A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Brown, Thomas

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BROWN. (Rear-Admiral, of the White, 1838. f-p., 40; HP., 20.)

Thomas Brown entered the Navy, towards the close of 1787, as Midshipman, on board the Elizabeth 74, Capt. Bourmaster, guard-ship at Portsmouth, and in the following year sailed for the East Indies in the Phoenix 36, commanded successively by Capts. Geo. Anson Byron and Sir Rich. John Strachan, under the latter of whom he partook, in Nov. 1791, on the Malabar coast, of an obstinate conflict with the French frigate La Résolue, of 46 guns, which terminated in the enemy striking his colours after occasioning a loss to himself of 25 killed and 40 wounded, and to the British of 6 killed and 11 wounded. In 1792 Mr. Brown removed to the Minerva 38, flag-ship of Hon. Wm. Cornwallis, and after assisting, in 1793, at the reduction of Chandenagore, Pondicherry, and other places, he returned home with that officer in the Excellent 74, and next followed him into the Caesar 80, one of the fleet in the Channel, where he was promoted to a Lieutenancy in the Glory 98, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Bourmaster, 24 Oct. 1794. His succeeding appointments were – in Nov. following, to the Venerable 74, flag-ship of Sir John Orde on the same station – 11 April, 1795, to the Flora 36, Capt. Robt. Gambler Middleton – 19 June, 1801, as First-Lieutenant, to the Centaur 74, Capt. Bendall Robt. Littlehales, in the Channel – 26 March, 1802, to the Leander 50, Capt. Upton, fitting for the Halifax station – and, 3 July following, to the Royal Charlotte yacht, Capt. Sir Harry Burrard Neale, off Weymouth. During the six years he was attached to the Flora we find him present at the occupation of Porto Ferrajo, in July, 1796; at the capture, besides the French 16-gun corvette La Corceyre, of nine privateers, carrying in the whole 102 guns and 640 men; and in the expedition to Egypt under Lord Keith and Sir Ralph Abercromby, whose mortal remains he subsequently conveyed to Malta. Capt. Brown, who was advanced to the rank of Commander 8 Oct. 1802, was next appointed, 14 Jan. 1803, to the William store-ship, and, in Sept. of the same year, to the Orestes 14, in which vessel he afforded every support and assistance to Commodore Owen of the Immortalité in a skirmish with the Boulogne flotilla, 23 Oct. 1804,^[1] and had the misfortune to be wrecked, 11 July, 1805, on the Splinter Sand, in Dunkerque Road. After cruizing for some time to the westward in the Raven brig, he was awarded, 22 Jan. 1806, the command of the Solebay 32, engaged on Channel service, and he next joined in succession Sept. 1808, the Inflexible 64, employed in the River Medway and off Halifax – 29 May, 1810, the Curaçoa, stationed in the Channel – 30 Aug. 1810 the Vengeur 74, flag-ship of Sir Joseph Sydney Yorke, in which, after escorting a large body of troops intended as a reinforcement to the Duke of Wellington’s army in Portugal, he cruized oif the Western Islands for the protection of a homeward-bound East India fleet – 29 Nov. 1811, the Bulwark 74, Commodore Sir Rich. King, serving off Brest and L’Orient – and, 21 March, 1812, and 20 Nov. 1814, the Loire 38, and Saturn 56, in both of which ships he took a very active part in the hostile operations on the coast of North America, and, in the former, captured, 10 Dec. 1813, the Rolla privateer, of 5 guns and 80 men.^[2] He was placed out of commission 24 April, 1815; obtained command of the Ordinary at Sheerness 14 Oct. 1816; was selected by Rear-Admiral Robt. Lambert to be his Flag-Captain in the Vigo 74, at St. Helena, then the abode of Napoleon Buonaparte, 12 Nov. 1819;^[3] from 16 Oct. 1822, until his return home with specie to the amount of 820,000 dollars, 31 Jan. 1826, commanded the Tartar 42, in South America, where he was presented by the celebrated Bolivar with his portrait, as a mark of esteem; was next appointed, 26 Oct. 1831, to the Talavera 74, employed on Particular Service; and, on 17 May, 1833, assumed command of the Caledonia 120, as Flag-Captain to Sir Josias Rowley in the Mediterranean. Capt. Brown was superseded in Oct. 1835, and has since been on half-pay. He obtained his Flag 28 June, 1838.

Rear-Admiral Brown’s eldest son, Thomas Bourmaster, is a Commander in the Navy; and another son, Seymour Yorke, died a Lieutenant in the same service. One of his daughters is married to Commander Jas. Wm. Morgan, R.N. Agents – Messrs. Stilwell.

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Addendum

BROWN. (Vice-Admiral of the Red, 1846.)

Thomas Brown, when a Lieutenant of the Flora, commanded a gun-launch during the operations in Egypt in 1801, and for his services obtained the Turkish gold medal. In command of the Orestes he was frequently, in 1804-5, in action with the enemy’s flotilla between Dunkerque, Calais, and Boulogne. On one occasion he captured two armed schuyts; and on another he engaged and drove into port in a sinking state a praam of 18 guns, bearing the flag of a Rear-Admiral, and at the time in company with many other vessels. In July, 1805, he volunteered to endeavour to discover a passage for leading a British squadron into Dunkerque. While he was so employed the Orestes, at the commencement of an ebb-tide, took the ground on the Bree-Sand. The enemy’s shot soon passing through her hull, and their flotilla dropping down, it was found necessary to blow her up, to prevent her from falling into their hands. In the Solebay Capt. Brown, in 1808, chased a French frigate into Cherbourg; and in the Vengeur, in 1811, he united with the Venerable 74, Capt. Sir Home Popham, in driving into the same port two line-of-battle ships and a frigate. The Loire, while he was in her, compelled the American ship President to put into New York, twice engaged Commodore Barney’s flotilla of gunboats in the Patuxent, and was otherwise actively employed both in that river and the Potomac under Sir Geo. Cockburn. During his stay in the Chesapeake Capt. Brown, on more occasions than one, landed with the seamen and marines. From the early part of 1837 until he was promoted to Flag-rank he filled the appointment of extra Naval Aide-de-Camp to His late and Her present Majesty.

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1. Vide Gaz. 1804, p. 1320.
2. Vide Gaz. 1814, p. 1966.
3. Capt. Brown was one of the three naval Captains who, with Sir Hudson Lowe, Rear- Admiral Lambert, and the other authorities, inspected the body of the unfortunate Emperor on the morning after his decease, 6 May, 1821. – Vide Gaz. 1821, p. 1409.