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BRITISH FAMILIES IN DENMARK – JOHN, WILLIAM AND DAVID
BROWN
The Brown family of Denmark is particularly well known, thanks to two illustrated
biographical volumes by the noted Danish genealogist Th. Hauch-Fausbøll (Af slægten
Browns historie; Records of the Browns of Coulston House). Copies of these volumes can
be found in Frederiksberg Bibliotek. Several of the Brown family also figure in Danish
biographical lexicons. There were three Brown brothers, all sons of William Brown and
Margaret Howet of Dalkeith, Scotland, who came to Denmark in the 1740s and 1750s.
John Brown [1723–1803], the eldest son, arrived in Helsingør in 1746 and took upemployment in the trading company of Nicholas Fenwick. In 1750 he moved to
Copenhagen, and lodged with Peter Appleby and his wife Anna Partridge while establishing
himself as a wholesale trader. In 1756 he married Peter Appelby’s daughter Anna in
Copenhagen, and they had 10 children between 1758 and 1775. In 1759 he established a
business company with his brother (John & David Brown & Co), which had extensive trade
in the West Indies and Mediterranean, and later in India where his brother David became
local Governor. In the late 1750s he became a major participant in the Asiatisk Kompagni,
and was a Director from 1770–75 and 1779–85. John Brown also established a sugar
refinery in Odense, and became a major landowner (the second largest in Gentofte) with
particular interests in agriculture. In 1782 his son William joined him in business, and their
merchant house changed its name accordingly to John & William Brown & Co. The
company had a fleet of 17 ships involved in trade, but with the advent of war in 1788, John
Brown sold his trading fleet and much of his property. He spent his last years in a few
rooms of his main property Maglegård, which had been purchased by his daughter. He isburied with his wife in Appleby’s chapel at Frederiks German
church.
William Brown [1729–1796] came initially to Helsingør in 1749 to join his brother John,but soon after returned to
Scotland to gain business experience, returning in Helsingør in1754. In 1760 William married Louise Godenius, and became a shop-keeper in Helsingør.They had four children. William Brown’s business prospered, and in the early 1770s he was
one of the biggest taxpayers in Helsingør. A quiet, industrious and modest man, hesuffered several family
tragedies, and from the 1780s his business declined.
David Brown [1734–1804] was the youngest son of the brothers, and is said to have
come to Copenhagen about 1753. By 1759 he was in partnership with his brother as ‘John
& David Brown’. He married Anna Fenwick in 1762 1), and they had 7 children in the next 12
years in Copenhagen. In May 1773 he was elected governor of the Danish colony of
Trankebar in south-east India, and his residence there was marked by an upswing in the
colony’s status, with flourishing trade and good political relationships with the Indian princes
and British colonies. His wife Anna Fenwick died giving birth to their eighth child Mathæus.David returned to Copenhagen in 1780, and resumed his trading business with his brother
John, as well as taking up citizenship as a grocer in 1781. In 1784 he married Mary Forbes
and they had two children. David Brown lost everything he owned due to his involvement in
the collapse of his brother’s and son-in-law’s merchant house in 1788, but fortunately
obtained a post as ‘Keeper of the Seal’ at the custom house in Helsingør which revived hisfortunes to the extent that he was able to purchase Gurrehus in 1796. He died in Helsingør
in May 1804.
(Kilde: http://www.st-albans.dk/newsletter/news0411.pdf.)
1): gift /
married 14/7 1762. (:Webmaster)
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