scientific friend, Mr. Francis Deas, as to the arrangement of his scientific instruments, and two years later he confided to this gentleman the completion of a paper 'On the Motion, Equilibrium, and Forms of Liquid Films.'
On 10 Feb. 1868 an attack of pneumonia and bronchitis exhibited symptoms which convinced Sir James Simpson that he could not live over the day. After a few hours of extreme languor, knowing all his loving watchers, with ' an ineffably happy, cheerful look, which seemed to come from a very fulness of content,' this bright intelligence passed quietly away at Allerby, Montrose. In 1857 Brewster married for the second time Miss Jane Kirk Purnell of Scarborough, by whom he had a daughter, born 27 Jan. 1861.
[Proceedings of the Royal Society, xvii. lxix; Royal Society Catalogue of Scientific Papers; The Home Life of Sir David Brewster, by Mrs. Gordon; Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, iv. 1821-31; Edinburgh Royal Society's Transactions, vii. 1815-49; Gent. Mag. 1868, i. 539.]
BREWSTER, Sir FRANCIS (fl. 1674–1702), writer on trade, was a citizen and alderman of Dublin, and lord mayor of that city in 1674. In February 1692-3 he gave evidence before the House of Commons on certain public abuses in Ireland, and in 1698 was appointed one of seven commissioners to inquire into the forfeited estates in Ireland. The commissioners disagreed among themselves, and when the report was delivered in the following year it was signed by only four of the members of the commission; the other three, the Earl of Drogheda, Sir Richard Levinge, and Sir F. Brewster, having refused to sign it because they thought it false and ill-grounded in several particulars. The dispute was brought before parliament, and Sir R. Levinge was committed to the Tower for spreading scandalous aspersions against some of his colleagues.
Brewster was the author of 'Essays in Trade and Navigation. In Five Parts,' Lond. 1695, 12mo. The first part only was published; but in 1702 he issued 'New Essays on Trade, wherein the present state of our Trade, its great decay in the chief branches of it, and the fatal consequences thereof to the Nation (unless timely remedy'd), is considered under the most important heads of Trade and Navigation,' Lond. 12mo. The following anonymous book is also ascribed to him: 'A Discourse concerning Ireland and the different Interests thereof; in answer to the Exon and Barnstaple Petitions; shewing that if a Law were enacted to prevent the exportation of Woollen Manufactures from Ireland to Foreign Parts, what the consequences thereof would be both to England and Ireland,' Lond. 1698, 4to.
[Ware's Ireland (Harris), 1764, ii. 262; Burnet's State Tracts, 1706, ii. 709 seq.; Tindal's Continuation of Rapin's England, 1740, iii. 234, 398.]
BREWSTER, JOHN (1753–1842), author, the son of the Rev. Richard Brewster, M.A., vicar of Heighington in the county palatine of Durham, was born in 1753, and received his education at the grammar school of Newcastle-upon-Tyne under the Rev. Hugh Moises, and at Lincoln College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in 1775, and M.A. in 1778. He was appointed curate of Stockton-on-Tees in 1776, and lecturer there in 1777. In 1791 he was presented to the vicarage of Greatham, which benefice he held until 1799, when he became vicar of Stockton through the patronage of Bishop Barrington. The same prelate afterwards successively preferred him to the rectories of Redmarshall in 1805, Boldon in 1809, and Egglescliffe in 1814, in which charges, according to the testimony of Surtees (Hist, of Durham, iii. 139), he was 'long and justly respected for the exemplary discharge of his parochial duties.' He died at Egglescliffe 28 Nov. 1842, aged 89.
His chief work was his 'Parochial History and Antiquities of Stockton-on-Tees,' published in quarto at Stockton in 1796. A second and enlarged edition was printed in 1829, octavo. His other works were:
- 'Sermons for Prisons,' &c., 1790, 8vo.
- 'On the Prevention of Crimes and the Advantages of Solitary Confinement,' 1790, 8vo.
- 'Meditations of a Recluse, chiefly on Religious Subjects,' 1800, 12mo.
- 'A Thanksgiving Sermon for the Peace,' 1802.
- 'A Secular Essay, containing a View of Events connected with the Ecclesiastical History of England during the 18th Century.' 1802, 8vo.
- 'The Restoration of Family Worship recommended, in Discourses selected, with alterations, from Dr. Doddridge.' 1804, 8vo.
- 'Lectures on the Acts of the Apostles.' 1806, 2 vols. 8vo.
- 'Of the Religious Improvement of Prisons, an Assize Sermon,' 1808.
- 'Meditations for the Aged, adapted to the Progress of Human Life,' 1810, 8vo; four editions.
- 'Meditations for Penitents.' 1813.
- 'Reflections adapted to the Holy Seasons of the Christian and Ecclesiastical Year,' 12mo.
- 'Reflections upon the Ordination Service.' 12mo.
- 'Contemplations on the Last Discourses of our Blessed Saviour with His Disciples as recorded in the Gospel of St. John,' 1822, 8vo.
- 'A Sketch of the History of Churches in England, applied
