In what can only be described as an ignominious end, John Brown’s body ‘lies a moulding’ in an unmarked grave in the Hindmarsh Cemetery, just off South Road in Hindmarsh, South Australia. The headstone has either been lost, stolen or misappropriated, like many others in that place. However, in this case the negligence borders on the criminal because John Brown was the first Emigration Agent who had an inordinately powerful influence over the affairs of state and the planting of the new colony in 1836.
Throughout Adelaide’s short history there have been three of the original sixty-two streets and squares whose names have been changed, and in each case unnecessarily so. In 1967, under Sir James Irwin’s watch as Lord Mayor, both Hanson and Brown streets were removed from the lexicon so as not to confuse motorists travelling southward on either Pulteney or Morphett streets from either Unley and/or Goodwood roads. (Roberts Place was renamed Sir Edwin Smith Avenue.)
John Brown came to South Australia as the Emigration Agent, an appointment granted to him by the South Australian Colonization commissioners and sanctioned by the Colonial Office towards the end of 1835. He had hoped to be Treasurer. Thomas Fowell Buxton lobbied for him to be the Protector of the Aborigines.
Young (he was 35), idealistic, intelligent, uncannily perceptive and deeply committed to the separation of church and state, Brown has been described by some as a chartist. He was a fervent dissenting Congregationalist who probably came to know of the Wakefield experiment through Robert Gouger and Richard Davies Hanson, both close friends from the congregation at the Weigh Street Chapel in Duke Street, London. In the early 1830s these three young men sat at the feet of the Reverend Thomas Binney, the Archbishop of Congregationalism, who had built up a huge and influential following in East Cheap, London. They were all profoundly anti-establishment.
Brown began to take closer interest in the colonisation scheme immediately after the South Australia Act passed in August 1834. Its passage engendered considerable interest in the community and those astute enough to see the possibility of employment in the colony, and who wanted to emigrate, quickly made themselves known, offering voluntary assistance in anticipation of future employment. Brown followed George Strickland Kingston in this respect. Within days of the passage of the Act these young volunteers formed themselves into the South Australian Literary and Scientific Association, inviting other intending colonists to join them. Brown could be described as an inaugural member. By early 1835 he was being touted seriously as the incumbent Accountant General, an idea proposed by William Hutt.
It is highly likely that John Brown was further prompted to consider emigration to the colonies because of the Christian witness of his cousin, George Augustus Robinson, who had emigrated to Van Diemen’s Land in 1824. To follow a relative to the other side of the known world probably gave a degree of confidence denied others.
Brown’s mother, a daughter of Reverend Robert Robinson, was baptised Maria Josepha; a name indelibly linked to Jesus Christ, ‘the son of man’. She married Samuel Brown in Chesterton on 7 November 1789. The Brown side of the family was from St Andrew Hubbard, in London. Born in 1801 John Brown and his sister, also called Maria Josepha, emigrated to South Australia. As passengers on the Africaine they arrived at Holdfast Bay on 8 November 1836.
As the prospective Emigration Agent in the colony, Brown naturally had charge of the welfare of all the emigrants on board this ship. Maria Josepha was ten years younger than John, but unfortunately she was to die prematurely in 1845. Soon after she arrived, she married her brother’s close friend, Charles Mann, the Advocate General and one of the subjects named in the streets of Adelaide. Maria went on to make a name for herself in the colony with her more than competent artistic talents. Examples of her beautiful watercolours of English flowers are held by the Art Gallery of South Australia.
Perhaps the most important contribution John Brown made to South Australia was to keep a daily diary of events as they unfolded at the offices of the South Australian Association at the Adelphi, in London. He foretold that to do so might be important should any dispute arise. What he could not know was just how important it would become as a written record for future generations. It was so thoroughly written with the day-to-day machinations in which Brown became involved.
A closer examination reveals that Brown’s religious disposition and his sense of commitment to principle were really his greatest strengths. Once he understood and came to believe in the Wakefield principle he did not waver and always tried to uphold the underlying principles of the plan. This, in his mind, meant total allegiance to the commissioners in London and to no one else.
When Brown joined the South Australia project in the autumn of 1834 he struggled at first to gain the recognition he thought he deserved, especially from some of the more senior members of the board. Even the Chairman, Colonel Robert Torrens, was not wholeheartedly behind him until the eve of departure. Brown did nevertheless have the confidence of Gouger and Rowland Hill, the Secretary, throughout.
Uncertainty about Brown may have arisen because his wine and spirit business was struggling at the time. Or it may have been because of a perception that he was too radical, too poor or too young. Whatever the reason, his repeated attempts to gather endorsement for an appointment continued over many months and are dotted throughout his diary.
Matters eventually turned in his favour when, on one occasion, he had cause to send religious prospectuses for a ‘dissenting society’ into the boardroom while the commissioners were sitting. Happily, Jacob Montefiore and George Fife Angas were present in the boardroom and, impressed by Brown’s Christian witness and obvious dedication to the dissenting principle, came to his support. Angas offered to outlay £2,000 for land orders on the proviso that Brown be appointed to one of the significant posts in the colony. Binney spoke up on his behalf and wrote a letter of recommendation to Commissioner Samuel Mills, the Baptist evangelical friend of Angas who was also on the board.
Brown still clung to the hope of being Treasurer, but as Binney advised him in September 1835 the wind seemed to be going against him because of his association with the dissenters’ prospectus. This, coupled with rumour that he was without capital after the failure of his business, was thought to be militating against him. As it turned out it was more than a coincidence that the position of Treasurer finally went to Osmond Gilles, the richest man among the applicants.
It must have been with a great sense of relief when, in October, Brown was finally appointed both Emigration Agent and Accountant General.
In the last months before the first colonists departed for South Australia the issue of aboriginal land rights was unexpectedly raised by the Colonial Office. It had been entirely overlooked in the South Australia Act of 1834. Presumably this was because Edward Gibbon Wakefield, Torrens and the others could not see past their economic modelling, which was based on the assumption that the land was waste land vested in the Crown and not owned by any one person or group of persons.
Aboriginal welfare on the other hand had not been overlooked. It was on the agenda for the South Australian Literary and Scientific Association from the outset and a topic of several of the ‘conversaziones’ held in the months leading up to departure. The Association went so far as to form two small subcommittees, of which Brown was a member to ‘help regulate contact with the aborigines and to provide them with medical aid’. How they hoped and expected to interact in a sensitive and compassionate manner with the native population was a premeditated issue. Aboriginal ownership of the land per se was not!
However, when the concept of aboriginal land occupancy was raised with the commissioners by Lord Glenelg and the Colonial Office, it put Colonel Torrens, his board members and his officers off guard. Brown was more regretful than rueful, and rightly miffed that the issue had not been thought through by the original proponents of the scheme. After all, many intending colonists had already severed their ties with Britain and were ready to go. Any dramatic change at this point could have been embarrassing. The Act made no mention of Native Title as such. When this was finally brought to Glenelg’s attention in correspondence, the South Australian Colonization commissioners scurried around seeking advice. Brown, who had been active on the two relevant subcommittees, was hurriedly sent about 224 kilometres (139 miles) north-east of London, to seek advice from Thomas Fowell Buxton, Britain’s most distinguished abolitionist. Buxton’s reputation and expertise on native welfare in foreign parts was unsurpassed. Brown was wedded to cornerstones of the theory but privately understood the moral conundrum the issue raised. Ultimately, the matter was settled by amending the Act and incorporating a new position in the colony to be described as the Protector of Aborigines.
By the 1830s Brown was in business for himself as a wine, beer and spirits merchant in St Mary Hill, importing much of his product from abroad. Presumably the temperance movement, then still in its infancy, had not yet enthused the Congregationalists! This business qualified him as a registered voter in the City of London, so he would have helped carry the Reform Bill. Upon the failure of his business, although there is no evidence that he was declared bankrupt, he somehow became acquainted with Wakefield and Gouger’s proposed scheme to colonise a small section of southern Australia on a set of dedicated libertarian and – as he thought –republican principles.
It is presumed that John married in London, possibly at the Weigh Chapel. Unfortunately, little is known about the first Mrs Brown. He says quite a lot about his sister Maria in his diary but rarely refers to his wife and never by her first name. He calls her ‘Mrs B’ and made a point of introducing her to Mrs Hindmarsh at about the time of his appointment as Emigration Agent in October 1835. There are anecdotes from the voyage and of their first days in the colony which reveal Mrs B’s kindness to all and especially to the aborigines who gathered around their tent. As each of the first few hundred settlers came ashore at Holdfast Bay they were greeted by John Brown and his wife, whose job it was to see to their welfare. ‘Mrs B’ was remembered fondly by some of these early settlers.
Once in the colony it did not take long for John Brown to incur the displeasure of Governor Hindmarsh. Their antipathy towards each other was palpable. When Hindmarsh first arrived at the Adelphi, Brown was reasonably impressed with the affable nature of the sea Captain, but it didn’t take long for him to review his opinion.
In late 1835 Hill called some of his intimates including Brown, Thomas Gilbert and Dr Edward Wright together to discuss using the Statistical Society of London as a precautionary measure in the colony. It was essentially a way of keeping a watch on what they feared Hindmarsh might do. Despite Brown’s suspension by Hindmarsh for disobedience following his refusal to bury the corpse of one of the colonists, on his reinstatement he assumed the secretaryship of this organisation in 1841. In the end it was Governor Hindmarsh who was dismissed, or at least recalled.
Brown’s strident republicanism and his underlying contempt for Governor Hindmarsh did not escape the notice of Sir John Jeffcott, the first judge in the colony. He described Brown as ‘a very disagreeable person, and a downright radical in politics’.
Unlike Gouger, whose life in the colony was beset with pain and who suffered an early demise, Brown went on to have a long, fulsome life in Adelaide. His achievements were many. He remained close to James Hurtle Fisher, Gilbert and Kingston and found a seat at the table in the first municipal government, which evolved into what is today the Adelaide City Council. He was elected each year until 1843.
He took one share in the Harbour Survey Company and in 1840 became Director of the Adelaide Life Association and Guarantee Company. Unlike Gilbert, Kingston and John Morphett, Brown did not join the Freemasons. He was, however, an inaugural member of the South Australian Club. As one of those against George Stevenson and the South Australian Gazette and Colonial Register, he joined the editorial board of The Southern Australian, which sought to give a reasoned liberal view of politics in the province.
As time passed, so too did the tension which beset the colony in those first few years. Brown was in good health and launched himself into public affairs. Captain Charles Sturt was elected to the prestigious position of President of the South Australian Literary and Scientific Association and the new Adelaide Mechanics’ Institute. Brown, who was regarded as a man of high mental culture, became the Vice President of the Association. The Institute Building, which is part of the State Library of South Australia today, is part of the legacy of this organisation.
Always prepared to engage in the analysis on social, political and religious matters, Brown later became Editor of The Adelaide Times. His views against State Aid to religious denominations remained throughout. After Gouger died in 1846, Brown invited his close friend Hanson to leave New Zealand and come to South Australia, where they could fight the good cause together. They revived the South Australian League for the Maintenance of Religious Freedom in the Province, calling on members to each subscribe one shilling to build a fighting fund. Brown was one of the secretaries.
In later life, John Brown was appointed Manager of the Adelaide Life Association and Guarantee Co. He retired on a small pension granted by the shareholders in the 1860s. He married twice but had no issue.
One day in July 1879, while he was either handling a horse or walking in King William Street in Adelaide, he slipped and broke his collarbone. This set him back physically and he died three weeks later, on Sunday morning 17 August 1879. He was 78 years old. The funeral procession of two mourning coaches and about twenty horsedrawn vehicles proceeded to the Hindmarsh Cemetery, where he was interred.
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