John Brown

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by Raymond Lamont-Brown


  46. Miller, Victorian Pictures, Text Vol., p. 38.

  47. Clare Jerrold, The Widowhood of Queen Victoria.

  48. F.P. Humphrey, The Queen at Balmoral, quoting unnamed Crathie locals of the 1880s and 1890s.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  1. St Aubyn, Queen Victoria, p. 451.

  2. G.K.A. Bell, Randall Davidson.

  3. Ibid, entries in December 1883.

  4. Longford, Victoria R.I., p. 571.

  5. The Memoir on Brown, which incorporated excerpts of letters from him to the Queen, was destroyed by Ponsonby. Ponsonby, Henry Ponsonby, p. 146.

  6. Ponsonby Papers.

  7. Longford, Victoria R.I., p. 572.

  8. Cullen, Empress Brown, p. 227.

  9. Ibid, pp. 224–5.

  10. A parallel scandal concerned Queen Victoria’s eldest child, the Princess Royal, who became the Empress of Germany and was widowed at the age of forty-eight. Loose tongues wagged that she had a ‘relationship’ with her Chamberlain, Baron Hugo von Reischach. See also, Sunday Observer, 27 May 1979.

  11. Reid, Ask Sir James, pp. 212–13.

  12. Bell, Randall Davidson.

  13. Tisdall, Queen Victoria’s John Brown, p. 230.

  14. Ibid.

  15. Ibid.

  16. Ibid.

  17. G. Lytton Strachey, Queen Victoria.

  18. Ponsonby, Henry Ponsonby, p. 128.

  19. Ibid.

  20. Ida Macalpine and Richard Hunter, George III and the Mad-Business, p. xii.

  21. Ibid, pp. 261–6.

  22. H.L. Kennedy (ed.), Duchess of Manchester: My Dear Duchess.

  23. Alexander Robertson, John Brown: A Correspondence with the Lord Chancellor, Regarding a Charge of Fraud and Embezzlement Preferred Against His Grace the Duke of Athole, K.T., p. 6.

  24. Ibid, p. 5.

  25. Ibid.

  26. Purves Papers. Ponsonby, Recollections notes that the Dowager Duchess of Roxburghe, who was also ‘generally supposed to have been present at the marriage’ denied that any such thing had ever taken place and that mention of it was anti-royal propaganda, p. 95.

  27. Robertson, John Brown, a Correspondence, p. 6.

  28. Ibid.

  29. Public Record Office: Home Office Papers, 1873. Granville to Leveson-Gower.

  30. Ponsonby Papers.

  31. Sunday People, 24 June 1979.

  32. Sunday Observer, 27 May 1979.

  33. Sunday People, 24 June 1979.

  34. Spiritualist Magazine, 1864.

  35. Odette Borncand (ed.), The Diary of W.M. Rossetti, entries for 1870. Without a hint of the ludicrous nature of the content, modern writers on Spiritualism quote seances with the supposed shade of John Brown. For a recent example see: Neville Randall, Life After Death, pp. 161–2.

  36. A local Crathie superstition/tradition has it that John Brown also possessed the Droch Shuil (Evil Eye), which could blight the health of any upon which it malignantly fell. For this reason Crathie folk avoided passing John Brown’s statue at Balmoral lest ‘Thuit droch shuil air’ (‘An Evil Eye fell upon them’).

  EPILOGUE: SCENES AT A ROYAL DEATHBED

  1. Written on 9 December 1897: ‘Instructions for my Dressers to be opened directly after my death and to be always taken about and kept by the one who may be travelling with me.’ Reid, Ask Sir James, p. 215.

  2. Packard, Farewell in Splendour, p. 199.

  3. Reid, Ask Sir James, p. 216.

  4. Ibid. See also correspondence between Lady Reid and the author; also, Purves Papers.

  5. St Aubyn, Queen Victoria, p. 424.

  6. Guidebook: Frogmore House and the Royal Mausoleum, p. 47. Opposite Queen Victoria’s Tea House at Frogmore is a granite drinking fountain inscribed ‘In affectionate remembrance of John Brown, Queen Victoria’s devoted personal attendant and friend, 1883.’

  7. Inter alia, Scotland on Sunday, 27 December 1998, p. 7.

  8. Sunday Post, 27 September 1998, p. 5. When contacted by the author, Ecosse Films Ltd, makers of the film Mrs Brown, refused to cooperate in confirming or denying what data if any had been located.

  9. Reid, Ask Sir James, p. 56.

  10. Ibid, pp. 227–8.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  ARCHIVE SOURCES

  British Census Records, Public Record Office, Kew, Richmond, Surrey

  Royal Household Indexes, Public Record Office

  Births, Marriages, Deaths Registers, Scottish Register Office, Edinburgh

  Ponsonby Papers, The Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede

  Purves Papers, private collection of unbound leaves, jottings, notes, letters collected by the late Marion Purves

  Blunt Papers, ‘Secret Diary’ of Wilfred Scawen Blunt, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

  John Brown Papers, private collection (location withheld at request of owner)

  John Brown Collection, Aberdeen Libraries

  Royal Archives, various mss and the Kronberg Letters, Windsor Castle

  Memorandum, on the life of John Brown by Dr Andrew Robertson, Balmoral, 2 June 1865, private collection

  Großherzogliches Familienarchiv, Hessisches Staatsarchiv Darmstadt (former Grand Duchy of Hesse), West Germany

  Baron Broughton de Gyfford Papers, British Library

  The Amberley Papers, of John, Viscount Amberley (ed. B. & P. Russell and published by L. & V. Woolf, 1937)

  SECONDARY SOURCES

  John Brown

  Cullen, Tom. The Empress Brown: The Story of a Royal Friendship, (Bodley Head, 1969)

  Philip, Kenwood. John Brown’s Legs or Leaves from a Journal in the Lowlands, published privately 1884

  Robertson, Alexander. John Brown: A Correspondence with the Lord Chancellor, Regarding a Charge of Fraud and Embezzlement, Preferred Against His Grace The Duke of Athole, K.T., published privately, 1873

  Tisdall, E.E.P. Queen Victoria’s John Brown, Stanley Paul, 1938

  Williams, Henry L. Life and Biography of John Brown Esq, E. Smith & Co., 1883

  John Brown’s ‘Faithful Service Medal’ and Bar, and gold ‘Devoted Service Medal’ were sold at auction in 1965. Details of the awards are to be found in:

  Cowell, J.C. The Victoria Faithful Service Medal: Instituted 1872, Harrison & Son, 1889

  Balmoral, Crathie, Osborne and Windsor

  Balmoral: Castle and Estate, Nevisprint, 1998

  Brown, Ivor. Balmoral: The History of a Home, Collins, 1955

  Clark, R.W. Balmoral, Thames & Hudson, 1981

  Farr, A.D. Stories of Royal Deeside’s Railway, Kestrel, 1971

  Frogmore House and the Royal Mausoleum, Royal Collection, 1998

  Humphrey, F.P. The Queen at Balmoral, T. Fisher Unwin, 1893

  Lindsay, Patricia. Recollections of a Royal Parish, John Murray, 1902

  Osborne, Ken (ed.). Osborne House, English Heritage, 1999

  Patchell-Martin, Arthur. The Queen in the Isle of Wight (Brochure II), Vectis, Isle of Wight, 1898

  Robinson, John Martin. Windsor Castle, Royal Collection, 1997

  Stirton, John. Crathie and Braemar: A History of a United Parish, Milne and Hutchinson, 1925

  ——Balmoral in Former Times, Forfar, 1921

  Taylor, Alistair & Henrietta. Jacobites of Aberdeenshire & Banffshire in the Forty Five, Milne & Hutchinson, 1928

  Tyler, Michael Sidney. Victoria and Albert at Home, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980

  Watt, William. A History of Aberdeenshire & Banff, William Blackwood, 1900

  York, Duchess of and Stoney, Benita. Victoria and Albert: Life at Osborne House, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1991

  Relevant writings of Queen Victoria

  When she was thirteen years of age in 1832, Queen Victoria began a series of journals which she continued to fill until her death in 1901. Those she left passed into the hands of her youngest daughter Princess Beatrice, who, on her mother’s instructions, transcribed large passages from the journals into blue copybooks. As she worked Princess Beatrice burned the originals. On her own auspices the princess destro
yed much which she did not transcribe and it is thought that many references to John Brown, his background and career, were thus destroyed. Nevertheless Queen Victoria’s comments on John Brown can be assessed from the following:

  Helps, Arthur (ed.). Leaves from the Journal of Our Life in the Highlands from 1848 to 1861. Smith, Elder, 1868

  [With the assistance of Amelia MacGregor]. More Leaves from the Journal of A Life in the Highlands from 1862 to 1882, Smith, Elder, 1884

  David, Duff (ed.). Victoria in the Highlands: The personal journal of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, Muller, 1968

  Benson, A.C. & Esher, Viscount (eds). The Letters of Queen Victoria, 1st Series, 1837–61, John Murray, 1907

  Buckle, G.E. The Letters of Queen Victoria, 2nd Series, 1862–85, John Murray, 1926

  —— The Letters of Queen Victoria, 3rd Series, 1886–1901, John Murray, 1930

  Bolitho, H. (ed.). Further Letters of Queen Victoria: From the Archives of the House of Brandenburg-Prussia, Thornton-Butterworth, 1938

  Dyson, Hope & Tennyson, Charles (eds). Dear and Honoured Lady: The Correspondence Between Queen Victoria and Alfred Tennyson, Macmillan, 1969

  Fulford, Roger (ed.). Dearest Child: Letters between Queen Victoria and the Princess Royal 1858–1861, Evans Brothers, 1971

  Queen Victoria and her Court

  Aronson, Theo. Heart of A Queen: Queen Victoria’s Romantic Attachments, John Murray, 1991

  Baillie, Dean & Bolitho, Hector. Later Letters of Lady Augusta Stanley, Howe, 1927

  Cooke, A.B. & Vincent, J.A. (eds). Lord Carlingford’s Journal, Oxford University Press, 1971

  Crawford, Emily. Victoria, Queen and Ruler, Simpkin, Marshall, 1903

  Erickson, C. Her Little Majesty, Robson, 1997

  Hardy, Alan. Queen Victoria was Amused, John Murray, 1976

  McClintock. The Queen Thanks Sir Howard, John Murray, 1945

  Marie Louise, Princess. My Memories of Six Reigns, Evans, 1956

  Martin, Sir Theodore. The Life of the Prince Consort, Smith, Elder, 1875– 1880

  Neville, Barry St-J. (ed.). Life at the Court of Queen Victoria, Good Books Ltd, 1984

  Packard, Jerrold M. Farewell in Splendour: The Passing of Queen Victoria and Her Age, Penguin Group, 1995

  Ponsonby, Sir Frederick. Recollections of Three Reigns, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1957

  Reeve, Henry (ed.). Greville: The Greville Memoirs 1817–60, Longmans Green & Co., 1875–87

  Reid, Michaela. Ask Sir James, Hodder & Stoughton, 1987

  St Aubyn, Giles. Queen Victoria: A Portrait, Sinclair-Stevenson, 1991

  Strachey, Lytton. Queen Victoria, Chatto & Windus, 1921

  Victoria, Princess of Prussia. Queen Victoria at Windsor and Balmoral, Allen & Unwin, 1959

  Whittle, Taylor. Victoria and Albert at Home, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980

  Woodham-Smith, Cecil. Queen Victoria: From Her Birth to the Death of the Prince Consort, Hamish Hamilton, 1972

  Zeepvat, Charlotte. Prince Leopold, Sutton, 1998

  General books

  Antrim, Louisa, Countess of, Recollections, London, 1937

  Asquith, B. The Lyttletons, Chatto & Windus, 1975

  Barncand, Odette (ed.). The Diary of W.M. Rossetti, Oxford University Press, 1977

  Bell, G.K.A. Randall Davidson, Oxford University Press, 1938

  Blake, Robert. Disraeli, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1966

  Bradford, Sarah. Disraeli, Grafton Books/Collins Publishing Group, 1985

  Buckle, G.E. & Monypenny, W.F. The Life of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield, John Murray, 1929

  Caulfield, Catherine. The Emperor of the United States of America & Other Magnificent British Eccentrics, Corgi/Gransworld, 1982

  Dodds, John W. The Age of Paradox, Victor Gollancz, 1953

  Ellis, S.M. (ed.). A mid-Victorian Pepys: The Letters and Memories of Sir William Henderson, London, 1923

  Goodman, Jean. Debrett’s Royal Scotland, Debrett/Webb & Bower, 1983

  Hibbert, Christopher. Edward VII: A Portrait, Allen Lane, 1976

  Huntly, Marquis of. Auld Acquaintance, Hutchinson, 1929

  Irvine, Douglas H. The Royal Palaces of Scotland, Constable, 1911

  Irving, Joseph. Annals of Our Time, 1837–1891

  Johnston, James B. Place-Names of Scotland, John Murray, 1934

  Kennedy, H.L. (ed.). Duchess of Manchester: My Dear Duchess, John Murray, 1956

  MacAlpine, Ida & Hunter, Richard. George III and the Mad Business, Allen Lane/The Penguin Press, 1969

  MacLeay, Kenneth. The Highlanders of Scotland, London, 1866

  Magnus-Allcroft, Philip. King Edward VII, Penguin, 1964

  Maxwell, Sir Herbert. Holyroodhouse, HMSO, 1923

  New Edinburgh Almanac, Oliver & Boyd, 1837

  Ponsonby, Arthur. Henry Ponsonby: Queen Victoria’s Private Secretary, His Life from His Letters, Macmillan, 1942

  St Aubyn, Giles. Edward VII: Prince & King, Collins, 1979

  Thompson, E.P. William Morris: Romantic and Revolutionary, Lawrence & Wishart, 1955

  Waddington, Mary. My First Years as a Frenchwoman 1876–1879, Smith, Elder, 1914

  Wilson, John Marcus. Imperial Gazeteer of Scotland, c. 1866

  Wilson, Dr R. McNair. Doctor’s Progress, 1938

  JOHN BROWN IN DRAMA AND FILM

  John Brown appears as a character in one of English novelist and dramatist Laurence Housman’s short biographical ‘chamber plays’ within the series Victoria Regina. The series was initially banned by the censor, but was produced at London’s Lyric Theatre in 1937. Set in 1877 the scenes in which John Brown appears are entitled An Episode of Home Life in the Highlands. Herein John Brown was portrayed as a pawky, genial friend of the Queen, by actor James Gibson.

  In 1950 John Negulesco and Nunnally Johnston’s film The Mudlark was issued by Twentieth Century Fox using a screenplay from the novel by Theodore Bonnet. John Brown, played by Findlay Currie, with Irene Dunne as Queen Victoria, is shown as a haughty, tipsy seneschal, inclined to collapse in a drunken heap.

  The best portrayal of John Brown so far on film is Douglas Rae and Jeremy Brock’s 1998 Ecosse Films/BBC presentation Mrs Brown. The main roles of Brown and Queen Victoria are played by Billy Connolly and Dame Judi Dench. A balanced portrayal of John Brown’s character is achieved, but this (and other dramatisations) gives no data on the Highland Servant’s background and career.

  NOTE: English poet and critic Algernon Charles Swinburn composed a skit-drama ‘founded on Her Majesty’s [More Leaves], called La Mort du Mari. In it John Brown is murdered by Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, in vengeance’. See Cecil Lang (ed.). The Swinburn Letters, Vol. 2, Oxford University Press, 1959.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  SOURCES

  The author wishes to acknowledge with particular gratitude the help given by Mrs N. Lamond, widow of John Brown’s great-nephew, Hugh W. Lamond, and Mrs Ann Lamond-Webb, great-great niece of John Brown, for assisting with queries about the Brown family of Crathienaird, their extant papers and artefacts. And to Mrs Edith Paterson for family reminiscences regarding John Brown’s employment at Balmoral. Important comment on John Brown’s birthplace at Crathienaird was supplied by Dr Alistair Thomson. Each has provided original material on John Brown that does not appear in any other source.

  A special thank you further goes to the following for supplying answers to queries, advice on sources and providing relevant materials which have helped greatly in the formulation of this book’s research: Michael Hunter, Curator, Osborne House; Peter J. Ord, Resident Factor, Balmoral; Dr Elizabeth James, The British Library; Peter Johnston, Berkshire Local History Association; Margo Strachan, Media Resources Manager, Aberdeenshire Council; Catherine Taylor, Central Library, Aberdeen City Council; Martin Simpson, Managing Director, The Deeside Water Co. Ltd; The Countess of Longford; Neil Irvine, Windsor Library; Pamela Clark, the Royal Archives, Windsor Castle; Susan Bellamy, National Library of Scotland; Revd R Taylor, Torphins, Aberdeenshire; and Jane Anderson,
Blair Castle. Important field work has been undertaken by Mrs Barbara Swiatek, Berkshire Family History Society, and Margeorie Mekie.

  Especial appreciation goes to my wife Dr Moira Lamont-Brown, for her companionship, support and encouragement on many research trips in pursuit of John Brown.

  TEXT

  Each quotation is identified as to source as it occurs in the text, and copyright heirs and successors are recognised where known. Due acknowledgement is given to Tom Cullen who undertook research on John Brown in the 1960s and published his findings in his book The Empress Brown which extended and corrected work done in the 1930s by Evelyn Tisdall who wrote Queen Victoria’s John Brown. Individual acknowledgements are also due to Michaela, Lady Reid, for the short line quotes from her Ask Sir James, and to Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede for permission to quote from the Ponsonby Papers.

  PHOTOGRAPHS

  Each photograph is identified as to copyright ownership, and permission to reproduce the images is gratefully extended to all thus identified. Help in researching the images has been gratefully received from Bernard Horrocks, the National Portrait Gallery, Mrs Ann Lamond-Webb and Christine Rew of Aberdeen Art Gallery.

 

 

 


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