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Mathews-Williams Family Genealogy
Notes
Dr. Gustavus Richard Brown graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1768 and practiced medicine at Nanjemoy, Maryland. He was an attending physician (see Dr. James Craik) of President Washington during his last illness.
Moncure Daniel Conway writes in his autobiography, (vol. I, p. 4): "Dr. Gustavus Brown, in Maryland, brother of Mrs. Thomas Stone, resided at "Rose Hill", near by, and established there a medical school. He was a devoted friend of General Washington, and there is a tradition that the General occasionally escaped from the throng at Mount Vernon by going down the river to "Rose Hill". My mother told me of her grand-uncle's night ride when a messenger from Mount Vernon summoned him to attend Washington in his last illness. Two horses were broken down in that gallop to the landing opposite Mount Vernon, where he arrived seven hours before Washington's death.
The General, who had escaped guns and swords in a seven year's war, succumbed to the lancet. so Dr. Gustavus Brown believed, and wrote, January 2, 1800, to Dr. (James) Craik, Washington's family physician, that he thought their bleeding the sufferer was a fatal mistake. Thenceforth he discarded the lancet altogether."