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m. Apr 1682 - John BROWN1684 - 1740
- James BrownAbt 1685 - Abt 1750
Facts and Events
References
- BROWN, WILLIAM, of Dauphin county, was born in 1733, on the Swatara, in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. His grandfather, James Brown, came with his brother John Brown from the north of Ireland to Pennsylvania in 1720, and, while he settled on the Swatara, subsequently Hanover township, the latter located in Paxtang township, in Lancaster county. John Brown was the father of another William Brown, no less eminent than his distinguished cousin. The former was designated as “William Brown, of Paxtang,” while the subject of our sketch as “Captain William Brown.” He was educated at the school of Rev. John Blair, became quite prominent on the frontiers, and was an officer in Rev. Colonel Elder’s battalion of rangers during the French and Indian war. He was one of the prime movers at the Hanover meeting of June 4, 1774, and probably the author of the celebrated resolutions there passed. He recruited a company of Associators, and was in active service during the Jersey campaign of 1776, as well in and around Philadelphia in 1777 and 1778. In 1779 he commanded a company of rangers in the expedition to the West Branch against the Indians and Tories, who were threatening the exposed frontiers. He was a delegate to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the federal constitution of 1787, but did not sign the ratification. He was a member of the State constitutional convention of 1789-90, and under that instrument represented his county in the Legislature in 1792 and 1793. He was chosen one of the Presidential electors in 1797, voting for Mr. Jefferson. Captain Brown died July 20, 1808, at the age of seventy-five.
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