24.8.1794 Brown adv at Gray's / 12.9.1794 adv at Despard's / 24.10.1794 at Newgate / 28.11.1794 at Gerald's / 29.11.1794 at Crompton's / 14.2.1795 adv at Gerald's / 12.3.1795 adv at Gerald's / 3.5.1795 at Tooke's / 14.5.1795 at Mary Hays' / 12.7.1795 Godwin calls on mrs Brown / 15.8.1795 mes Gardners & Brown at John King's / 18.10.1795 adv at Knight's / 2.12.1795 at Mary Hays' / 20.1.1796 at Mary Hays / 9.3.1796 talk of him at Newton's / 4.5.1796 Brown calls / 9.6.1796 at Mary Hays / 30.6.1796 J Brown calls / 29.7.1796 call on Brown with Montagu / 7.12.1798 mrs Brown at Fell's with Dignums / 17.4.1802 Brown calls / 18.11.1804 Dr Brown dines / 14.4.1805 Browns at Philips / 31.8.1806 again / 20.11.1807 Brown at Johnson's / 14.12.1807 Brown at Philips' (& Tim Brown) / 17.12.1807 Brown sups / 3.11.1808 write to Brown / 16.7.1813 5 Humes & 2 Browns dine / 20.4.1816 Brown at Fletcher's / 3.9.1817 Ellen Brown calls / 27.3.1818 miss E Brown calls / 20.4.1818 Henrietta Brown calls / 22.12.1819 call on Brown, Linnaean / 23.12.1819 Brown at Nairman's (Sir J Banks) / 27.12.1819 Brown at Sir J(oseph) B(anks)'s / 2.4.1820 Dr Thomas Brown dies / 6.12.1821 call on Brown (S J Banks) / 19.7.1822 call on Brown WFP / 21.7.1822 again / 24.7.1822 call on Longman (Brown) / 26.7.1823 call on Jo(seph) G(odwin), Brown Warden / 9.9.1824 call on Brown at Longman's / 26.3.1825 Brown (Longman) at Guildhall / 22.1.1826 mrs Browne & son at Hume's / 11.11.1826 call on O Rees (Brown) / 22.9.1827 seek Dr Browne sigillum perditum / 13.10.1827 write to dr Brown / 22.10.1827 call on mrs Brown / 27.6.1828 write to Rev Thos Brown / 19.9.1831 call on Brown (Longmans) / 6.9.1832 York Rd with MJ adv Uwins, Brown & Russell, twice / 7.9.1832 York Rd with MJ adv Uwins, Browne & Russell
BEFORE 2.8.1796
The 6 entries from 12.9.1794 to 12.3.1795 seem to have been one person, 4 were visits to prisons (3 to Joseph Gerrald in Giltspur St Compter, and one to Newgate on the day Gerrald was moved from Newgate) one was dinner with Crompton who had clearly invited the visitors he had met the day before at Gerrald's, and one was at Despard's with Sinclair, who was also at Gerrald's with Crompton though he didn't dine at Crompton's the next day. And Despard jr was there on a later visit of Brown to Gerrald. One possible identification of this Brown is Matthew Campbell Browne, an actor turned activist delegated to the Edinburgh Convention from Sheffield, whose speeches were some of the most inflammatory at the Convention. He is said to have come to London at this point, and he certainly might be expected to have supported Gerrald in prison.
On 6.10.1804 Godwin noted writing to Tim. Brown and on 9.10.1804 got a letter from him and replied. These letters seem very likely to be the ones in draft or fair copy in Bodleian Abinger c.18 f.37, On one side of the sheet Godwin reminded an old acquaintance of many agreeable hours passed in his company (Godwin thought in 1794) in the vicinity of the Strand, and proceeded to ask him for financial help, which was clearly rejected, (he compared Godwin to a bankrupt who ran off with another man's wife - see Addington, Philip who was just that) but Godwin fired off a reply, copied on the other side and dated 9.10.1804. So it seems likely that the Brown Godwin met at Gray's on 24.8.1794 was Timothy Brown, hop merchant of St Mary Hill from 1780, governor of St Thomas's Hospital, partner in Samuel Whitbread's brewery 1810. James Gray's house was in Lancaster Court, Strand. Timothy Brown subscribed to Robert Robinson (Eccles Res) 1792 and Winterbotham's America 1795, Joseph Towers 1796, Thomas Belsham 1800 and joined the Unitarian Society in 1793. Possibly he was also the prison visitor above but that seems less likely, Godwin's "many hours" may have been a slight exaggeration, or Timothy may have been some of the later Brown entries. See also 19.7.1801 write Tim Brown p2. And see George Cannon DNB 1789-1854, James Baverstock DNB 1741-1815, Richard Fenton DNB 1761/2-1815 and Robert Waithman DNB 1764-1833 for mentions of Brown's freethinking set at Peckham Lodge c. 1812.
Then there was another set of Browns who look like having been one person, because he was 4 times at Mary Hays'. The first time he was there with Dyer, who had been with Brown at Newgate on 24.10.1794, so one might guess he was the same person as the prison visitor. But there was another Brown more likely to have been a regular at miss Hays and that was Michael Brown, pastor and friend to her and her family (M Brooks, Correspondence of Mary Hays) He was buried at Maze Pond Baptist chapel 30.1.1818 age 72 of Gedling St and the will PCC 1818 of Rev Michael Brown of 15 Gedling St Bermondsey mentioned his wife Charlotte, her son Michael and daughter Elizabeth (Mrs Howard) dated 7,12,1816. But Mary Hays also corresponded with Robert Robinson DNB 1735-1790 and with his daughter Mary (or Maria Josepha) who married Samuel Brown, wine merchant of Love Lane, Eastcheap. Samuel Brown was buried at Bunhill Fields 28.2.1823 age 74 and his wife was buried there 22.6.1827 age 61, both of St Mary Hill so perhaps connected to Timothy Brown. Another Brown connected to Mary Hays was Stephen Weever Browne (qv) who appeared in Godwin's diary on 3.12.1797.
Another person who would fit the first Brown entry, at Gray's in 1794, was Thomas E? Browne parliamentary reporter for the Gazetteer, because it seems to have been a journalist's gathering, Gray, Gordon and Hay (and perhaps Gillies) had all been parliamentary reporters (however see the paragraph on Timothy Brown above). The Brown at Tooke's in 1795 could well have been Matthew Campbell Browne, but also perhaps Thomas Gunter Browne, who was at Tooke's as Gunter Brown on 2.9.1798, 14.4.1799 and 22.8.1802, and whose work Godwin had read on 31.12.1795. He was perhaps the same person as the Gazetteer journalist, the E of whose name was my reading of his signature in Nat Arch c104/67 & 68. From Alum Cantab, he was born 3.11.1756 Antigua, was a scholar from Westminster School to Trinity Cambridge but joined army instead 1777-1783, lived later in France and died 1834
2.8.1796 TO 17.3.1815
In August 1796 Godwin first noted W C Brown who was clearly William Cullen Brown, surgeon and son of the more famous John Brown DNB 1735-88. Between then and W C Brown's death on 1.1.1816 (which Godwin did not note) there were 37 W C Brown entries in the diary and 13 entries which are clearly identifiable as someone else - 4 Tim Brown (see above) 4 Castle Brown (qv), 2 Gunter Brown (see above) 1 S W Brown (qv) 1 Lady Brown (qv), and 1 Ford Brown (qv). None of these are listed above. In that same period (1796 to 1815) there were 9 other plain Brown entries, some of which could have been W C Brown. It seems unlikely that Godwin was reserving plain Brown for a particular person as there were very few of these entries and no clear Brown had been established by the entries before 1796. First of all there was a Mrs Brown in 1802 at Fell's, who may have been the same person Godwin noted twice in 1795, caliing on her once and seeing her once at John King's. Or those three could each have been a different person. Then there was a Brown calls in 1802, and a Dr Brown dines on 18.11.1804. This last one I suspect was William Cullen Brown, because two days before W C Brown had called for the first time in 18 months and on the intervening day Godwin read Life of Brown, which the GD website tags as te1520 unable to identify. W C Brown got his MD at Edinburgh in 1802 and his collection of his father's works with a memoir by him was published in 1804 so Godwin's use of Dr Brown perhaps showed a sense of approval at his friend's achievements. However the next two entries above, Browns at Philips in 1805 and 1806, are unlikely to have been him. He doesn't seem to have married until 22.2.1810 to Marianne Watt at Woolwich. And in a letter to Godwin dated 1.9.1806, (Bodleian Abinger c10 f2-3), the day after Godwin saw Browns at Phillips', W C Brown apologised for missing a dinner invitation the week before last. This also casts doubt on the Brown at Phillips in 1807, who was there along with Batty as the Browns were in the previous two years, three of the five times Godwin saw a Batty there. The Brown at Johnson's in 1807 could have been W C Brown as it was Johnson who published his collection of his father's works. Then there was a Brown sups in December 1807 which could have been W C Brown, and a write to Brown in March 1808 which came near the start of an absence of more than a year of seeing W C Brown. Finally the 2 Browns of 1813 dining with 5 Humes could well have been W C Brown and his wife.
FROM 20.4.1816
From here on the Browns are a little easier to disentangle. Firstly a Brown at Edinburgh in 1816 at Fletcher's which I haven't attempted to identify. Then Ellen Brown, miss E Brown, and Henrietta Brown in 1817 & 1818 (some notes on these names in work notes below). Miss E Brown was possibly Elizabeth Cullen Brown sister of William Cullen Brown who wrote a novel published in 1819.Then four entries in 1819 to 1821 which were probably Robert Brown DNB 1773-1858 the Linnaean librarian identified first time as Linnaean and then by mention each time of Joseph Banks DNB 1743-1820. Then two calls in 1822 on Brown, WFP, which if WFP stood for Whitefriars Precinct, the only London place name I found to fit those initials, could have been either John Aquila Brown of 19 Bouverie St, Sheffield & Plated Warehouse 1822 his will PCC 1830 or Philip Brown merchant of 37 Lombard St 1822, both streets in that small precinct. Then from 1822 to 1831 there were 5 entries of which four were associated with Longman(s) and one with O Rees. Thomas Brown was a partner in Longmans at 39 Paternoster Row from 1811 until at least 1850 along with Owen Rees, Hurst, Orme & Green. One entry in 1823 mentioned Brown Warden in connection with Godwin's brother Joseph who was then in the Fleet prison, the Warden of the Fleet was William Robert Henry Brown his will PCC 1853. The write to Dr Brown of 1827 referred to the letter (Bodleian Abinger c20 f10) to James Baldwin Brown DNB 1790-1843 who was also perhaps meant by the seek Dr Browne sigillum perditum of three weeks previously. The write to Rev Thos Brown of 1828 is explained by another letter (Bodleian Abinger c43 f29v), he was rector of Shipbourn, Kent his will PCC 1848 of Tonbridge. Which leaves only the almost repeated York Road entries of two consecutive days in 1832, followed the next day by a third York Road entry and W dies. This was the death of Godwin's son William whose letter to Godwin of 18.8.1831(Bodleian Abinger c14 f10) was addressed from 53 York Rd. So this Brown was probably a doctor or surgeon assisting David Uwins at William's deathbed. Possible surgeons in London were John Browne of Camberwell will PCC 1842 / Laurence Brown of Berners St will PCC 1833 Laurence Wrangle Brown of Berners St will PCC 1835 / Andrew Brown of Clerkenwell will PCC 1841 / Henry Brown / Samuel William Brown / Thomas Brown / William Brown 5 New Burlington St 1826