Brown, Francis (1784-1820)

Name:

Brown, Francis (1784-1820)

Title:

Tutor, Dartmouth College, 1806-1809
Minister, Congregational Church, North Yarmouth, ME 1810-1815
Overseer, Trustee, Bowdoin College
President, Dartmouth College, 1815-1820

Born:

01/11/1784

Birthplace:

Chester, NH

Died:

07/27/1820

Death Location:

Hanover, NH

Residence:

Chester, NH
Atkinson, NH
Hanover, NH 1802-1809, 1815-1820
Williamstown, VT
North Yarmouth, ME 1810-1815

Nationality:

American

Occupation:

Educator
Clergyman

Father:

Brown, Benjamin

Mother:

Kelly, Prudence

Spouse:

Gilman, Elizabeth (1776-1851), February 4, 1811

Children:

Samuel Gilman, born 1813; died 1885
Mary Elizabeth, born 1814; died 1896
Francis, born 1817; died 1818
Nancy, born 1819; died 1842

Notes:

A pastor from North Yarmouth, Maine, he presided over Dartmouth College during the famous Supreme Court hearing of Trustees of Dartmouth College v. William H. Woodward or, as it is more commonly called, the Dartmouth College Case. The contest was a pivotal one for Dartmouth and for the newly independent nation. It tested the contract clause of the Constitution and arose from an 1816 controversy involving the legislature of the state of New Hampshire, which amended the 1769 charter granted to Eleazar Wheelock, making Dartmouth a public institution and changing its name to Dartmouth University. Under the leadership of President Brown, the Trustees resisted the effort and the case for Dartmouth was argued by Daniel Webster before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1818.

Henry Wood, "Sketch of the Life of President Brown," The American Quarterly Register, 7(November, 1834)2, 133-145.

Dartmouth College Cemetery, Hanover, NH