David Brown (24 June 1734 - 13 May 1804) was a Scottish-Danish merchant and shipowner. His trading house, established in a partnership with his brother

John Brown (1723–1808) John Brown (3 March 1723 - 16 January 1808) was a Scottish-Danish merchant and ship-owner. He was a joint founder of John & David Brown in 1759. The company owned 17 ships in 1787 but was liquidated the following year. He was also active in the Da ...

was active in overseas trade. He served as Lord Governor of

Tranquebar Tharangambadi (), formerly Tranquebar ( da, Trankebar, ), is a town in the Mayiladuthurai district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu on the Coromandel Coast. It lies north of Karaikal, near the mouth of a distributary named Uppanar of the Kave ...

Danish India Danish India () was the name given to the colonies of Denmark (Denmark–Norway before 1814) in the Indian subcontinent, forming part of the Danish colonial empire. Denmark–Norway held colonial possessions in India for more than 200 years, i ...

from February 1774 to January 1779.

Biography

Brown was born in

Dalkeith Dalkeith ( ; gd, Dail Cheith, IPA: �t̪alˈçe is a town in Midlothian, Scotland, on the River Esk. It was granted a burgh of barony in 1401 and a burgh of regality in 1540. The settlement of Dalkeith grew southwestwards from its 12th-cent ...

, Scotland, the son of William Brown and Margeret Brown. He came to Denmark in 1757 and was first employed as a clerk at the Nicolai Fenwich trading house in

Helsingør Helsingør ( , ; sv, Helsingör), classically known in English as Elsinore ( ), is a city in eastern Denmark. Helsingør Municipality had a population of 62,686 on 1 January 2018. Helsingør and Helsingborg in Sweden together form the northern ...

. In 1750 he came to

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

. David and John Brown founded John & David Brown in 1759. It owned its own fleet of merchant ships which traded on the

Danish West Indies The Danish West Indies ( da, Dansk Vestindien) or Danish Antilles or Danish Virgin Islands were a Danish colonization of the Americas, Danish colony in the Caribbean, consisting of the islands of Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, Saint Thomas ...

. The firm offered commission, speculation and exchange trading. Its vessels mainly had the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

and the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

as their destinations, and the trading house eventually came to play a significant role in the maintenance of the West Indian trade. In 1781 he bought the Unrost shipyard. The name of the firm was changed to John & William Brown & Co. in 1782.

Danish India

On 14 February 1775, Brown succeeded

Hermann Abbestée Hermann Abbestée (29 July 1728 – 29 December 1794) was Danish governor of Tranquebar from 1762 to 1775 and the first royal governor of Danish India from 1779 to 1788. He served as one of the seven directors of the Danish Asiatic Company from ...

as Lord Governor of Tranquebar. His term ended on 17 January 1779.

Property

In 1788, David Brown bought Benzonseje Manor from his brother. Je later sold it again to the estate administrator

Lars Lassen Lars Lassen (1761 – 6 June 1823) was a Danish landowner, proprietor, chamber councilor "kammerråd" and agricultural commissioner. He was the son of Niels Lassen (1729-1811) and Karen Sørensdatter (1726-1810). Lars owned the estates Benzo ...

in 1789.

Personal life

Brown married Anna Fenwick (1741-1776). She was a daughter of Nicolas Fenwick, merchant in Helsingør, and his wife Elisabeth Fenwick née Watson. She died in Tranquebar in 1776. He then married Mary Forbes (1751-1827). His first wife bore him the following children: William Brown, Margrethe Elisabeth (Betzy) Brown, Nicolas Brown, Amelie Louise Brown, John Lewis Brown, Melior Anna (Nancy) Brown and David Brown. His second wife bore him one daughter, Mary Brown (1785-1793), who died as a child. Brown died on 13 May 1804 at Maglegård in

Gentofte Gentofte () is a district of Gentofte Municipality in the northern suburbs of Copenhagen, Denmark. Major landmarks include Gentofte Town Hall, Gentofte Hospital and Gentofte Church. Gentofte Lake with surrounding parkland and nature reserves form ...

. He was buried at Sankt Mariæ Kirke in Vor Frue Kloster in

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, David 18th-century Danish businesspeople Danish businesspeople in shipping British emigrants to Denmark Danish expatriates in India People from Dalkeith Scottish emigrants to Denmark Scottish expatriates in Denmark 1734 births 1804 deaths