Father said to be:  Nathaniel BROWN, Jr.
Mother said to be:  Mary __?__

Father:  David WHEELER, b. 18 Mar 1742, not 1697 or 1698
Mother:  Deborah INGALLS, b. 4 May 1742; m. 15 Jan 1761, Rehoboth, Bristol Co., MA

that is, not unless there were two couples with the same names because the only couple I can find with these names didn't marry until 1761 (q.v.).  The David WHEELER who married Deborah INGALLS has an illustrious father, so secondary sources are fudging his birth year to make him old enough to be Deborah WHEELER's father, though sometimes forgetting to fudge the birth year of his father (also 1698), so both end up being born the same year!  Some even go so far as to leave off the year of their marriage giving only the day, month, and place, apparently to avoid supplying the year, 1761, which would show the connection cannot be valid.

If you don't document your work, but import other people's GEDCOMs uncritically, you will end up adding blatant fabrications like this one to your database.  And, yes, people do fabricate connections to illustrious ancestors, or at least they used to, before the advent of personal computers and the Internet when it was easy to get away with it.

1.  Lorraine Cook White, ed. 1994-2002.  The Barbour Collection of Connecticut Town Vital Records.  55 vols.  Genealogical Publ. Co., Baltimore, MD (online at Ancestry.com):

NEW LONDON VITAL RECORDS - BARBOUR COLLECTION...		Vol	Pg
p. 50	BROWN (cont.)... Charles, s. Benjamin, of New London, m. Sarah GORTON, d. of William, late of New London, decd., Jan. 4, 1770...	3	50
p. 54	BROWN (cont.)... Martha, d. Benjamin & Deborah, b. Jan. 27, 1749 Martha, m. Caleb COMSTOCK, Jan. 2, 1767...	3 3	131 131

The marriage record is not conclusive evidence that Charles is son of this Benjamin (our subject).  There could have been another Benjamin BROWN in New London.  So, was there?

2.  Adelos Gorton.  1907.  The Life and Times of Samuel Gorton, the Founders and the Founding of the Republic, a Section of the Early United States Hisory, and a History of the Colony of Providence and Rhode Island Plantations, in the Narraansett Indian Country, of the State of Rhode Island, 1592—1636—1677—1687, with a Genealogy of Samuel Gorton's Descendants to the Present Time.  G.S. Ferguson Co. Printers, Philadelphia, PA. 966 pp. (online at Ancestry.com; boldface and color added):

p. 211 Image #217	333. SARAH5 GORTON (William4 John3 John2 Samuel1), born Dec. 31, 1746, died March 10, 1835, married, January 4, 1770, Charles Benjamin Brown, born 1742, probably in Groton [New London Co.], Conn., died December 20, 1816, son of Benjamin and Deborah (Wheeler) Brown, grandson of Nathaniel, Jr., and Mary Brown, great-grandson of Nathaniel and Rhoda Brown.  Charles was Chaplain in the First Connecticut Regiment, War of the Revolution.  Nathaniel's wife, Rhoda's, family name may have been Allen.  One of her sons, Allen Brown, married, May 19, 1796, in Coventry, R.I., Mahala6 Brown (Elnathan5 Samuel4 Samuel3 John2 Samuel1 Gorton)...
p. 274 Image #280	855.  MAHALA6 BOWEN (Elnathan5 Samuel4 Samuel3 John2 Sam'l1), born February 16, 1773, married, May 19, 1796, Allen Brown, son of Nathaniel and Rhoda Brown, of Foster, R.I.  She died February 14, 1851; he died January 8, 1860; both in New York City.
	Mahala's maiden name was BOWEN, not BROWN, as shown in her own entry.
	There is a serious time issue here.  Allen BROWN (b. ca. 1769) married Mahala BOWEN (b. 1773) in 1796.  How can he possibly be our subject's uncle?  Some sources show Nathaniel & Rhoda, parents of Allen, as born 1739.  That's fine, but if so, then Allen's father cannot possibly be the great-grandfather of Charles Benjamin (b. 1742).
	If Gorton made errors as big as these, then his credibility is shot.  So... how hard do I work to support his claims for the identities of Benjamin's parents and grandparents?  Is the reason I've so far been unable to document them due to the fact that they don't exist?

.  U.S. Sons of the American Revolution: Application (online at Ancestry.com):

#25774 claims descent from Charles Benjamin BROWN (1742-1816) & Sarah GORTON (1746-1835); gives parents of Charles as Benjamin BROWN & Deborah WHEELER (n.d.). Cites "Connecticut Men in the Revolution, page 219 --National No. 23614-- Early Marriages of Connecticut and Gorton Genealogy."  That's all the documentation there is.

a.  LDS.  Family Search:  Family Trees (online at familysearch.org).

b.  LDS.  Family Search:  Ancestral File (online at familysearch.org).

c.  LDS.  Family Search:  Pedigree Resouce File (online at familysearch.org).

.  Public Member Trees (online at Ancestry.com):  files here are all over the map with regard to Benjamin's parentage, so the question becomes, is the above Groton book correct?

.  WorldConnect / Ancestry World Trees (online at RootsWeb.com/Ancestry.com).