Thomas Storrow Brown
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Thomas Storrow Brown in 1873 edition of L'opinion publique, 21 May, Vol.4, no.21, pg.245 |
Thomas Storrow Brown (
July 7,
1803 –
November 26,
1888) was a
Canadian journalist, writer, orator, and revolutionary.
Born in
St. Andrews,
New Brunswick, the son of Henry Barlow Brown and Rebecca Appelton, as a young man he moved to
Montreal, Quebec. Once there, he found work and with his savings eventually went into the hardware business. His operation encountered financial difficulties and closed leaving Brown to find other employment.
A member of the
Unitarian Church, Thomas Brown was an advocate for both social and political reform, supporting the concept of responsible government in which the members of the
Legislative Council of Quebec would be appointed by the
Legislative Assembly's majority party. Brown also worked to improve social conditions through aid to the poor. Influenced by the
republic form of government in the
United States, over time his frustrations with the government of
Great Britain saw him join the
Montreal Vindicator newspaper in 1832 at the invitation of his friend
Edmund Bailey O'Callaghan. Following the death of founder
Daniel Tracey, O'Callaghan had been appointed the paper's new editor and with Brown, they continued to espouse the former owner's radical views. Their attacks were especially harsh against the Governor of the Colony,
Lord Gosford despite the fact that he had ordered the dissolution of the
British Rifle Corps in January of 1836.
In 1833, Brown's wife, Jane Hughes, died. By this time, Brown had moved firmly from a moderate who sought to reform the political system, to a radical wanting to fundamentally alter Canadian society. In 1837 he participated in the
Lower Canada Rebellion and was head of the military faction of the rebel group, the
Société des Fils de la Liberté, that openly advocating revolution. In November, Brown was wounded and partially blinded in one eye during the street fight between the Société des Fils de la Liberté and the
Doric Club but nevertheless in December he still fought against the
British Army at the
Battle of Saint-Charles. Defeated, he escaped to the United States where he worked as a journalist in
Florida. In 1844, he was granted an
amnesty and returned to Montréal where
Charles Wilson gave him a job in his hardware store. Brown married Hester Livingston in 1860 and a little more than a year later was given administrative posts in the government.
Thomas Storrow Brown died at his home in Montréal in 1888 at the age of eighty-five.
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Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
