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William Brown was a Scottish clergyman; born 1766; died 1835; for forty-three years minister of Eskdalemuir, Scotland.
He is the author of Antiquities of the Jews Carefully Compiled from Authentic Sources, and Their Customs Illustrated from Modern Travels, in two volumes, with a map showing the ground-plan of the Temple (London, 1820; 2d edition, Edinburgh, 1826). The work is compiled mostly from Latin, French, and English sources, such as Arias Montano's Aaron, Calmet's dictionary, Goodwin's Moses and Aaron, Owen's Exercitation on the Hebrews, Johannes Buxtorf's De Synagoga Judaica, and Jacob Christian Basnage's history. He borrowed much from Lightfoot's Prospect of the Temple and Temple Services, but states in the preface of his work that he takes "a wider range than Dr. Lightfoot, who professes to despise rabbinical learning."
For the improvements in the second edition Brown used the Latin translation by Surenhusius (Willem Surenhuys) of the Mishnah and several additional treatises by Maimonides and Abravanel, also from Latin translations; for his familiarity with Hebrew seems to have been very limited. The work is of more interest to the bibliographer than to the student.
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