Brown Family Birth Record

PeriodCirca 1810

Place MadeBrowntown, New Jersey, United States

MediumWatercolor and iron gall ink on wove paper

Dimensions13.88 × 12 in. (35.2 × 30.5 cm)

InscribedIn the center of the birth record is the inscription "Susan Brown was / Born August 18th 1794 / Charlotte Brown / born November 9th 1800 / Maria Brown / Born March 3rd 1805 / Elizabeth Brown / Born July 2nd 1809."

ClassificationsDrawings

Credit LineGift of J. Mabel Brown, 1958

Object number1980.558

DescriptionThis decorative family birth record page features a central rectangular section set within a blue-green border including the names of the four Brown family sisters: Susan (born 1794); Charlotte (born 1800); Maria (born 1805); and Elizabeth (born 1809) rendered in decorative captial lettering highlighted with soft red pigment. The rest of the page is divided into panels, with the four corner panels containing a blue bird perched on a flowering branch, set within an oval. The top and bottom central panels feature an eight-lobed stylized flower in soft red and blue with a yellow ground, flanked by simple floral sprays. Similar stylized floral elements are drawn within the left and right rectangular panels, and include elongated floral vines at top and bottom. The entire page is set within a border of alternating soft red and yellow beading.
NotesThis charming and elegantly rendered family record birth page was created for four of seven children of Daniel Brown (1759 - 1831) and his wife Margaret Warne. Daniel was a successful farmer in Browntown, a village within the larger township of Old Bridge in Middlesex County, New Jersey. Brown served as a Private in Captain James Morgan's Company, Second Regiment, Middlesex County Militia. His wife, Margaret Warne, was born in 1768 in Cranbury, Middlesex County, New Jersey, and died in 1831. The couple had seven children: Susannah Rezeau (1792 - 1866), Parker (1795 - 1856), Benjamin Daniel (1798 - 1886), Charlotte (born 1800), Warne (1802 - 1880), Maria (born 1805), and Elizabeth (1809 - 1889). The Brown family Birth Record includes the couple's four daughters. The birth date for eldest daughter Susannah (Susan) is noted as 1794, while other genealogical information indicates her birth date as 1792.

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