Hugh D. Brown

​Hugh was born in Dublin Ireland in (1841) 1858 (1918, 60) to Hugh and Marianne Brown. Hugh Brown Senior (    ) was the cofounder of the Brown Thomas establishment in 1849 which is still well known and noted in Ireland today. These two business men, Brown and Thomas, began trading as a general draper and haberdasher store which soon grew and expanded into a large beautiful building with an impressively designed Victorian façade that marked it out on Grafton Street. 

As a result of this business success young Hugh grew up in a wealthy and well privileged home that lacked nothing. They owned their own yacht on which they travelled widely visiting most European countries as a family.

But more important than this Hugh grew up in a Christian home. His parents were members of the Church of Ireland and both professed personal faith in Christ for their salvation. From a child Hugh was very aware of his mother’s persistent prayers for his salvation as well as the salvation of his siblings. It was his older brother, Vere, who was saved before him and then led him to salvation in Christ. 


While D.L. Moody the great American Evangelist and soul winner was on a preaching campaign of Britain and Ireland he visited Dublin in 1874. He also returned in 1882–1883 and 1892. Hugh was greatly impacted and affected by his visits. 

(1874, )
D. L. Moody visited Dublin and
Brown appeared to benefit much from his ministry. Indeed, there is evidence that Brown was a fervent evangelist from his earliest days as a Christian.

24 October - 29 November 1874 they were in Dublin, again preaching to thousands every day. An account of their campaign in Dublin, printed in The Nation - said this:

'... Irish Catholics desire to see Protestants deeply imbued with religious feeling, rather than tinged with rationalism and infidelity; as long as the religious services of our Protestant neighbours are honestly directed to quickening religious thought in their own body, without offering aggressive or intentional insult to us, it is our duty to pay homage of our respect to their conscientious convictions; in a word do as we would be done by ...'


father died in 1882 / mother 1912 

It was not, however, until 1884, after a stint working as a barrister, that Hugh D. Brown became a Baptist pastor. 


​Hugh D. Brown established the Irish Baptist College in Dublin in 1892.

Limerick Baptist Church can trace its roots back to 1889. In April 1892 the church was constituted as a Baptist Church with 22 members. On 1st February 1895, a new church building was opened on O’Connell Avenue in the city centre.

​Secretary of the Christian Colportage Association

valiant stand, at all times for the integrity of God's Precious Word: but also for his own· consistent personal testimony borne out in his life and splendid character.

A graduate of Trinity College, Dublin where he obtained a MA, he later qualified as a barrister.[citation needed]
Although his parents belonged to the Church of Ireland, Brown became a Baptist preacher and served at the Harcourt Street Baptist Church from 1887 to 1914.[1]
In 1892 he founded the Irish Baptist Training Institute at 16 Harcourt Street in Dublin, with just five students,[2][3] beside the Harcourt Street Baptist Church where he preached,[4] which later became the Irish Baptist College, which is now based outside Lisburn.[5]
He also co-founded Limerick Baptist Church in 1895.[6]
Brown died in Dublin on 24 April 1918, and is buried in Mount Jerome Cemetery, Dublin.[7]

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