ASIATIC JOURNAL FOR JULY 1819. ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. MEMOIR OF THE REV. DAVID BROWN, Late Senior Chaplain of the Hon. Company's Establishment at Fort William. WHAT pen can answer all the yet unsatisfied claims of deceased worth or surviving admiration? In the civil and military branches of the Company's service, the numbers of distinguished individuals, whose names are remembered with honor by the present generation, far exceed those of whom biographic notices can be handed to posterity. The tenor of a life of public service produced results which are not forgotten; but the particular steps were not traced for public instruction by a witnessing friend. On many previous occasions we have explored the best accessible sources, in order to attain a correct summary of the life and actions of the statesman and the soldier, the scholar and the traveller; and in several instances, original manuscript communications have enabled us to present some substantial additions to the information previously extant in relation to the subject of the memoir; in others, the series of authentic materials wrought into a brief narrative, has been a new structure from the foundation. But Asiatic Journ.-No. 43. of the life which we are now about in part to trace, all the incidents are drawn from a full and valuable piece of clerical biography, entitled, "Memorial Sketches of the Rev. David Brown, with a selection of his Sermons preached at Calcutta." It appears from the preface that the first piece is a tribute to the excellence of the departed minister by his widow. Besides the articles announced in the title page, the ample but not diffuse volume, which bears the title of Memorial Sketches, contains five sets of extracts from Mr. Brown's papers, including those from his journal and correspondence. The signature to the preface discloses the editor. of the whole to be the Rev. Charles Simeon, of King's-college, Cam-. bridge. The Rev. David Brown, six years the provost of Fort William College, was born, toward the close of 1762, near Hull, in the east, riding of Yorkshire, where his venerable parents are now living in retirement, and where his brothers carry, on extensive farms. He had, from early youth, a se- rious turn of mind, and was distinguished among his connections for his amiable disposition and thirst for knowledge. At about eleven years of age, whilst on a journey under the eye of his friends, he fell into the company of a minister, who was struck by his intelligent enquiries and remarks. The stranger desired to know for what line of life his friends were educating him; his parents answered, that as he evinced no great disposition to be employed in his father's farm, they should probably apprentice him to some country tradesman, perhaps a druggist. The clergyman replied, "I think he is destined to a higher and more important profession; and if you will entrust him with me for a year or two, I will give him the preparatory attention ne cessary to his passing through a grammar school, which may fit him for college, and lead to his entering the church." His parents accepted this liberal proposal; and young David resided under the private tuition of his new friend at Scarborough, till he removed to Hull to attend the public grammar school then governed by the Rev. Joseph Milner. The master and scholar contracted a mutual esteem. After the usual term of preparatory studies, David Brown proceeded to Cambridge, and was entered at Magdalen College. He became ardently attached to academical pursuits, and found in the society to which he was introduced many congenial minds. Under much interruption from severe illness, he successively renewed his application to the usual course of classical and theological studies, cultivating those qualifications for entering the church which the handmaid sciences can confer; but from this measured graduation he was unexpectedly called away by the offer of an unsolicited appointment to a scholastic office in India, the superintendancy of an institution at Calcutta for educating the orphan children of indigent officers deceased, belonging to that settlement. The manner in which the overture commenced, the friendly influence which induced him to accept it, and the munificent assistance which enabled him to go to India under the Company's patronage, will be best unfolded by taking the particulars from his own papers. During his residence at college, he corresponded with a friend, in London, on serious subjects, and related some successful efforts he had made to do good among the poor and destitute. That friend communicated his letters to Major Mitchell of the Hon. Company's service: the major wished to be acquainted with Mr. Brown, from a desire to serve him, and introduced himself by letter, before Mr. Brown had even heard of his name. The original letter remains in the possession of the family. The following are extracts from it: "To Mr. D. Brown. "Sir-If there be any obligation conferred on you by the application contained in this letter, you owe it entirely to our common friend; for it is in consequence of the very high opinion I have conceived of your character and capacity, from the favorable mention of both in the course of many conversations with your estimable correspondent, that I have been induced to write you this letter. "The officers belonging to the army in Bengal have formed themselves into a society, for the benevolent purpose of supporting, educating, and introducing into life the orphans of both sexes belonging to indigent deceased officers of that settlement: they have twenty-five male, and twenty-one female children under their care in Bengal. Their intentions are to send these children to be educated in England when they arrive at a certain age; but as they propose to have a superintendant of the institution in India, they have authorized a captain of the Bengal army, lately arrived in England, and on the point of re-embarking for Iudia, to look out for a married young gentleman (a clergyman in preference) to proceed to India in one of the ships of this season. As the gentleman embarks for India in ten days, you must make an immediate choice. I have prevailed on him to wait for your answer until Thursday morning; and if you have thoughts of accepting the offer, it will be necessary for you to come to town without the loss of a moment. You will probably have until the beginning of April to get yourself ready, before which I should hope it would be in your power to take orders; because, though that is not an indispensable condition, it would yet be eligible on every account. I am aware that you are at present a batchelor, and it must rest wholly with yourself if you could acquire the other requisite for the situation between this time and your embarkation. I give this to your friend to forward, and am, with esteem, Sir, "Your's, &c. "A. MITCHELL." "Loudon, Feb. 1785." The private papers of Mr. Brown connect all the parts of the narrative. "When this letter reached me at college, I was just recovering from a long indisposition. There were many objections immediately occurred to me; I foresaw them all at a rapid glance, and settled in my mind that I might decline the offer with a good conscience: above all, I was too young for priest's orders, and without ordination I was resolved to accept of no service or situation whatever. I acquainted some of my serious friends with the import of the major's letter, and my sentiments upon it. They differed from me in judgment; they thought it was the voice of Providence, and that so unexpected and singular an application ought not to be disregarded." The Rev. Mr. Romaine also wrote a letter to his parents, avowing that if the same offer had been made to him at the same age, he would gladly have accepted it. Mr. Brown was introduced to the major on the 15th February, and to Captain Fitzpatrick, the agent for the institution, two days afterwards. The captain, expecting to sail, wished to have the articles of agreement filled up; but how was the major surprised to find he had misunderstood the offer, that there were no fewer than five hundred children of the orphan establishment, and that the salary was considerably less than he had first obstacle was easily removed, for, stated however, this unexpected since a larger field of usefulness was thus opened to his view, Mr. Brown signed the articles of agreement, upon proviso that he could obtain orders, without which he was determined not to go. : "I waited," says he, on Dr. Lowth, the bishop of London, asking to be ordained to go abroad: he answered flatly, that he would never ordain another man to go abroad; for that he had ordained several for the colonies, who afterwards remained lounging about the town, a disgrace to the cloth. "On coming out, I said to my new friend the major, Well, this business is at an end; to-morrow I return to Cambridge.' He said, let us call on the Bishop of Landaff (Dr. Watson); he is a liberal man, and will give us his advice.' We did so; and on his hearing the circumstances of our bad success with my lord of London, he regretted our disappointment, wished well to the plan, and observed: that if his grace of Canterbury saw no impropriety in his ordaining me, after having been refused by Dr. Lowth, he would do it most cheerfully; and he advised me to see the archbishop, which I lost no time in doing, and he most cordially approved my undertaking. "I set off for Cambridge on the following day, for the necessary papers which the bishop directed me to procure and with these I again waited on him the 25th: but he appearing now to feel some hesitation on the subject, I caught at it, and said, my lord, I am satisfied, I shall return to college; for my views have been to the ministry, and without ordination I shall not go to India, whatever offers are made me.' After a pause, however, he said he would ordain me, and that he would too have given me priest's orders the day following, if I had been of age to receive them. He appointed the next day for my examination, and ordained me the day after." On the second of March Mr. Brown was elected a corresponding member of the society for promoting christian knowledge. From these reverend gentlemen he had presents of books, and every mark of attention; and the society addressed a recommendatory letter, of which he was the subject, to the court of directors. Sometime afterwards, when the court had received satisfactory testimonials of his character and qualifications, they gave him three hundred guineas for the expenses of the voyage, which were paid in advance. The magnitude of this aid exceeded his hopes; the grateful impression was never effaced. While some unexpected difficulties, and the necessity of waiting for a passage, detained him in England, he kept a journal of daily occurrences, from which we have taken some passages relating to his intimate concerns. As we have seen, it was wished that the superintendant of the Bengal Orphan establishment should go out a married man: to this, Mr. Brown saw no objection, and accordingly offered his hand to a lady to whom he had been some time warmly attached, and who was every way worthy of him; she was a Miss Robinson, of very respectable connections in Hull. They were married on the 4th of March 1785, in the expectation of proceeding at once to India; but it appears that insurmountable obstacles occasion ed them to experience some temporary delay and embarrassment. The journal says, (p. 166,) " I am now to reside in Chelsea, and have very little money and food to provide for my wife and self." During his stay in England, he performed the office of curate at Chelsea church. His means of living comfortably and respectably while he had to remain in this country, and of adequate preparation for the voyage to India, and the due discharge of his calling there, were consulted and extended by the spontaneous and unostentatious assistance of many sincere and closely attached friends; time would fail us to enumerate them all, and it would displease many still living to have their names mentioned. Some of them, imitating the friends of Job after his recovery, made him gifts, and others volunteered small loans: their contributions did not aim to confer opulence, but to make the good of the day competent to a full blessing; and Mr. Brown, as he ultimately had the ability to make returns with interest, treated all these friendly advances equally as loans, where he could shew this honorable remembrance of such kindness without offence. The passage to Calcutta was completed in seven months. On Sunday the 18th of June 1786, he entered upon his charge as chaplain of the military orphan establishment. The interests of so many children demanded his zeal, and he watched over them with affection. Within a few days after arriving, he was nominated chaplain to a brigade in Fort William. During the voyage, he had begun the study of Bengallee, and amidst these active labours he continued the pursuit of this acquirement. In 1787, he superadded to his engagements the services of the mission church. The orphan institution was then altogether on the bank of the river opposite |