Note: John Brown graduated from Princeton College in 1749. He was a
Presbyterian mininster and served the New Providence Church in
Rockbridge Co., VA for 44 years. In 1796 he retired and moved to
Woodford County, Kentucky where he resided at an estate known as
"Sumner's Forest" on the Shannon Run Pike. His biography from [IT:The
Prestons of Smithfield and Greenfield in Virginia:IT] by John
Frederick Dorman (The Filson Club, 1982) follows: John Bown was a
graduate of Princeton College in 1749.[1] He was licensed by New
Castle Presbytery and sent to the Valley of Virginia, where in 1753[2]
he was called to Providence and Timber Ridge churches in Augusta
County. He was ordained at Fagg's Manor, Chester Co., Pa., 11 Oct.
1753 and was one of the six ministers of the Presbytery of Hanover
when it was formed in 1755.[3] On 25 Aug. 1756 he was one of the four
appointed by Hanover Presbytery to transact business when the
Presbytery could not meet.[4] He established a grammar school near his
residence one-fourth mile north of the village of Fairfield in Augusta
County. In 1774 the Presbytery of Hanover adopted this school and
appointed William Graham teacher under Brown. In 1777 the school was
transferred to Timber Ridge and later it was moved to Lexington. He
was a trustee of this school, then known as Augusta Academy, from 1776
until 1782. From it developed Washington and Lee University.[5]
About 1763 a difference took place between Brown and some of the
leading men of the Timber Ridge congregation.[6] As a result, he
resigned the ministerial charge of Timber Ridge in Oct. 1767 and
thereafter confined his labors to New Providence Church.[7] Many of
the Timber Ridge members retained such an affection for him, however,
that they attended almost steadily the New Providence meetings and
communions.[8] He was the moderator of the first stated meeting of
Lexington Presbytery, held at Timber Ridge 26 Sept. 1786, and was
again moderator of the meeting at New Providence Church 20 Oct.
1788.[9] In 1796, weighed down by the infirmities of age, he resigned
as pastor of New Providence Church.[10] Shortly thereafter he moved to
Kentucky and resided at "Sumners Forest" in Woodford County.[11]
Footnotes:
1 Princeton University, Catologus (Princeton, 1857), p. 17. His
diploma is preserved in the University library.
2 Alfred Nevin, ed., Encyclopaedia of the Presbyterian Church in
the United States of
America (Philadelphia, 1864), p. 106; William Henry Foote, Sketches of
Virginia, v. 2 (Philadelphia, 1856), p. 94; Washington and Lee
University, Historical Papers, no. 2 (Baltimore, 1890), p. 11;
National Genealogical Society Quarterly, v. 59, pp. 24-26.
3 Contributions to the History of the Synod of Virginia (Washington,
1890), p. 34.
4 Foote, op. cit., p. 57.
5 Nevin, op. cit., p. 943; Washington and Lee University, The Alumni
Directory (Lexington, 1926), p. 27.
6 Foote, op. cit., p. 59.
7 Ibid., p. 97. The records of Hanover Presbytery for 11 Oct. 1767
state: "Mr. Brown laid before Presbytery the extent of his charge, and
the difficulties of performing the duties of his functions, and also
declared to the Presbytery that he verily believes that his usefulness
is at an end in Timber Ridge Congregation; and as he apprehends it
would be for the good of said congregation that the pastoral relation
he sustains to them should be dissolved (the people of Timber Ridge in
the mean time petitioning against his dismission, and sending
commissioners to oppose it), the Presbytery . . . leave it to himself
to continue with them. or confine himself to Providence, at his own
discretion."
8 Foote op. cit., p. 60.
9 Howard McKnight Wilson, The Lexington Presbytery Heritage (n.p.,
1971), p. 417.
10 Ibid., p. 99; Nevin, op. cit., p. 943.
11William E. Railey, History of Woodford County (Frankfort, Ky.,
1938), p. 78; Woodford Co., Ky., tax book, 1798, cited in The Filson
Club History Quarterly, v. 19, p. 22.
Acknowledgements
This person was created through the import of LaBach Family TreeApril28_2011.ged on 05 May 2011. The following data was included in the gedcom. You may wish to edit it for readability.
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