American merchant and philanthropist, grandson of Chad Brown; born in Providence, RI, on the 27th of January 1736; died there on the 20th of September 1803. He was a wealthy merchant, and his were said to be the first ships trading between Rhode Island and the East. Anticipating the American Revolution, he had his ships from the East freighted with gunpowder, which went to supply the soldiers of Cambridge. The cornerstone of the first building of Brown University was laid by him. He was one of the largest contributors to that institution, and was for twenty years its treasurer.
