John Brown, of Wamphray, church leader, was probably born at Kirkcudbright; he graduated at the university of Edinburgh24 July 1630. He was probably not settled till 1655, although he comes first into notice in some highly complimentary references to him in Samuel Rutherford's letters in 1637. In the year 1655 he was ordained minister of the parish of Wamphray in Annandale. For many years he seems to have been quietly engaged in his pastoral duties, in which he must have been very efficient, for his name still lives in the district in affectionate remembrance. After the restoration he was not only compelled by the acts of Parliament of 1662 to leave his charge, but he was one of a few ministers who were arrested and banished, owing to the ability and earnestness with which they had opposed the arbitrary conduct of the king in the affairs of the church. On 6 November 1662 he was sentenced to be kept a close prisoner in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, his crime being that he had called some ministers ‘false knaves’ for keeping synod with the archbishop. The state of the prison causing his health to break down, he was banished 11 December from the king’s dominions, and ordered not to return on pain of death. He went to Holland. In 1676 Charles II urged the States-General to banish him from their country, a step which they refused to take. For a few years he was minister of the Scottish church in Rotterdam, and shortly before his death, which occurred in 1679, he took part in the ordination of Richard Cameron.
Life
John Brown probably born and educated at Kirkcudbright; M.A.. Though noticed as a minister by Samuel Rutherford in his correspondence as early as 1637, he was probably not settled in Wamphray earlier than 1655. He was deprived by Act of Parliament11th June, and Decreet of Privy Council 1 October 1662. On 6 November thereafter, he was accused of reproaching some of his brethren, calling them "perjured knaves and villains," for attending the Diocesan Synod at Glasgow, and was sentenced to be kept a "close prisoner in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh." After being there five weeks, to the impairing of his health and danger of his life, he petitioned for a release. This was granted on condition of "obliging himself to remove and depart off the king's dominions, and not to return without licence from his majesty and council, under pain of death." He went to Rotterdam in March 1663, and ministered in the Scots Church there. In 1677, in consequence of repeated representations from King Charles, Brown and two others were ordered by the Dutch Government to withdraw from Rotterdam. He retired to Utrecht, but returned to Rotterdam in 1678, and died there in September 1679. Shortly before his death, he took part in the ordination of Richard Cameron. He was aged about 69, and apparently unmarried. His wealth consisted in his library. He bequeathed by his will, dated 2 April 1676, "one hundred guineas to the poor of the Scottish congregation, Rotterdam, after the selling of his books," "specially excepting the Complutensian Bible in six volumes, which he gave to his endeared friend and brother, Robert M'Ward."
Works
He was the author of many learned and elaborate works, among which were
Other treatises were published between 1720 and 1792, and a manuscript history of the church is in the university library at Edinburgh. Of his treatise on justification a writer says: ‘It is by far our most thorough exposition and dismission of the doctrine it handles; and it is all the more to be prized because of the particular bearing it has on the new views which Baxter and others had begun to propagate, and which in some shape are ever returning among ourselves’.
An Apologeticall Relation of the Sufferings of Ministers and Professors of the Church of Scotland ;
Libri duo : in priori Wolzogium,... in posteriori Lamberti Velthusii ;
