Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/222

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BROWN

his will he speaks of himself as "Practi- tioner in Medicines and Laird of Main- side and House Byers in Scotland."

Dr. Brown married first, in 1710, Frances Fowke, daughter of Col. Gerard Fowke, of Charles County, by whom he had twelve children, of whom one son and seven daughters survived their mother. She died November 8, 1744. His second wife was Mrs. Margaret Black Boyd, a widow, and by her he had a son and a daughter.

E. F. C.

Brown, Gustavus, Jr. (1744-1801).

This physician was the grandson of the emigrant Dr. Gustavus Brown, Sr. He was the son of Rev. Richard Brown, a minister of the Anglican Church, and a nephew of Dr. Gustavus Richard Brown. He was born at Morningside, near Edinburgh, Scotland in 1744, and after studying medicine at that univer- sity for seven years, received his M. D. in 1770. His name appears in the cata- logue of graduates as " Brown, Gust. Brit. De Cynanche Phlogistica, 1770." He came to America shortly after in company with several of his fellow stu- dents, and settled in St. Mary's County, Maryland. In 1782 he attended one of these, Dr. Ireland, and the illness proving fatal, married his widow. This lady was the only child of Col. John Reeder, an officer of the Revolution, and of a Huguenot family settled in Maryland since 1736. Her estate was called "Summerseat," and she is said to have been very rich. There the doctor settled down and practised until his death, July 3, 1801, at the age of fifty-six. He had no children.

Dr. Brown practised with great success and had the honor of being called to attend Gen. Washington by Drs. Craik, Dick and Gustavus R. Brown. Receiv- ing the summons at midnight, he mounted his horse and hastened towards Mt. Vernon, but on reaching Long Bridge he learned of the patient's death and turned back. The hastily-written sum- mons, together with other relics, was de-


6 BROWN

stroyed by fire at the old homestead in 1874.

To him, through his father, descended by entail the Scotch estate. His remains were interred in the Reeder burial ground at Westfield, St. Mary's county, and his tombstone bears an inscription highly commendatory. E. F. C.

Brown, Gustavus Richard (1747-1804).

A son of Dr. Gustavus Brown, by his second marriage, he was born, according to his own statement, at his father's seat near Port Tobacco, Maryland October 17, 1747, and educated at Edinburgh University where he took his M. D. in 1768, his thesis being "De Ortu Animalium Caloris." Among his fellow students was Dr. Benjamin Rush, who said that he was second to no stud- ent in the university at that period.

After "walking" the London hospitals for several months, he returned to Mary- land, stopping on the way for some time at the Madeira Islands, and bringing thence a large collection of rare plants and flowers. He settled to practise at Port Tobacco. During the Revolu- tion he was a firm and active patriot. He was a county judge in 1776 to 1777. In the spring of the former year, in com- pany with his nephew, Dr. James Wallace, he established a hospital for the inocula- tion of small-pox near the Potomac river, on the Virginia side. He was a member of the State Convention, which was called to ratify the constitution of the national government in 1788.

Like his father, Dr. Brown was a man of fine personal appearance, being over six feet and well proportioned. His manners were pleasant and affable, and he was a well-read physician and fine classical scholar. He was particularly fond of botany and cultivated with great care and success an extensive garden of rare flowersand plants, not for their beauty alone, but for their medicinal qualities. It was the most extensive and artistic collection in the state, occupying a slop- ing lawn of some ten acres, with three terraces and interlaced with serpentine