• Chronology of the Life of Charles Brockden Brown
• The Correspondents of Charles Brockden Brown 1788-1809

Chronology of the Life of Charles Brockden Brown, by John R. Holmes

This chronology is a work in progress and will be supplemented as additional information becomes available over the course of the project.

1771	January 17	Born 17 January to Elijah (b. 1740) and Mary Armitt Brown
1777	September	Elijah Brown, Sr. exiled to Virginia by American (and later British) authorities for refusal to participate in the revolution (Kafer)
1778	April	Elijah Brown returns from exile (Kafer)
1781		enters Friends' Latin School, Philadelphia (Kennedy)
1786		earliest extant writing, the poem "On Some of His School Fellows" (Kennedy)
1787		begins law study with Alexander Wilcocks forms "Belles Lettres Club" with eight friends
1788		writes “Henrietta” letters, basis for projected epistolary novel (Brown, 19 May 1792)
1789		Wilcocks named recorder of Philadelphia
	Spring	meets William Wood Wilkins; introduces him to Club
	August	First installment of "The Rhapsodist," Columbian Magazine
	September	Second installment of "The Rhapsodist," Columbian Magazine
	October	Third installment of "The Rhapsodist," Columbian Magazine
	November	Fourth installment of "The Rhapsodist," Columbian Magazine
1790		Elihu Hubbard Smith moves to Philadelphia; Brown meets him sometime before his return to New York in 1791; Brown helps form “Society for the Attainment of Useful Knowledge”
	December	death of John Davidson
1792		gives up law study; begins writing "Julius" (Brown 19 May 1792)
	October	Wilkins moves to Trenton (Clark 24); Brown visits Wilkins in Trenton (Brown, n.d.; Wilkins 25 December 1792)
1793	April 8	Wilkins moves to Woodbury, NJ (Kennedy; Brown 4 May 1793)
	May 22	Brown arrives Litchfield, CT to visit E.H. Smith; remains three months (Brown 22 May 1793)
	Summer	Yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia
	December	Bringhurst moves to Wilmington, Delaware (Brown 20 December 1793)
1794	April 24	sees performance of Dunlap's Fatal Deception, New York (Brown 28 November 1794)
	Summer	visits Elihu Hubbard Smith in New York (Smith)
	August 31	back in Philadelphia, has noon meal at home of Henry & Elizabeth Drinker with T.C. Cope and Benjamin Wilson (Drinker)
	September	writes poem "Devotion: An Epistle" to Deborah Ferris (Ferris)
	Fall	teaches at Friends' School in Philadelphia? (Warfel 44-45, Clark 108)
1795	February 15	Wilkins dies of tuberculosis
	April 5	visits "John Eckstein & Sons exhibit room" with Deborah Ferris, Ruth Paxson, Mary Attmore
	Summer	visits Smith in New York (Bringhurst 15 June 1795) and Dunlap in Perth Amboy, NJ (Ferris 4 September 1795)
	September 3	returns to Philadelphia (Ferris 4 September 1795; Smith 7 September)
	September	begins writing "Philadelphia Novel" (probably Arthur Mervyn; Brown September 1795)
1796	late July	moves to Perth Amboy to visit Dunlap (Smith 24 July 1796)
	Summer	brother Joseph Brown marries and moves to New York (Brown 1 September 1796)
	August	moves to New York through March, 1797 (Smith 31 August 1796)
	September 10	attends Friendly Club at Dunlap's (Smith)
	September 24	attends Friendly Club (Smith)
	October 3	sees Road to Ruin and The Spoiled Child at the theatre (Smith)
	October 31	sees premiere of Dunlap's The Mysterious Monk and The Midnight Hour (Smith)
	November 12	attends Friendly Club at Woolsey's (Smith)
	November 19	attends Friendly Club at Smith's (Smith)
	November 26	attends Friendly Club at Kent’s (Smith)
	November 30	sister Elizabeth Brown marries, Stacy Horner of Burlington, Vermont (Genealogical Records)
	December 3	attends Friendly Club at Dunlap's (Smith)
	December 10	attends Friendly Club at Johnson's (Smith)
	December 17	attends Friendly Club at William Woolsey's (Smith)
	December 24	attends Friendly Club at George Woolsey's (Smith)
	December 31	attends Friendly Club at Smith's (Smith)
1797	January 7	attends Friendly Club at Dunlap's (Smith)
	January 12-16	James Brown visits (Smith)
	January 14	attends Friendly Club at Smith's (Smith)
	March 11	attends Friendly Club at Smith's (Smith; Club had not met since January)
	March 16	leaves for Philadelphia (Smith)
	April-May	Smith visits Brown in Philadelphia (Smith)
1798	February 3	first issue of Weekly Magazine
	March	tells Smith he is "in love" with Susan Potts (Dunlap 29 March)
	March-April	Alcuin published
	April 11-13	Dunlap visits Brown in Philadelphia; reads Brown's Sky-Walk (Dunlap)
	June	visits brother James in Princeton (Dunlap 3 July 1798)
	July 3	arrives at New York; remains through September 24 (Dunlap 3 July 1798)
	July 19	attends constitutory meeting of American Mineralogical Society, Columbia University (Dunlap)
	July 23	Swords begins printing Wieland (Smith)
	September	finishes writing Carwin (Dunlap 5 September, 14 September)
	September 19	Smith dies of Yellow Fever
	September 24	leaves New York for Perth Amboy (Dunlap)
	September 28	brother James visits Brown in Perth Amboy (Dunlap)
	October 9-11	walks to Brunswick, NJ
	Octomber 21	leaves Perth Amboy for Burlington, Vermont, to visit sister Elizabeth (Dunlap)
	November 15	arrives in New York (Dunlap)
1799	February	Ormond published
	March 30	last issue of Weekly Magazine
	April	first issue of Monthly Magazine
	May	Arthur Mervyn Part I published
	June	Stephen Calvert begins serialization in Monthly Magazine
	Summer	Edgar Huntly published
1800	February	John Davis meets Brown in New York (Davis I.157)
	March	journey to Connecticut with T.P. Cope (Brown 1 April 1801)
	April	first meeting with Elizabeth Linn in New York (Brown 23 March 1801)
	Summer	Arthur Mervyn Part II published
	August	returns to Philadelphia (Cope August 28, Kennedy 1315); partnership with Joseph Brown in family mercantile business (Kennedy)
	November	second meeting with Eliza Linn (Brown 23 March 1801)
	December	last issue of Monthly Magazine
1801	Winter	meets with English actor John Bernard to form American version of Covent Garden's "Beefsteak Club"
	March	begins corresponding with Eliza Linn
	June	Clara Howard published
	June 4	attends fake ventriloquism demonstration by Rennie (Cope 62)
	June 23	John Davis meets with Brown (Davis II.20)
	June 29	leaves with Cope for New York; lodged at Brunswick (Cope)
	June 30	arrives in New York, 1 p.m.; CBB stays with Johnson (Cope)
	July 4	Dinner with Cope, Johnson, Dunlap "opposite the park" (Cope)
	July 6	Breakfast with Cope at the Miller's (Cope)
	July 7	sails for Albany with Cope on the sloop Harriet (Cope)
	July 10	arrives at Troy, New York (Cope)
	July 12	arrives at Albany, 2:00 p.m. (Cope)
	July 13	leaves for Lebanon, NY (Cope)
	July 14	CBB writes verse on wall of inn; leaves by stage 5 p.m. (Cope)
	July 15	stops at Northampton, Massachusetts (Cope)
	July 16	leaves by stage for Hartford, CT (Cope)
	July 17	visits R. Alsop at Middletown; arrives at New Haven in evening (Cope)
	July 19	attends sermon on angels by Timothy Dwight at Yale College (Cope)
	July 21	returns to New York; Cope returns to Philadelphia the next day, Brown stays with Dunlap (Cope)
	October 2	CBB is back in Philadelphia; tea with Cope, Bleecker, Irvin (Cope)
	October 3	visits alms house, prison, etc., with Cope, Bleecker, Irvin (Cope)
	November 30	leaves for New York with Cope (Cope)
	December 1	arrives at New York, lodges at Little's Hotel (Cope)
	December	Jane Talbot published; Brown tours Hudson River
1802	Spring	Grandmother Armitt dies; CBB named executor (Krause)
	July 3	arrives in New York (Cope)
1803	January 20	Cession of Louisiana published
	February 19	agrees to write History of Slavery, but never finishes (Cope)
	March 3	Monroe's Embassy published
	October	first issue of Literary Magazine
1804		publishes translation of Volney's View of the Soil and Climate of the United States with CBB's notes and commentary
	November 19	marries Elizabeth Linn
1805		"Sketch of the Life and Character of J. B. Linn" published in Linn's poem Valerian
	July	Dunlap paints portrait of Elizabeth Linn Brown (Dunlap)
	August 10	twin sons born, Charles Jr. and William Linn Brown
1806		Brown Brothers mercantile firm dissolved
	January 3	Dunlap paints Charles B. Brown's portrait (Dunlap)
	January 6	Dunlap paints second version of Elizabeth Brown's portrait (Dunlap)
	March 20	CBB's name proposed to replace Poulson as City Librarian (Cope)
	March 25	Dunlap stays three weeks with CBB (Dunlap 395)
	April 12	CBB withdraws his name from candidacy for City Librarian (Cope)
	June 12	CBB leaves for Albany to visit his in-laws
	June 16	CBB observes total eclipse
	July	CBB returns home to Philadelphia (Dunlap, July 6)
1807		British Treaty of Commerce and Navigation published
	January	last issue of Literary Magazine
	July 26	son Eugene Linn Brown born
	October 29	brother Joseph dies in Holland (Krause)
	November	first issue of American Register
1809		daughter Mary Brown born; publishes prospectus for A System of General Geography
	January 3	Address to Congress published
	January 8	Brown's father-in-law William Linn dies
	Summer	convalescent trip to Albany
1810	February	last issue of American Register published (Dunlap)
	February 15	Cope visits the dying CBB in Philadelphia (Cope)
	February 21	CBB dies in Philadelphia
	February 24	CBB's funeral in Philadelphia

Sources for the Biography of Charles Brockden Brown