British Census Records, Public Record Office, Kew, Richmond, Surrey
Royal Household Indexes, Public Record Office
Births, Marriages, Deaths Registers, Scottish Register Office, Edinburgh
Ponsonby Papers, The Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede
Purves Papers, private collection of unbound leaves, jottings, notes, letters collected by the late Marion Purves
Blunt Papers, ‘Secret Diary’ of Wilfred Scawen Blunt, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
John Brown Papers, private collection (location withheld at request of owner)
John Brown Collection, Aberdeen Libraries
Royal Archives, various mss and the Kronberg Letters, Windsor Castle
Memorandum, on the life of John Brown by Dr Andrew Robertson, Balmoral, 2 June 1865, private collection
Großherzogliches Familienarchiv, Hessisches Staatsarchiv Darmstadt (former Grand Duchy of Hesse), West Germany
Baron Broughton de Gyfford Papers, British Library
The Amberley Papers, of John, Viscount Amberley (ed. B. & P. Russell and published by L. & V. Woolf, 1937)
Cullen, Tom. The Empress Brown: The Story of a Royal Friendship, (Bodley Head, 1969)
Philip, Kenwood. John Brown’s Legs or Leaves from a Journal in the Lowlands, published privately 1884
Robertson, Alexander. John Brown: A Correspondence with the Lord Chancellor, Regarding a Charge of Fraud and Embezzlement, Preferred Against His Grace The Duke of Athole, K.T., published privately, 1873
Tisdall, E.E.P. Queen Victoria’s John Brown, Stanley Paul, 1938
Williams, Henry L. Life and Biography of John Brown Esq, E. Smith & Co., 1883
John Brown’s ‘Faithful Service Medal’ and Bar, and gold ‘Devoted Service Medal’ were sold at auction in 1965. Details of the awards are to be found in:
Cowell, J.C. The Victoria Faithful Service Medal: Instituted 1872, Harrison & Son, 1889
Balmoral: Castle and Estate, Nevisprint, 1998
Brown, Ivor. Balmoral: The History of a Home, Collins, 1955
Clark, R.W. Balmoral, Thames & Hudson, 1981
Farr, A.D. Stories of Royal Deeside’s Railway, Kestrel, 1971
Frogmore House and the Royal Mausoleum, Royal Collection, 1998
Humphrey, F.P. The Queen at Balmoral, T. Fisher Unwin, 1893
Lindsay, Patricia. Recollections of a Royal Parish, John Murray, 1902
Osborne, Ken (ed.). Osborne House, English Heritage, 1999
Patchell-Martin, Arthur. The Queen in the Isle of Wight (Brochure II), Vectis, Isle of Wight, 1898
Robinson, John Martin. Windsor Castle, Royal Collection, 1997
Stirton, John. Crathie and Braemar: A History of a United Parish, Milne and Hutchinson, 1925
——Balmoral in Former Times, Forfar, 1921
Taylor, Alistair & Henrietta. Jacobites of Aberdeenshire & Banffshire in the Forty Five, Milne & Hutchinson, 1928
Tyler, Michael Sidney. Victoria and Albert at Home, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980
Watt, William. A History of Aberdeenshire & Banff, William Blackwood, 1900
York, Duchess of and Stoney, Benita. Victoria and Albert: Life at Osborne House, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1991
When she was thirteen years of age in 1832, Queen Victoria began a series of journals which she continued to fill until her death in 1901. Those she left passed into the hands of her youngest daughter Princess Beatrice, who, on her mother’s instructions, transcribed large passages from the journals into blue copybooks. As she worked Princess Beatrice burned the originals. On her own auspices the princess destroyed much which she did not transcribe and it is thought that many references to John Brown, his background and career, were thus destroyed. Nevertheless Queen Victoria’s comments on John Brown can be assessed from the following:
Helps, Arthur (ed.). Leaves from the Journal of Our Life in the Highlands from 1848 to 1861. Smith, Elder, 1868
[With the assistance of Amelia MacGregor]. More Leaves from the Journal of A Life in the Highlands from 1862 to 1882, Smith, Elder, 1884
David, Duff (ed.). Victoria in the Highlands: The personal journal of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, Muller, 1968
Benson, A.C. & Esher, Viscount (eds). The Letters of Queen Victoria, 1st Series, 1837–61, John Murray, 1907
Buckle, G.E. The Letters of Queen Victoria, 2nd Series, 1862–85, John Murray, 1926
—— The Letters of Queen Victoria, 3rd Series, 1886–1901, John Murray, 1930
Bolitho, H. (ed.). Further Letters of Queen Victoria: From the Archives of the House of Brandenburg-Prussia, Thornton-Butterworth, 1938
Dyson, Hope & Tennyson, Charles (eds). Dear and Honoured Lady: The Correspondence Between Queen Victoria and Alfred Tennyson, Macmillan, 1969
Fulford, Roger (ed.). Dearest Child: Letters between Queen Victoria and the Princess Royal 1858–1861, Evans Brothers, 1971
Aronson, Theo. Heart of A Queen: Queen Victoria’s Romantic Attachments, John Murray, 1991
Baillie, Dean & Bolitho, Hector. Later Letters of Lady Augusta Stanley, Howe, 1927
Cooke, A.B. & Vincent, J.A. (eds). Lord Carlingford’s Journal, Oxford University Press, 1971
Crawford, Emily. Victoria, Queen and Ruler, Simpkin, Marshall, 1903
Erickson, C. Her Little Majesty, Robson, 1997
Hardy, Alan. Queen Victoria was Amused, John Murray, 1976
McClintock. The Queen Thanks Sir Howard, John Murray, 1945
Marie Louise, Princess. My Memories of Six Reigns, Evans, 1956
Martin, Sir Theodore. The Life of the Prince Consort, Smith, Elder, 1875– 1880
Neville, Barry St-J. (ed.). Life at the Court of Queen Victoria, Good Books Ltd, 1984
Packard, Jerrold M. Farewell in Splendour: The Passing of Queen Victoria and Her Age, Penguin Group, 1995
Ponsonby, Sir Frederick. Recollections of Three Reigns, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1957
Reeve, Henry (ed.). Greville: The Greville Memoirs 1817–60, Longmans Green & Co., 1875–87
Reid, Michaela. Ask Sir James, Hodder & Stoughton, 1987
St Aubyn, Giles. Queen Victoria: A Portrait, Sinclair-Stevenson, 1991
Strachey, Lytton. Queen Victoria, Chatto & Windus, 1921
Victoria, Princess of Prussia. Queen Victoria at Windsor and Balmoral, Allen & Unwin, 1959
Whittle, Taylor. Victoria and Albert at Home, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980
Woodham-Smith, Cecil. Queen Victoria: From Her Birth to the Death of the Prince Consort, Hamish Hamilton, 1972
Zeepvat, Charlotte. Prince Leopold, Sutton, 1998
Antrim, Louisa, Countess of, Recollections, London, 1937
Asquith, B. The Lyttletons, Chatto & Windus, 1975
Barncand, Odette (ed.). The Diary of W.M. Rossetti, Oxford University Press, 1977
Bell, G.K.A. Randall Davidson, Oxford University Press, 1938
Blake, Robert. Disraeli, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1966
Bradford, Sarah. Disraeli, Grafton Books/Collins Publishing Group, 1985
Buckle, G.E. & Monypenny, W.F. The Life of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield, John Murray, 1929
Caulfield, Catherine. The Emperor of the United States of America & Other Magnificent British Eccentrics, Corgi/Gransworld, 1982
Dodds, John W. The Age of Paradox, Victor Gollancz, 1953
Ellis, S.M. (ed.). A mid-Victorian Pepys: The Letters and Memories of Sir William Henderson, London, 1923
Goodman, Jean. Debrett’s Royal Scotland, Debrett/Webb & Bower, 1983
Hibbert, Christopher. Edward VII: A Portrait, Allen Lane, 1976
Huntly, Marquis of. Auld Acquaintance, Hutchinson, 1929
Irvine, Douglas H. The Royal Palaces of Scotland, Constable, 1911
Irving, Joseph. Annals of Our Time, 1837–1891
Johnston, James B. Place-Names of Scotland, John Murray, 1934
Kennedy, H.L. (ed.). Duchess of Manchester: My Dear Duchess, John Murray, 1956
MacAlpine, Ida & Hunter, Richard. George III and the Mad Business, Allen Lane/The Penguin Press, 1969
MacLeay, Kenneth. The Highlanders of Scotland, London, 1866
Magnus-Allcroft, Philip. King Edward VII, Penguin, 1964
Maxwell, Sir Herbert. Holyroodhouse, HMSO, 1923
New Edinburgh Almanac, Oliver & Boyd, 1837
Ponsonby, Arthur. Henry Ponsonby: Queen Victoria’s Private Secretary, His Life from His Letters, Macmillan, 1942
St Aubyn, Giles. Edward VII: Prince & King, Collins, 1979
Thompson, E.P. William Morris: Romantic and Revolutionary, Lawrence & Wishart, 1955
Waddington, Mary. My First Years as a Frenchwoman 1876–1879, Smith, Elder, 1914
Wilson, John Marcus. Imperial Gazeteer of Scotland, c. 1866
Wilson, Dr R. McNair. Doctor’s Progress, 1938
John Brown appears as a character in one of English novelist and dramatist Laurence Housman’s short biographical ‘chamber plays’ within the series Victoria Regina. The series was initially banned by the censor, but was produced at London’s Lyric Theatre in 1937. Set in 1877 the scenes in which John Brown appears are entitled An Episode of Home Life in the Highlands. Herein John Brown was portrayed as a pawky, genial friend of the Queen, by actor James Gibson.
In 1950 John Negulesco and Nunnally Johnston’s film The Mudlark was issued by Twentieth Century Fox using a screenplay from the novel by Theodore Bonnet. John Brown, played by Findlay Currie, with Irene Dunne as Queen Victoria, is shown as a haughty, tipsy seneschal, inclined to collapse in a drunken heap.
The best portrayal of John Brown so far on film is Douglas Rae and Jeremy Brock’s 1998 Ecosse Films/BBC presentation Mrs Brown. The main roles of Brown and Queen Victoria are played by Billy Connolly and Dame Judi Dench. A balanced portrayal of John Brown’s character is achieved, but this (and other dramatisations) gives no data on the Highland Servant’s background and career.
NOTE: English poet and critic Algernon Charles Swinburn composed a skit-drama ‘founded on Her Majesty’s [More Leaves], called La Mort du Mari. In it John Brown is murdered by Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, in vengeance’. See Cecil Lang (ed.). The Swinburn Letters, Vol. 2, Oxford University Press, 1959.