Later he became captain of a large West Indiaman, the Mary & Jean, belonging to the Thames and sailing to such destinations as Grenada in the southeastern Caribbean Sea.

[2] Burns describes him as "This gentleman's mind was fraught with courage, independence, magnanimity, and every noble manly virtue."

Other views of Richard Brown was less charitable, such as: "That moral leper who spoke of illicit love with all the levity of a sailor".

[3] Gilbert Burns says of Robert's days in Irvine that he here "contracted some acquaintances of a freer manner of thinking and living than he had been used to, whose society prepared him for overleaping the bounds of rigid virtue, which had hitherto restrained him".

[7] When living at Port Glasgow he was noted to be interested in education and religion, with a hospitable, kind and generous nature.

Robert Burns lived in Irvine during the years 1781–1782, at the age of 23, (1759–1796) for a period of around 9 months,[8][9] whilst learning the craft of flax-dressing from his mother's half-brother, Alexander Peacock, working at the heckling shop in the Glasgow Vennel.

[10] During this time he made a number of acquaintances, befriended several locals and in particular struck up a lasting friendship with Richard Brown, with whom he took regular walks into the Eglinton Woods via the old Irvine-to-Kilwinning toll road and the Drukken or Drucken (Drunken)[11] Steps over the Red Burn and back via the site of Saint Brides or Bryde's Well at Stanecastle.

He was the only man I ever saw who was a greater fool than myself when WOMAN was the presiding star; but he spoke of a certain fashionable failing with levity, which hitherto I had regarded with horror.

Adding that : "Almighty Love still "reigns and revels" in my bosom; and I am at this moment ready to hang myself for a young Edinr.

On February 15, 1788 Burns wrote to Richard, saying I shall arrive at Glasgow on Monday evening, and beg if possible, you will meet me on Tuesday: I shall wait you Tuesday all day − I shall be found at Durie's Black Bull Inn − I am hurried as if hunted by fifty devils, else I would come to Greenock: but if you cannot possibly come, write me, if possible, to Glasgow[17] On 24 February Burns writes from Mossgiel that I arrived here, at my brother's, only yesterday; after fighting my way thro' Paisley and Kilmarnock against those old powerful foes of mine, the Devil, the World, and the Flesh; so terrible in the fields of Dissipation − I have met with few incidents in my life which give me so much pleasure as meeting you in Glasgow.

[17] In a letter written in answer to correspondence from Richard Brown of 28 February 1788, Burns, then at Mauchline, relates to his "Dear friend", in March 1788, how he found Jean, on his return from Edinburgh, pregnant by him for a second time, and cast out by her family: I found Jean — with her cargo very well laid in; but unfortunately moor'd almost at the mercy of the wind and tide: I have towed her into convenient harbour where she may lie snug till she unload; and have taken the command myself — not ostensibly, but for a time, in secret.

Then he explains his new job with the Excise and goes on to reflect on their long friendship and invites Brown and his wife to visit him at Ellisland.