BROWN, JOHN (1715-1766), British divine and author, was born at Rothbury, Northumberland, on Nov. 5, 1715, and was educated at St. John's college, Cambridge. He was senior wrangler in 1735, took holy orders, and was appointed minor canon and lecturer at Carlisle. His poem, entitled "Honour" , was followed by the "Essay on Satire" which gained for him the friendship of William Warburton. In 1751 he wrote his Essay on the Characteristics of Lord Shaftesbury, containing an able defence of the utilitarian philosophy. In 1756 he received the living of Great Horkesley, in Essex. He was the author of two plays, Barbarossa (1754) and Athelstane (1756) ; Garrick played in both, and the first was a success. The most popular of his works was the Estimate of the Manners and Principles of the Times (1757-58), a bitter satire which pleased a public depressed by the ill-success in the conduct of the war. Other works are the Additional Dialogue of the Dead between Pericles and Cosmo . . . (1760, in vindication of Chatham's policy; and the Dis sertation on the Rise, Union and Power, etc., of Poetry and Music (1763) . Invited by Catherine II. of Russia to advise her on education, he prepared for the journey but relinquished the design on account of his gout. He committed suicide on Sept. 23, 1766. There is a detailed account of John Brown by Andrew Kippis in Biographia Britannica (178o) . See also T. Davies, Memoirs of . . . David Garrick (1780), chap. xix.