# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/North, Brownlow (1810-1875)

​NORTH, BROWNLOW (1810–1875), lay-preacher, born at Winchester House, Chelsea, on 6 Jan. 1810, was the only son of Charles Augustus North, rector of Alverstoke, Hampshire, and prebendary of Winchester, grandson of Brownlow North, bishop of Winchester [q. v.], and was grand-nephew of Frederick, lord North, second earl of Guilford [q. v.] In 1817 he was appointed to the sinecure office of registrar of the diocese of Winchester, in reversion upon the ​death of his father. When nine years of age he went to Eton, where his conduct was far from exemplary, and on the death of his father in 1825 he was sent to Corfu to be under the influence of his cousin, the Earl of Guilford, chancellor of the Ionian Islands. At Corfu he attended a theological college founded by his cousin, but owing to bad behaviour he had to be sent back to England, and subsequently travelled abroad under a tutor for purposes of study. While in Paris he chanced to meet his tutor one evening in a gambling saloon, and extracted a promise, under threat of exposure, that they should have no more to do with books. Later on, while journeying to Rome, North won from his guardian at cards the money which was to pay the expenses of their tour. Returning to England, he became notorious for his fast life. In 1828 he went to Ireland, and in that year met and married Grace Anne, second daughter of the Rev. Thomas Coffey, D.D., of Galway. The second marriage of his uncle, Francis, sixth Earl of Guilford, barred North from the title, to which he had hoped to succeed, and placed him in considerable financial difficulties. He again took to gambling to increase his income, but, losing instead of gaining, removed to Boulogne, and, misfortune still attending him, joined Don Pedro's army at Oporto in 1832. On the close of the campaign next year North went home, and for five years lived the life of an English gentleman, spending most of his time on Scottish shooting estates. Influenced by the Duchess of Gordon in 1839, he resolved to enter holy orders, and after consulting his friend, Frederick Robertson (afterwards of Brighton, then at Cheltenham) [q. v.], he went to Magdalen College, Oxford, and graduated in 1842. An unwillingness on the part of the Bishop of Lincoln to ordain him, together with some misgivings of his own, led North to abandon his project, and for twelve years longer he continued in his youthful ways. One night in November 1854, as he sat playing cards in his house at resolved to mend his life. Speedily recovering, he kept his resolve, and retiring to the quiet town of Elgin, gradually drifted into religious society, and subsequently conducted evangelical meetings. His success as an evangelist was rapid, and during his later years he visited every important town in Scotland. He also visited some places in England, and spoke several times in London. In 1859 the Free Church of Scotland formally recognised him as an evangelist by resolution of its general assembly, and in that year he took part in revivalist meetings in Ulster. He died on 9 Nov. 1875 at Tillechewan Castle in Dumbartonshire, whither he had gone to fulfil a preaching engagement. He was buried in the Dean cemetery, Edinburgh.
By his marriage he had three sons, only one of whom survived him.
North published, apart from tracts and separately issued discourses: 1. ‘Ourselves’ (1865), an evangelical exhortation suggested by the history of Israel, which reached a 10th edition. 2. ‘Yes or No’ (1867), which reached a 3rd edition. 3. ‘The Rich Man and Lazarus’ (1869). 4. ‘The Prodigal Son’ (1871).
[Brownlow North's Records and Recollections, by the Rev. K. Moody-Stuart; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
J. R. M.