Thomas Brown of Lanfine and Waterhaughs
Dr Thomas Brown of Lanfine and Waterhaughs FRSE FFPSG (1774–1853) was a noted Scottish surgeon with a keen interest in botany, mineralogy and fossil collecting. He is best remembered for his large donation of his entire lifetime collection of fossils etc. to Glasgow University which is generally known as the Lanfine Collection.[1]
Life
He is thought to have been born in Glasgow in 1774. His father was a wealthy banker, also called Thomas Brown, and had purchased 117 acres of land in Langside from Robert Crawford of Possilpark. This house was completed in 1780 and Thomas presumably spent his childhood here.[1]
He attended Edinburgh University to study botany and was taught by Prof Daniel Rutherford.
He inherited the country estates of Lanfine and Waterhaughs in Ayrshire, from his cousin Nicol Brown in 1828. Lanfine House had been built by his uncle, John Brown (1729-1802) in 1772. [2]
From 1799[3] he was Deputy Professor of Botany at Glasgow University under Prof James Jeffray. He resigned this post in 1816 and was replaced by Robert Graham, just prior to Botany being given its own chair at the university.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1830.
He died on 16 March 1853 in Glasgow.
The Lanfine Collection
Brown began collecting in 1803 following a gift of 200 minerals from Major Thomas Wilson. He purchased many samples and began collecting in the field in 1816.
Thomas’ daughter gifted his huge collection to be split between Edinburgh and Glasgow Universities. This collection consists of 5473 mineral samples and around 1600 fully catalogued fossils received by Glasgow University in several instalments between 1875 and 1897. It included ‘’significant archaeological and ethnographic material’’.[1]
600 items of the mineral collection was passed to Edinburgh University in 1874, where it is now held by their Geology Department.[3]
On Martha’s death her fortune was left to Glasgow University to provide the Lanfine Bursaries.
Family
He married Marian Jeffrey, sister of Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey, in 1800.[4] They had four children, Martha, Thomas, Harriet and Marian.
Thomas (d.1873) was an author whose works included Borgia: A Tragedy
Artistic Recognition
A portrait of Thomas Brown by Colvin Smith from 1840 hangs in the Court Office of Glasgow University.[1]
A portrait also hangs in the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery.[5]
References
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- ↑ http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf
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