John Brown, of Wamphray, church leader, was probably born at Kirkcudbright; he graduated at the university of Edinburgh 24 July 1630. He was probably not settled till 1655, although he comes first into notice in some highly complimentary references to him in Samuel Rutherford's letters in 1637. In the year 1655 he was ordained minister of the parish of Wamphray in Annandale. For many years he seems to have been quietly engaged in his pastoral duties, in which he must have been very efficient, for his name still lives in the district in affectionate remembrance. After the restoration he was not only compelled by the acts of Parliament of 1662 to leave his charge, but he was one of a few ministers who were arrested and banished, owing to the ability and earnestness with which they had opposed the arbitrary conduct of the king in the affairs of the church. On 6 November 1662 he was sentenced to be kept a close prisoner in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, his crime being that he had called some ministers ‘false knaves’ for keeping synod with the archbishop. The state of the prison causing his health to break down, he was banished 11 December from the king’s dominions, and ordered not to return on pain of death. He went to Holland. In 1676 Charles II urged the States-General to banish him from their country, a step which they refused to take. For a few years he was minister of the Scottish church in Rotterdam, and shortly before his death, which occurred in 1679, he took part in the ordination of Richard Cameron. Life John Brown probably born and educated at Kirkcudbright; M.A. (Edinburgh, 24 July 1630). Though noticed as a minister by Samuel Rutherford in his correspondence as early as 1637, he was probably not settled in Wamphray earlier than 1655. He was deprived by Act of Parliament 11 June, and Decreet of Privy Council 1 October 1662. On 6 November thereafter, he was accused of reproaching some of his brethren, calling them "perjured knaves and villains," for attending the Diocesan Synod at Glasgow, and was sentenced to be kept a "close prisoner in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh." After being there five weeks, to the impairing of his health and danger of his life, he petitioned for a release. This was granted on condition of "obliging himself to remove and depart off the