Thomas Brown (minister and natural historian)

Thomas Brown FRSE (1811–1893) was a Scottish minister in the Free Church of Scotland who rose to its highest rank, Moderator of the General Assembly in 1890.

He was born on 23 April 1811 in the manse at Langton, Berwickshire in south-east Scotland, the son of John Brown, minister of that parish.

[1] He trained in theology at Edinburgh University and began working as a minister in 1837 at Kinneff in Aberdeenshire.

He spent some years without a ministry before being placed in the relatively prestigious Dean Free Church on Belford Road in north-west Edinburgh in 1849.

He remained in the Free Church of Scotland for the rest of his life, serving as its Moderator for 1890/91 and the age of 79[2] in succession to Rev John Laird.