Memorials of the Browns of Fordell, Finmount and Vicarsgrange

BROWN OF FORDELL. 1 1
favourite, Sir John Ramsay, became reconciled to Brown's promotion,
and he was admitted to the bishopric. After paying off the heavy
debts he had incurred, he devoted himself to improving the condition of
his diocese, which he divided into four deaneries, to all of which he
appointed men of learning and piety. Alexander My In, afterwards Abbot
of Cambuskenneth, first President of the College of Justice, and author
of the Lives, was chosen Dean of Angus. Among his foundations were a
church dedicated to St. Anne, in the Highland district of Caputh, where
Gaelic only was spoken ; a church and cemetery at Caputh, previously
part of the large parish of Little Dunkeld ; an altar to the Virgin Mary
in his cathedral church ; an altar dedicated to St. Mary and the Three
Kings in the parish church of Dundee, where he had been baptized,
with a chaplain to officiate ; the endowment of seven vicars-choral to sing
mass daily in turn, in gratitude for the preservation of the town of
Dunkeld and the adjacent districts from the ravages of the plague
then prevalent in Scotland ; the rebuilding of the Castle of Cluny ; and
the endowment of two chaplainries in the Chapel of St. Katharine, Virgin
and Martyr. He restored to a hospital certain lands which his prede-
cessors had appropriated for the expenses of their own table, and increased
the endowment so as to support seven paupers and a master, who was
to be a canon of Dunkeld. He also restored the Church of St. Servanus
at Tippermuir, and made other improvements, besides spending large
sums on the adornment of his cathedral church, and gifting to it a lectern,
vestments, candelabra, etc.
Bishop Brown was not unmindful of the connection of his ancestors
with Aberdeen, as among the plate belonging in 1542 to the University
and King's College there, were " Calix argenteus auratus, cum patena,
quinque supra viginti unciarum, donatus per bone memorie Georgium
Brown quondam episcopum Dunkeldensem ; " also the following vest-
ments, etc., " Due stole, et tres manipidi, quindecim peramenta, cappa
unica ex auro textili viridi bysso eminenti fibra laterali rubra, dono
prefati reverendi domini Georgii Broun episcopi Dunkeldensis." '
He never would receive money paid for pardon for sins, but devoted
1 Fasti Aberdonenses, pp. 5G1, 5G2.