austria in Italy; and after the peace in 1748, he was sent to Nice to regulate there, in conjunction with the duke of Belleisle and the marquis de las Minas, the differences that had arisen with respect to the execution of some of the articles of the definitive treaty of Aix la Chapelle.

The empress queen, to reward these signal services, especially his glorious campaigns in Italy in 1749, made him governor of Transylvania, where he rendered himself generally admired for his probity and disinterestedness. In 1752, he obtained the government of the city of Prague, with the chief command of the troops in that kingdom; in 1753, the king of Poland, elector of Saxony, honoured him with the collar of the order of the white eagle; and the next year he was declared field-marshal.

The king of Prussia entering Saxony in 1756, and attacking Bohemia, count Brown marched against him; and repelled that prince at the battle of Lobositz, on the 1st of October, though he had only 27,000 men, and the king of Prussia had at least 40,000. Seven days after this battle, he undertook the famous march into Saxony, to deliver the Saxon troops shut up between Pirna and Konigstein; an action worthy of the greatest captains, ancient or modern. He at length obliged the Prussians to retire from Bohemia; for which he was rewarded, by being made a knight of the golden fleur. Soon after, count Brown hastily assembled an army in Bohemia, to oppose the king of Prussia, who had again penetrated into that kingdom at the head of all his forces; and on the 6th of May fought the famous battle of Prague; in which, while he was employed in giving his orders for maintaining the advantages he had gained over the Prussians, he was so dangerously wounded, that he was obliged to be carried to Prague, where he died of his wounds, on the 26th of June 1757, at 52 years of age. There is reason to believe, that, had he not been wounded, he would have gained the victory, as he had broken the Prussians, and the brave count Schwerin one of their greatest generals was slain.

Brown (Sir Thomas), an eminent physician and celebrated writer, was born at London, October 19th 1605. Having studied at Winchester college, and afterwards at Oxford, he travelled through France and Italy; and returning by the way of Holland, took his degree of doctor of physic at Leyden. In 1636, he settled at Norwich; and the year following, was incorporated as doctor of physic at Oxford. His Religio Medici made a great noise; and being translated into Latin, instantly spread throughout Europe, and gained him a prodigious reputation: it was then translated into almost every language in Europe. This book has been heavily censured by some, as tending to infidelity, and even atheism; while others, with much more reason, have applauded the piety, as well as the parts and learning, of the author. The reverend Mr Granger observes, that among other peculiarities in this book, he speaks of the ultimate act of love as a folly beneath a philosopher; and says, that he could be content that we might procreate, like trees, without conjunction: but, after the writing of it, he defended from his philosophical dignity, and married an agreeable woman. It was said, that his reason for marrying was, because he could discover no better method of procreation. His treatise on Vulgar Errors was read with equal avidity; he also published Hydriotaphia, or a Discourse of Sepulchral Urns lately found in Norfolk. His reputation in his profession was equal to his fame for learning in other respects; and therefore the college of physicians were pleased to take him into their number as an honorary member; and king Charles II. coming to Norwich in his progress, in 1671, was pleased to knight him, with singular marks of favour and respect. He died on his birth-day, in 1682, leaving several manuscripts behind him, which were published under the title of The posthumous works of the learned Sir Thomas Brown, Knt. M.D.

Brown (Edward), the son of the former, physician to king Charles II. and president of the royal college at London. He was born in the year 1642; and studied at Cambridge, and afterwards at Merton college, Oxford. He then travelled; and at his return published a brief account of some travels in Hungary, Servia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Thessaly, Austria, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, Friuli, &c.: he also published an account of several travels through great part of Germany; and joined his name to those of many other eminent men, in a translation of Plutarch's lives. He was acquainted with Hebrew, was a critic in Greek, and no man of his age wrote better Latin. High-Dutch, Italian, French, &c. he spoke and wrote with as much ease as his mother-tongue. King Charles said of him, that "he was as learned as any of the college, and well bred as any at court." He died August 27th, 1708.

Brown (William), an English poet of the 17th century, was descended from a good family, and born at Tavistock in Devonshire in the year 1590. After he had passed through the grammar school, he was sent to Exeter college in the university of Oxford, in the beginning of the reign of James I. and became tutor to Robert Dormer, who was afterwards earl of Carnarvon, and killed at Newbury battle, September 20th, 1643. He is styled in the public register of the university, "a man well skilled in all kinds of polite literature and useful arts;" vir omnium humanae literaturae et bonorum artium cognitioe infirmitate. After he had left the college with his pupil, he was taken into the family of William earl of Pembroke, who had a great respect for him; and he made his fortune so well, that he purchased an estate. His poetical works procured him very great reputation. They are as follow. 1. Britannia's Pastoral. The first part was published at London, 1613, in folio; and ushered into the world with several copies of verses made by his ingenious and learned friends John Selden, Michael Drayton, Christopher Cook, &c. The second part was printed at London in 1616, and recommended by various copies of verses written by John Glanville who afterwards became eminent in the profession of the law, and others. These two parts were reprinted in two vols 8vo, 1625. 2. The shepherd's pipe, in seven eclogues; London, 1614, in 8vo. 3. An elegy on the never-enough bewailed death of prince Henry, eldest son of king James I. Mr Wood tells us, that it is probable, our author wrote several other poems which he had not seen. It is uncertain when he died.

Brown (Thomas), "of facetious memory," as he is styled by Addison, was the son of a farmer in Shropshire; and entered in Christ-church college, Oxford, where he soon distinguished himself by his uncommon attainments in literature. But the irregularities of his life not suffering him to continue long there, he, instead of returning to his father, went to London to seek his fortune: his companions, however, being more delighted with his humour, than ready to relieve his necessities, he had recourse to the usual refuge of half-starved wits, scribbling for bread; and published a great variety of poems, letters, dialogues, &c. full of humour and erudition, but often indecent. Though a good-natured man, he had one pernicious quality, which was, rather to lose his friend than his joke.

Towards the latter end of Tom Brown's life, we are informed by Mr Jacob, that he was in favour with the earl of Dorset, who invited him to dinner on a Christmas day, with Mr Dryden and some other gentlemen celebrated for their ingenuity, (as his lordship's custom was); when Mr Brown to his agreeable surprize found a bank note of 50l. under his plate, and Mr Dryden at the same time was presented with another of 100l. Mr Brown died in the year 1704; and was interred in the cloyster of Westminster abbey, near the remains of Mrs Behn, with whom he was intimate in his lifetime. His works have been printed both in 8vo and 12mo, making 4 vols.

Brown, among dyers, painters, &c. a dusky colour, inclining towards redness. Of this colour there are various shades or degrees, distinguished by different appellations; for instance, Spanish-brown, a fad-brown, a tawney-brown, the London brown, a clove-brown, &c.

Spanish-brown is a dark dull red, of a horse-flesh colour. It is an earth; and is of great use among painters, being generally used as the first and priming colour that they lay upon any kind of timber-work in house-painting. That which is of the deepest colour, and freest from floes, is the best. Though this is of a dirty brown colour, yet it is much used, not to colour any garment, unless it be an old man's gown; but to shadow vermilion, or to lay upon any dark ground behind a picture, or to shadow yellow berries in the darkest places, when you want lake, &c. It is best and brightest when burnt in the fire till it be red hot; although, if you would colour any hare, horse, dog, or the like, it should not be burnt: but, for other uses, it is best when it is burnt; as for colouring wood, pots, bodies of trees, or any thing else of wood, or any dark ground of a picture.