Henry James Stuart Brown, the first son of Peter Stuart Brown and Elizabeth Chapman, was born on 1^st March 1871 at noon, at Forrest Street, Bathgate. The informant on the 23^rd was the child’s father.

Henry achieved some fame as an artist and is particularly renowned for his etchings.

‘Mr. Henry Stewart Brown’ appeared on a list of guests at a marriage taking place in Liverpool:

Liverpool Mercury, 5th January 1900 THE MARRIAGE OF MISS BROCKLEBANK. The marriage of Miss Annie Dorothea, eldest daughter of Mr. Thomas Brocklebank, of Woolton, and granddaughter of Sir Thomas Brocklebank, Bart., to Mr. Charles Hesketh, son of the late Mr. John Bibby, of Harthill, took place yesterday in the Parish Church, Gateacre.

The reference to ‘Harthill’ probably explains the connection, though it is not stated whether it is Harthill, Lanarkshire, or Harthill, South Yorks, which is intended.

Henry James Stuart Brown, a package manufacturer, bachelor, aged 34, married Ada Courtier-Dutton, a spinster aged 24, on 5^th September 1905 at St Michael & All Angels’ Church, Helensburgh, After Banns according to the Forms of the Scottish Episcopal Church. His usual address was Bothwell Park, Bothwell, and hers was Moraig, Helensburgh. Her parents were entered as William Twanbrook Courtier-Dutton, a naval architect, deceased, and Ada Emmiline Courtier-Dutton MS Burkill. The Register was signed by Charles Robert Robertson, B.A., Rector of St Augustine’s, Dumbarton, and, somewhat unusually, by three witness: Margaret Ban Crawford, Sidney Courtier-Dutton and Charles Stuart Brown.

Henry, then residing at 9, Spring Gardens, Kelvinside, Glasgow, was nominated as a trustee and executor in his father’s 1907 Trust Deed and Settlement, in which he was also named as a beneficiary. He was also entered as residing at 9, Spring Gardens, Glasgow, and was designated a tea chest manufacturer when he acted as informant on the birth certificate of his daughter, Claire Courtier Stuart Brown. ‘Henry James Stuart Brown son of Peter Stuart Brown of the Acme Tea Chest Company Glasgow’ was nominated as one of several residuary beneficiaries in the Trust Disposition and Settlement of William Leiper, dated 14th March 1913. Henry obtained a Decree of Divorce against Ada Courtier-Dutton on 16th July 1915. William Leiper’s Codicil dated 23rd July 1915 appointed ‘Henry James Stuart Brown, residing at Auchengrange Lochwinnoch, to be a Trustee and Executor’. It also revoked the provisions in his favour contained in the Trust Disposition and Settlement. Is the timing significant? It came exactly one week after Henry’s Decree of Divorce. Are we to take it that Mr Leiper was disappointed by the failure of Henry and Ada’s marriage? William Leiper was a second cousin to Henry’s father, Peter, and here is proof positive of a continuing close family connection. Henry married Katherine C. MacBride on 25th July 1916 at the Parish Church, Lochwinnoch, After Banns According to the Forms of the Established Church of Scotland. Henry was a tea chest manufacturer aged 45, resident at 40, Highburgh Road, Glasgow; Katherine was a spinster aged 23, resident at 9, (?) Street, Partick. Her parents were entered as Francis MacBride, a master engineer (deceased), and Elizabeth Campbell MacBride, MS Collins. The witnesses were G. (George Stuart Brown) and Elizabeth W. Stuart Brown. Henry accepted the office of trustee and executor to his late father’s estate upon the latter’s death in 1916, alongside his widowed mother and brothers Charles and George. He was then resident at 40, Highbury (sic, actually Highburgh) Road, Glasgow. Under the terms of his late father’s 1907 Trust Deed and Settlement, Henry stood to share his father’s estate equally with his two brothers, Charles and George, and two sisters, Elizabeth and Helen Eva, on their mother’s death in 1927 and it is presumed that he actually did so. Henry James Stuart Brown, a manufacturer, divorced, died on 1st April 1941 at seven in the morning, at Cathlaw House, Torpichen. He was seventy years of age. The causes of death were certified as cardiac dilatation following auricular fibrillation and cerebral embolism from which he had been suffering for six years and two months. The informant was the deceased’s brother, G. (George) Stuart Brown, of Dunrowan, Langbank, Renfrewshire.

Obituaries