Mrs Brown (Bush) Mother of John Brown (1799-1876)

Photograph of Mrs Brown sitting in a wooden chair facing three-quarters to the left, her arms folded at the wrists and her right hand resting on a large book. She wears a long black dress with a white frilled bonnet. Margaret Brown had six children, the eldest being John Brown, Queen Victoria's servant. He outlived his siblings, three of whom died in 1849. Queen Victoria visited the farm known as 'The Bush' where John Brown's parents lived on the 3rd October 1856 and described Margaret Brown in her journal: 'Saw Mrs Brown, the mother, a big stout woman spin & took some very good oatcake and cheese.' RA VIC/MAIN/QVJ (W) 3rd October 1856. For a photograph of the farmhouse where John Brown's parents lived, see RCIN 2160171