Hon. John Carter Brown

John Carter Brown the younger son of Nicholas and Ann Carter Brown, was born in Providence 28 August 1797. He married Sophia Augusta Brown, daughter of Patrick Brown. In 1816, he graduated at Brown University. He then entered into business in connection with the house of Brown and Ives of which his father was the senior partner, and became a member of the firm in 1832. On the death of his father in 1841, he inherited a large estate and became more fully identified with the business interests of the community, bringing to the management the fruits of careful training and matured judgment. He resided in Europe at different times for several years. He was chosen a trustee of Brown University in 1828. To him his alma mater is indebted for many gifts. His will contained legacies of land valued at $32,000, as the site for a new library building, and $50,000 to be added to the $20,000 previously given for the erection of the structure. His entire benefactions to the University amounted to nearly $160,000, a sum larger than it had received from any other one, except his father. He frequently aided struggling academies and colleges in other parts of the country, especially in the new states of the West. His provisions for the Rhode Island Hospital exceeded the sum of $84,000. Mr. Brown collected a splendid library of American History, making a specialty of materials of every kind for the history of the early voyages of discovery, the methods of colonizations and settlement, and the subsequent development of the continent of America. For more than forty years he prosecuted this work. It was his purpose to secure every work relating to North or South America which was published in any part of the world between the first voyage of Columbus and the close of theEighteenth Century. He thus accumulated nearly all the publications which are now extant in any language beginning with the Columbus letters of the 1493, and ending with the political pamphlets of 1800. The collection is said to be more complete in its special department than any other that is known to exist. The great part of the works were substantially bound under his directions. He had a catalog prepared containing over 6,400 titles, and the total number of volumes in the library is about 10,000. John Carter Brown died 10 June 1874.

His children were:

1. John Nicholas Brown b. Dec. 17, 1861, Providence, R.I.; d. May 1, 1900, New York (Manhattan) New York; m. Natalie Bayard Dresser

2. Harold Brown, b. Dec. 24, 1865, Providence, R.I.; d. May 10, 1900, New York (Manhattan) New York; m. Georgette Wetmore Sherman

3. Sophia Augusta Brown b. Apr. 21, 1867, Providence R.I.; d. Jun. 28, 1947, Newport; m William Watts Sherman of New York.

Burial: North Burial Ground, Providence, Providence County, Rhode Island

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Carter_Brown_II

John Carter Brown II (1797–1874) was a book collector whose library formed the basis of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University.

Biography

He was born in 1797 to Nicholas Brown, Jr., the namesake patron of Brown University. Collecting American books in the mid-19th century, John Carter Brown amassed thousands of early American volumes. He was the first American to join the Hakluyt Society as a charter member in 1846. He fathered a son at age 64, John Nicholas Brown I (1861–1900) continued his father's collection and in his testament assigned funds for the library building. John Carter Brown died in 1874.

Legacy

He was an ancestor of J. Carter Brown, director of the National Gallery of Art.

Other Sources:

John Carter Brown findagrave memorial, created by: Jen Snoots - https://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=12621890

John Carter Brown was a book collector whose library formed the basis of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University.

John Carter Brown was born in 1797, the youngest of three surviving children born to Nicholas Brown, Jr. (1769–1841), the namesake patron of Brown University, and Ann Carter, daughter of John Carter, a prominent printer in Providence. His grandfather was Nicholas Brown, Sr. (1729–1791), brother of John Brown, Moses Brown, and Joseph Brown, merchants, active in Rhode Island politics, who brought the College of Rhode Island to Providence in 1771.

During his upbringing, he was taught philanthropy and public leadership by his father and his uncles who were involved with such work. He attended Brown University (renamed in honor of a gift made by his father in 1804) and graduated in 1816. His graduation oration was on “The Revolution of Empires.”

In 1822, John Carter Brown was sent to Europe as a super-cargo for Brown & Ives. After being shipwrecked in France, he turned the business trip into a two-year grand tour.Dr. Benjamin Carter, his eriudite uncle, was an important influence in introducing John Carter Brown to “the great subject,” the interaction between the old and new worlds.

After his father's death in 1841, John Carter Brown had the freedom to withdraw from Brown & Ives affairs and to develop his passion for books. In fact, he was continuing a family tradition as his ancestors had been buying books since 1749, helping to found the Providence Library in 1758 and 83 years later, the Providence Athenaeum. In 1846, he bought his elder brother's collection of books on the Americas and began purchasing books in Europe, using Henry Stevens as his agent. The same year, he bought the collection of Frenchman Henri Ternaux. When his collection became too large, he expanded his house The Nightingale-Brown House by adding a modern fireproof library; he also hired a full-time librarian, John Russell Bartlett, to manage the collection and produce its first catalogue.

In 1846, he became the first American to join the Hakluyt Society as a charter member, and in 1855, he was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society. In 1852, he received an honorary doctor of laws degree from Brown University.

Brown's daughter, Sophia Augusta Brown (1867–1947), second wife of William Watts Sherman, circa 1914 In 1859, at the age of 62, he married Sophia Augusta Brown (1825–1909), a descendant of Roger Williams (1603–1683). Together, they had:

John Nicholas Brown I (1861–1900), who married Natalie Bayard Dresser (1869–1950) Harold Brown (1863–1900), who married Georgette Wetmore Sherman (1872–1960), daughter of William Watts Sherman (1842–1912) by his first wife, in 1892, and niece of Sen. George Peabody Wetmore. Sophia Augusta Brown (1867–1947), who married William Watts Sherman (1842–1912) in 1885, after the death of his first wife in 1884. He died on June 11, 1874 at 77 years of age. The bulk of his estate, besides a $50,000 (equivalent to $1,081,471 in 2017 dollars) donation to Brown, was left to his children. The trustees were his wife, Robert H. Ives, Thomas P. I. Goddard, and George W. R. Matteson. In 1876, his wife had a cottage in Newport on Bellevue Avenue.

In addition to gladly sharing his books, he still continued to make contributions to Brown University, Butler Hospital, and the Rhode Island Hospital. He played major roles in Anti-Slavery campaigns, he became President of the Emigrant Aid Society. Before his death, he was able to amass a collection of 7,500 books. When his oldest son died in 1900, his well collected books were granted to Brown University with an endowment and a building.

He was the grandfather of John Nicholas Brown II, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and great-grandfather of J. Carter Brown III (1934-2002), director of the National Gallery of Art.

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Mar 24 2020, 5:14:01 UTC
• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Mar 24 2020, 5:14:55 UTC