Mr. Brown
Cite this Page
"Mr. Brown," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/99.
- Position
- Cook
- Years in President's House
- circa 1794 – 1797
- Legal Status
- Free Person
- Gender
- Male
- Race/Ethnicity
- Unclear from Context
- Presidency
- George Washington
- Biography
- Information about Mr. Brown’s life outside of the President’s House, including his full name, remains unknown. Mr. Brown does not appear in household accounts related to the President’s House in Philadelphia. However, he likely worked for President George Washington as a cook sometime between 1794 and 1797, during the tenure of Washington’s steward, Fred Kitt. George Washington experienced a lot of household turnover, and Mr. Brown may have worked periodically on an as needed basis. He appears in a letter after Washington’s presidency, sent by Fred Kitt in early 1798, “you mention the impossibility of getting a good hired Cook I beg leave hint that Mr. Brown who formerly was in your Service and with whom Mrs Washington was well pleased…”1 This letter indicates that Mr. Brown did work in the President’s House.
- It is unusual that Mr. Brown does not appear in records outside of this correspondence. Although it remains undetermined when he worked in the household, he may have been hired after Washington’s enslaved chef, Hercules Posey, was sent back to Mount Vernon and later self-emancipated. “Frederick Kitt to George Washington, 15 January 1798,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/06-02-02-0026. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Retirement Series, vol. 2, 2 January 1798 – 15 September 1798, ed. W. W. Abbot. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1998, pp. 25–26.]
- Birthplace
- Unclear from Context
- Unclear from Context