William Roger Brown
{{Short description|English mill-owner and philanthropist}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2022}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2022}}
Sir William Roger Brown (1831 – 14 May 1902), known as Roger Brown, was an English mill-owner and philanthropist, lord of the manor of Beckington in Somerset.
Early life
He was born in 1831, the son of James Brown, a tea merchant, of Highfield, Hilperton (near Trowbridge, Wiltshire), and Bath. On leaving school Brown was taken into the business of his uncle, Samuel Elms Brown, at the Pole Barn cloth mills, Trowbridge.{{Cite journal |last= |first= |date=1902 |title=Wilts Obituary: Sir William Roger Brown, Kt |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/12644144 |journal=Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine |volume=32 |issue=96 |pages=230 |via=Biodiversity Heritage Library}} In 1857 he married his uncle’s daughter Sarah."SIR WILLIAM ROGER BROWN, Knight Bachelor, Justice of the Peace for the county of Wiltshire, Lord of the Manor of Beckington" in Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, Armorial Families: A Complete Peerage, Baronetage, and a Directory of Some Gentlemen of Coat-armour (1895), [https://books.google.com/books?id=KDw6AQAAMAAJ&pg=PR34 p. xxxiv]
In 1859, Brown began to build for himself and his wife a new country house called Highfield at Hilperton. This continued to grow for many years.[http://www.fieldways.co.uk/about.html Brief History], Fieldways.co.uk, accessed 7 August 2022
Career
Brown made a large fortune as a clothier. He was appointed a Justice of the Peace for Wiltshire and became the owner of land at Beckington which made him its lord of the manor. He was a leading figure in Wiltshire's textile industry and at one time employed a thousand people in the cloth mills of the Brown & Palmer company{{Cite book |author-last1=Chettle |author-first1=H. F. |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/wilts/vol7/pp125-171 |title=A History of the County of Wiltshire, Volume 7 |author-last2=Powell |author-first2=W. R. |author-last3=Spalding |author-first3=P. A. |author-last4=Tillott |author-first4=P. M. |date=1953 |publisher=University of London |editor1-last=Pugh |editor1-first=R. B. |editor1-link=Ralph Pugh |series=Victoria County History |pages=125–171 |chapter=Parishes: Trowbridge |access-date=8 August 2022 |editor2-last=Crittall |editor2-first=Elizabeth |via=British History Online}} (reconstituted as Palmer & Mackay in 1877).{{London Gazette
| issue = 24442
| date = 10 April 1877
| page = 2540
}} One of the original members of Wiltshire County Council, he was commissioned as a deputy lieutenant for the county in 1898,{{London Gazette
| issue = 26433
| date = 22 April 1898
| page = 4705
| nolink = y
}} and was appointed High Sheriff for 1898–99.{{London Gazette
| issue = 26945
| date = 8 March 1898
| page = 1415
| nolink = y
}}
Brown provided the site for a new school in Newtown, Trowbridge, which opened in 1901;{{Cite web |title=Newtown Community Primary School, Trowbridge |url=https://apps.wiltshire.gov.uk/communityhistory/School/Details/359 |access-date=23 August 2022 |website=Wiltshire Community History |publisher=Wiltshire Council}} he is named on its foundation stone.{{National Heritage List for England|num=1198330|desc=County Junior School|access-date=23 August 2022}} Between 1887 and 1889 he also paid for the building of the Trowbridge Town Hall, at a cost of some £20,000 ({{Inflation|UK|20000|1889|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}) to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria. During his lifetime, a marble bust of Brown by Edward Sheppard, inscribed to commemorate his donation, was placed on the staircase of the town hall.{{Cite web |title=Bust of William Roger Brown |url=https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/william-roger-brown-18311902-263264 |access-date=2022-08-08 |website=Art UK |language=en}}
In 1893, Victoria made Brown a knight bachelor, and in 1895 he received a grant of arms.
Legacy
Brown's wife died on 6 December 1899,"Dame Sarah Brown" in The Genealogical Magazine, Vol. 2 (1899), p. 422 and soon after he built and endowed two blocks of almshouse cottages in her memory, to house six widows. Known as Lady Brown's Cottage Homes, they still stand on Polebarn Road, Trowbridge, altered to make five dwellings.{{National Heritage List for England|num=1021634|desc=Lady Brown's Cottages, 1-5, Polebarn Road|access-date=8 August 2022|fewer-links=yes}} Pevsner describes their style as "deliberately rustic, many-chimneyed and many-gabled".{{Cite book |last1=Orbach |first1=Julian |title=Wiltshire |last2=Pevsner |first2=Nikolaus |last3=Cherry |first3=Bridget |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2021 |isbn=978-0-300-25120-3 |series=The Buildings Of England |location=New Haven, US and London |page=738 |oclc=1201298091 |authorlink2=Nikolaus Pevsner |authorlink3=Bridget Cherry}}
Brown died on 14 May 1902. He and his wife were buried in a grand mausoleum in Trowbridge cemetery. His estate was valued for probate at £425,137,"BROWN sir William of "Highfield" Trowbridge Wiltshire knight died 14 May 1902" in Wills and Administrations 1902, p. AU2 {{Inflation|UK|425137|1902|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}, and in his will he left money to buy fuel for the deserving poor.{{Cite web |last=Baker |first=John |date=12 November 2021 |title=Mystery of £10k solid bronze doors stolen from Trowbridge chapel |url=https://www.wiltshiretimes.co.uk/news/19709725.mystery-10k-solid-bronze-doors-stolen-trowbridge-chapel/ |access-date=2022-08-08 |website=Wiltshire Times |language=en}}
The mausoleum is a pink granite structure on a square base, with a round-headed doorway.{{National Heritage List for England|num=1284251|desc=Cemetery, The Brown Mausoleum|access-date=8 August 2022|fewer-links=yes}} In 2012, its bronze gates were stolen, and in 2021 the same fate befell its valuable bronze doors which had been locked in the cemetery chapel for safekeeping.
Notes
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Category:British textile industry businesspeople
Category:Deputy lieutenants of Wiltshire
Category:English philanthropists
Category:Members of Wiltshire County Council