BROWN, John, (cousin of James Breckinridge, cousin of Francis Preston, brother of James Brown, cousin of John Breckinridge), A Delegate and a Representative from Virginia and a Senator from Kentucky; born in Staunton, Va., September 12, 1757; attended Washington College (now Washington and Lee University), Lexington, Va., and Princeton College; served in the Revolutionary War; completed his studies at William and Mary College, Williamsburg, Va.; taught school for several years; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1782 and commenced practice in Frankfort, Ky.; member, Virginia senate from the district of Kentucky 1784-1788; Delegate from the Kentucky district of Virginia to the Continental Congress in 1787 and 1788; elected from Virginia to the First and Second Congresses and served from March 4, 1789, to June 1, 1792, when that portion of Virginia which is now Kentucky was admitted as a State into the Union; elected as Anti-Administration (later Democratic Republican) on June 18, 1792, to the United States Senate from Kentucky for the term ending March 3, 1793; reelected on December 11, 1792, and again in 1799, and served from June 18, 1792, to March 3, 1805; served as President pro tempore of the Senate during the Eighth Congress; resumed the practice of law; died in Frankfort, Ky., August 29, 1837; interment in Frankfort Cemetery.
View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress
[ Top ]Bentley, James R., ed. "Letter of Rev. John Brown to John Brown, Jr., 10 June 1786." Filson Club History Quarterly 45 (January 1971): 72-76.
Dupre, Huntley, ed. "Three Letters of George Nicholas to John Brown." Register of the Kentucky State Historical Society 41 (January 1943): 1-10.
Padgett, James A., ed. "The Letters of Honorable John Brown to the Presidents of the United States." Register of the Kentucky State Historical Society 35 (January 1937): 1-28.
Sprague, Stuart Seely. "Jefferson, Kentucky and the Closing of the Port of New Orleans, 1802-1803." Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 70 (October 1972): 312-17.
___. "Senator John Brown of Kentucky, 1757-1837: A Political Biography." Ph.D. dissertation, New York University, 1972.
Walker, Steven. Kentucky's First Senator: The Life and Times of John Brown, 1757-1837. Louisville: Butler Books, 2022.
Warren, Elizabeth. "John Brown and His Influence on Kentucky Politics, 1784-1805." Ph.D. dissertation, Northwestern University, 1938.
Watlington, Patricia. "John Brown and the Spanish Conspiracy." Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 75 (January 1967): 52-68.
