Brown, Samuel Robbins, Dd

Brown, Samuel Robbins, D.D.

a Presbyterian minister, was born in Scantic parish, East Windsor, Connecticut, June 16, 1810. He entered Amherst College in 1828; graduated at Yale College in .1832; and then spent three years and a half- as teacher in the New York Institute for the Deaf and Dumb. In 1835 he went to Columbia, S.C., and studied theology for two years in the Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Returning to New York, he finished his studies at the Union Seminary in 1838, and was accepted by the American Board as a foreign missionary. He was invited to go to China, in the service of the Morrison Education Society, as a teacher. He was ordained in October 1838, at New York, and sailed the same month, for his post. He taught in Macao till 1842, and then in Hong Kong until 1847, when he was obliged to return to America. For two years and a half, 1848-51, he had charge of an academy at Rome, N.Y. In 1851 he went to the outlet of Owasco lake, near Auburn, as pastor of a very feeble Reformed Dutch Church, where he remained eight years. Early in 1859 the Reformed Dutch Church's Board of Foreign Missions determined to send a mission to Japan, and Mr. Brown was appointed one of the missionaries. He sailed for China in April, and in November established himself in Japan, which continued to be his residence until 1879, with the exception of two years. Protracted illness obliged him to return to America. He died in Monson, Massachusetts, June 20, 1880. To Dr. Brown's influence, by means of his pupils, much of the recent development of China is justly due. His work in Japan was even more strikingly useful, in connection with education and the study of the Japanese language and the translation of the Bible. See Obituary Record of Yale College, 1880.