Preacher and author. Born at Carpow, near Abernethy (Perth and Kinross), the son of a weaver. Brown was orphaned at a young age and went on to find employment as a shepherd. He taught himself Latin, Greek and Hebrew. He went to Edinburgh and served with the garrison of Edinburgh Castle, which held out against the army of Bonnie Prince Charlie during the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion. Thereafter he studied for the ministry and came to Haddington in 1751 as Minister of the Secession Church, serving in this post until his death. Brown was a successful biblical scholar and was appointed to the Secession Chair of Divinity at the University of Glasgow (1768). He went on to write a Dictionary of the Bible (1769) and then his two-volume Self-Interpreting Bible (1778).
He is buried in St. Mary's churchyard in Haddington.
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