Abstract
Among the many interesting and distinguished figures who in one way or another were connected with the small community of British East Florida during its brief history none is more intriguing than its first surveyor general, William Gerrard De Brahm. A man whose versatility of genius went beyond even that of the typical eighteenth-century dilettante: a surveyor, engineer, botanist, astronomer, meteorologist, student of ocean currents, alchemist, sociologist, historian and mystical philosopher; he was also something of an eccentric in character, whose peculiarities are heightened for us by the odd ways in which his imperfect knowledge of the English tongue expressed itself in certain of his writings. About the career of such a man, moving on the margins of history, some obscurity necessarily lies, and none of the few brief accounts of him which exist tells his story in full or with complete accuracy. And probably it can never be told in full.
Recommended Citation
Mowat, Charles L.
(1941)
"That “Odd Being” De Brahm,"
Florida Historical Quarterly: Vol. 20:
No.
4, Article 3.
Available at:
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/fhq/vol20/iss4/3
