Baron George Gavin Browne Mill

Baron George Gavin Browne Mill (1748-1842), physician to Louis XVIII of France, inherited (with John Mill) an estate in Grenada from David Mill, for which he was awarded compensation with James Mill (q.v.). Also claimed compensation for St Ann, Jamaica, as trustee of the marriage settlement of George Coleman and Harriet Redwar.

1. George Gavin Browne was born at Prior-Monagu, Lanarkshire, Scotland. His father was George Browne, Laird of Priorhill in the Parish of Lesmahagow in Lanarkshire. Studied at Edinburgh University and gained an M.D in 1779. At some point, probably prior to 1803, he moved to Bath, Somerset, where he worked as a surgeon.

2. In 1809 he received a legacy through the will of Robert Stewart, Well Walk, Hampstead, Middlesex: ‘I leave and bequeath to Docter G. G. Browne Mill of Bath two hundred pounds for a piece of plate as a small Mark of my Great Regard and High esteem for him, from whose Valuable friendship and Eminent Medical abilities, I have often derived essential benifit. I also leave him a Gold snuff box & a diamond Ring with hair on which I place a great value. I leave to his house keeper twenty Guineas for her great attention to me when sick.’

3. David Mill, a native of Montrose, Scotland, having ‘acquired a considerable fortune in the West Indies’ left a will and several codicils, making George Gavin Browne one of the executors, and on 06/04/1803 George Gavin Browne took the additional name and arms of Mill ‘out of grateful respect to and in compliance with the desire of his friend, David Mill, of the said City of Bath’. The third codicil left the plantation in Cariacou to John Mill and George Gavin Browne. As a result of this will there was a court case, Attorney-General v Mill, reported at length in Reports of cases argued and determined in the High Court of Chancery, Volume 1 by James Russell and John Scott Eldon.

4. Physician to King Louis XVIII of France. Dates not known but on 20/04/1820 he was created ‘by letters patent of Louis XVIII Baron Brown-Mill with rem. to the heirs male of his body’ for this service. (The Académie Nationale de Médecine was created in 1820 by Louis XVIII.)

5. Further reference to a court case – possibly the same one as it affirmed the ‘Decree of the 13th of June 1809’ – in the House of Lords Journal Volume 63: 12 October 1831'.

6. The newly-established Improvement Commissioners of Tunbridge Wells conducted a census of the 'town' in Sept 1837. This records Baron Browne Mill, with a wife, living at Manor Villa on Mt Ephraim. One male servant, two female servants, and two 'inmates' living with them (these are typically adult relations). In the 1841 census the family is at 27 Marlbrgh Bdgs, Walcot, Bath: George Brownmill, aged 85, occupation Ind, born Scotland, Maria, 35, born out of county, Henrietta, 60, born out of county, George, 60, born Scotland, (all ages rounded down to nearest 5) and George, 4, born out of county. No relationships are given in 1841 so difficult to work out here. The 85-yr-old George Brownmill, born Scotland, is presumably the father of George Gavin while George Brownmill, aged 60, is almost certainly George Gavin. The assumption would be that Henrietta, aged 60, is the wife of George Gavin but a note in the Notes and Queries section of the Oxford Journals s9-III, Issue 75, pp 433-a-433 says ‘The widow of Baron Browne-Mill, physician to Louis XVIII, married in 1844 at Walcot Church, Bath, the Rev. Michael Hobart Seymour.’. A marriage licence issued 01/01/1844 shows this to be the marriage of Maria Elizabeth Brownemill to Michael Hobart Seymour. There is also an entry for the marriage of Maria Elizabeth Browne Mill and Michael Hobart Seymour in the England and Wales Marriage index for the March quarter of 1844. His widow is still alive and unmarried in 1843 when mentioned in a letter from Walter Savage Landor to Miss Rose Paynter [BATH, May 27, 1843]: ‘Yesterday I dined with the Longs – your friend FitzGerald and the Baroness Browne-Mill were all the party. I sat by the Baroness, with whose manners and conversation I was charmed. I expected to find nothing but severity, taciturnity, and coldness. Quite the contrary. She admired Mazzini and more than tolerated Byron.’. There is a footnote commenting that ‘Baroness Browne-Mill was the recognised head of the Low Church party in Bath’. The 4-yr-old George could be assumed to be the son of Maria and George but the The Nobilities of Europe gives George Gavin as d.s.p. This also states that his widow died before 1880 which tends to suggest that this was not Maria.

7. George Gavin Browne Mill died in Bath with the death registered in the December quarter of 1842. No sign after 1841 of a death for the older George Brownmill/Brown(e) Mill nor of Henrietta. No likely entries for them in 1851, nor of the 4-yr-old George and no death for him either. No sign of a return to Scotland. In his will he asked to be buried near David Mill in St James' Park square, Bath.

8. The Rev Michael Hobart Seymour and Maria Elizabeth Seymour remained at 27 Marlborough Buildings, Royal Crescent, Walcot, Bath, appearing in the 1851, 1861 and 1871 censuses with up to seven servants, including a butler and a footman. In 1861 there is a George G McLean, aged 24, in the household as a visitor, a Fundholder, born Lymington, Hampshire. Apart from the surname, this person would fit with the 4-yr-old George in the 1841 census – who might have been accidentally recorded as Brownmill. (In 1851 this George McLean is shown as the 14-yr-old son of George McLean, Fundholder, born Scotland, Ross-shire, and Margaret, his wife, born London, Middlesex and living in Thames Ditton, Surrey. A George McLean was the Attorney to Baron G G Browne Mill on Claim notes.) Michael Seymour was born in Ireland and Maria is shown as born East Indies (1851 and 1861) and India (1871).

9. Michael Hobart Seymour died in 1873 and in 1881 Maria is shown as aged 77, Annuitant, born Bengal, Calcutta. Maria Elizabeth H Seymour died, aged 78, on 23/10/1881. Her will was proved at Bristol with the Reverend Edward Seymour of 52 Upper-Leeson-street in the City of Dublin Precentor and Canon of Christchurch Cathedral Dublin and the Reverend Edward Markby of 11 Cambridge-road North Kilburn in the County of Middlesex Clerk two of the Executors. Estate £12,908 9s 1d.

T71/880: Grenada claim no. 981. T71/857: St Ann claim no 565.

1. Alan Bloom (ed.), The Piozzi Letters, 1811-1816 (Bloomington, DE, 1999), pp. 237 & 523.

2. Will of Robert Stewart, [accessed 12/11/2011].

3. The Nobilities of Europe by Melville H. Ruvigny, Melville Henry Massue, Marquis de Ruvigny, at Google Books [accessed 12/11/2011].

   Reports of cases argued and determined in the High Court of Chancery, Volume 1 by James Russell and John Scott Eldon. The case begins on p. 328. [accessed 12/11/2011].

4. The Nobilities of Europe by Melville H. Ruvigny, Melville Henry Massue, Marquis de Ruvigny, at Google Books [accessed 12/11/2011].

5. House of Lords Journal Volume 63: 1830-1831, pp. 1081-1084 [accessed 12/11/2011].

6. Census transcription from the archives of the Tunbridge Wells borough Council, house no. 77 in Speldhurst parish, supplied by email by Chris Jones, 03/01/2016. 1841 census online; Faculty Office Marriage Licence Allegations 1701-1850 online; FreeUKGen, England and Wales Free BMD Database, Marriages, 1837-1983 [database online].

7. England and Wales FreeBMD Death Index online; Will of Doctor George Gavin Browne Mill, Doctor of Medicine, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (Baron of France and Physician to the late Louis the eighteenth King of France and Navarre) of Bath, Somerset, 20/01/1843, TNA/PROB 11/1973/367.

8. 1851/1861/1871/1881 censuses online.

9. England and Wales FreeBMD Death index online; England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1861-1941.

We are grateful to Chris Jones and Jacqueline Burrows for their assistance with compiling this entry.