Hugh Stowell Brown (10 August 1823 – 24 February 1886) was a Manx Christian minister and renowned preacher.
Hugh Stowell Brown was a preacher, pastor and social reformer in Liverpool in the nineteenth century. His public lectures and work among the poor brought him great renown. On his death a statue was raised to him, one of only three Liverpool clergymen to receive that honour. His brother was the
Manx poet
Thomas Edward Brown
Thomas Edward Brown (5 May 183029 October 1897), commonly referred to as T. E. Brown, was a late- Victorian scholar, schoolmaster, poet, and theologian from the Isle of Man.
Having achieved a double first at Christ Church, Oxford, and electi ...
.
Life
He was born at
Douglas
Douglas may refer to:
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* Douglas (surname)
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* Douglas (parrot), macaw that starred as the parrot ''Rosalinda'' in Pippi Longstocking
*Douglas the camel, a camel in the Confederate Army in the American Civi ...
,
Isle of Man
)
, anthem = "O Land of Our Birth"
, image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg
, image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg
, mapsize =
, map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe
, map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green)
in Europe ...
, on 10 August 1823, was second son of Robert Brown, and his wife Dorothy (Thomson).
Thomas Edward Brown
Thomas Edward Brown (5 May 183029 October 1897), commonly referred to as T. E. Brown, was a late- Victorian scholar, schoolmaster, poet, and theologian from the Isle of Man.
Having achieved a double first at Christ Church, Oxford, and electi ...
was his younger brother, and he was a cousin of
Hugh Stowell
Hugh Stowell (3 December 1799 – 8 October 1865) was a Church of England clergyman with a reputation as a "vigorous and inspiring preacher". He was an implacable opponent of Catholic emancipation whose supporters built Christ Church in Sal ...
. The father, Robert Brown (died 1846), was at one time master of the grammar school in Douglas, and in 1817 became chaplain of St. Matthew's chapel in that town. An evangelical of low-church views, he never read the
Athanasian Creed
The Athanasian Creed, also called the Pseudo-Athanasian Creed and sometimes known as ''Quicunque Vult'' (or ''Quicumque Vult''), which is both its Latin name and its opening words, meaning "Whosoever wishes", is a Christian statement of belief ...
, and took no notice of
Ash Wednesday
Ash Wednesday is a holy day of prayer and fasting in many Western Christian denominations. It is preceded by Shrove Tuesday and falls on the first day of Lent (the six weeks of penitence before Easter). It is observed by Catholics in the Rom ...
or Lent. In 1832, he became curate of Kirk Braddan, succeeding as vicar on 2 April 1836.
He learned
Manx in order to preach in it, and supported a family of nine on less than £200 a year. His boys spent the summers in collecting his tithes of hay and corn, intermittently walking five miles to Douglas Grammar School, but Hugh's early education consisted chiefly in reading four or five hours daily to his father, who became almost blind. Robert Brown was found dead by the roadside on 28 November 1846, and buried next day at Kirk Braddan. He wrote twenty-two ''Sermons on various Subjects,'' Wellington (Shropshire) and London, 1818, 8vo; and a volume of ''Poems, principally Sacred,'' London, 1826.
Hugh was apprenticed when fifteen to a land surveyor, and employed in
tithe commutation and ordnance surveys in Cheshire, Shrewsbury, and York. In 1840, he entered the
London and Birmingham Railway
The London and Birmingham Railway (L&BR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom, in operation from 1833 to 1846, when it became part of the London and North Western Railway (L&NWR).
The railway line which the company opened in 1838, betw ...
's
works
Works may refer to:
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* Caddy Works (1896–1982), American college sports coach
* Samuel Works (c. 1781–1868), New York politician
Albums
* '' ''Works'' (Pink Floyd album)'', a Pink Floyd album from 1983
* ''Works'', a Gary Burton album ...
at
Wolverton
Wolverton is a constituent town of Milton Keynes, England. It is located at the northern edge of Milton Keynes, beside the West Coast Main Line, the Grand Union Canal and the river Great Ouse. It is the administrative seat of Wolverton and G ...
,
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...
. While earning from four to eight shillings a week he began to study Greek, chalking his first exercises on a fire-box. After three years at Wolverton he returned home and entered
King William's College
King William's College (nicknamed KWC or King Bill's; gv, Colleish Ree Illiam) is an independent school for pupils aged 3 to 18, located near Castletown on the Isle of Man. It is a member of the International Baccalaureate and Headmasters' and ...
at
Castletown to study for the church. When his training was almost complete he felt unable to subscribe to the ordination service, and resolved to return to his trade; but in the meantime was baptised at Stony Stratford, lost his father, and received unexpectedly an invitation to preach at Myrtle Street Baptist Chapel, Liverpool in March 1847.
In November 1847, he was accepted by that congregation as their minister. He was then twenty-four. There he remained until his death, winning great popularity as a preacher.
To his Sunday afternoon lectures, established in 1854 in the Concert Hall, Liverpool, Brown drew from two to three thousand working men, whom his own early experiences, added to great power and plainness of speech, with abundant humour, powerfully influenced. He anticipated the Post Office by opening a workman's savings bank, to which over £80,000 was entrusted before it was wound up. In 1871, he visited Canada and the States.
Brown was president in 1878 of the
Baptist Union
Baptists Together (officially The Baptist Union of Great Britain) is a Baptist Christian denomination in England and Wales. It is affiliated with the Baptist World Alliance and Churches Together in England. The headquarters is in Didcot.
H ...
. His addresses (printed in London, 1878) were an appeal for a better educated nonconformist ministry. He thought at one time of retiring from Liverpool to open a hall at Oxford or Cambridge, to be affiliated to one of the colleges. He was in favour of abandoning denominational colleges, the students to take their arts degrees at existing universities. He was an active member of the
Baptist Missionary Society
BMS World Mission is a Mission (Christian), Christian missionary society founded by Baptists from England in 1792. It was originally called the Particular Baptist Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Amongst the Heathen, but for most of its ...
, and for many years president of the Liverpool Peace Society and chairman of the Seaman's Friend Association.
Brown died after a few days' illness from apoplexy on 24 February 1886 at 29
Falkner Square
Falkner Square is a square in Canning on the border of Liverpool city centre and Toxteth. Falkner Square Gardens occupy the centre of the square. The Square was completed in 1830 and in 1835 the central area was acquired as a park, one of the f ...
, Liverpool, and was buried on 28 February at the
Liverpool Necropolis
Grant Gardens, previously Liverpool Necropolis, is a park and former cemetery in Liverpool, United Kingdom. It is named after Alderman J. R. Grant, J.P, chairman of the Corporation Parks and Gardens Committee.
The Necropolis opened in 1825, wi ...
.
Family
Brown married, first, in 1848, Alice Chibnall Sirett, who was the mother of all his children, and died in 1863; secondly, he married Phoebe, sister to Liberal politician
William Sproston Caine.
She died on 25 March 1884.
Statue
Soon after his death a statue of Hugh Stowell Brown was paid for by public subscription. The Statue was unveiled on Tuesday 15 October 1889 in the churchyard at the front of Myrtle Street Baptist Church opposite the Philharmonic Hall.
In 1939, Myrtle Street church was closed and subsequently demolished, and the site became a car park. The statue was moved to Princes Road/Avenue, close to Princes Park gates, Liverpool on Saturday 25 September 1954.
The statue was then removed around the time that the William Huskisson was toppled from its pedestal in 1988. It had suffered extensive damage lay forlornly in the stable yard at Croxteth Hall in Liverpool until in early 2014.
Then as part of the planning stipulations for the development of student apartments on Hope Street an agreement between the Nordic Construction (the developers) and Liverpool City Council was made to restore the statue and erect it on Hope street at the entrance to the apartments and opposite the Philharmonic pub.
The restoration itself was coordinated via Nick Roberson of Roberson Stone Carving and Stewart Darlow of Nordic Construction to ensure the project was kept as original as possible.
The extensive restoration began with cleaning the once white marble. This included removal of lichen, algae and moss and extensive steam cleaning. The hands, foot and sack coat damage were replaced using matching Italian marble and original photographic reference to replicate the lost detail. This left the nose and ears which were restored using marble dust and lime in accordance with current accepted restoration practice.
On 10 September 2015 the 7.5 tonne restored statue and plinth were finally erected not far from their original location on Hope Street.
Biography
A biography of Hugh Stowell Brown was published on 19 September 2019 by Instant Apostle. The book is called ''A Ready Man''
and the author is Baptist minister and broadcaster
Wayne Clarke.
References
;Attribution
External links
*
"Rev. Hugh Stowell Brown, Campaign" ''Liverpool Monuments''
"Hugh Stowell Brown" Wayne Clarke's pages on Hugh Stowell Brown
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Hugh Stowell
1823 births
1886 deaths
19th-century English Baptist ministers
Manx Baptists
Manx religious leaders
People educated at King William's College
People from Douglas, Isle of Man