BROWN, WILLIAM (1809-98) was born near Dundee, Scotland, educated there, and read law with the intention of becoming a writer to the signet. He became interested in colonisation and joined the South Australian settlement, arriving in Adelaide in the early part of 1839. Soon realising that prospects were not good, he joined the Palmyra for Sydney. On the voyage he became acquainted with the surgeon, J. Logan Campbell (q.v.). On 2 Feb 1840 Brown arrived at Bay of Islands where he witnessed the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. On the 25th he arrived at Coromandel and on 13 Apr again met Campbell, who had come from Sydney in the Lady Lilford. With several others they visited the shores of the Waitemata gulf, hoping to buy land from the natives. This failing, they prospected the neighbourhood and purchased from the Coromandel natives the island of Motukorea (Brown's island). On 13 Aug they entered into possession. On 21 Dec, Mrs Brown having arrived from Sydney, they established themselves in a tent on the future site of Auckland, and in Feb 1841 they began getting timber for their building. The Black Joke was chartered to bring the timber from Whangaroa, and the partners carried it on their shoulders to the site. On 24 Jun the Brown family took possession of their home in Auckland.

Brown took part in the affairs of Auckland as soon as the town was founded. On 6 Jun 1844 he was called to the governor's Legislative Council, of which he was a member to 1845 and again 1847-48. The interval was due to his proceeding to the old country in the Bolina with a cargo belonging to his firm (1845). With S. M. Martin and Charles Clifford he protested against the native trust bill (1844) and thus got out of favour with FitzRoy.

Brown was one of the founders and a large shareholder in the Southern Cross, which was established in 1843 to represent the interests of the rank and file of the colonists and the landowners as against those of the philo-Maori party, to champion which the New Zealander was established in 1845. Feeling ran high between the two parties and politics in Auckland followed this line of cleavage for some years to come. When Brown returned to New Zealand (1847) he was again called to the Legislative Council and reappointed to the list of justices in the position he had previously occupied.

On the constitution of 1852 coming into force he contested the Superintendency of Auckland against Wynyard, but was defeated (12 Jul 1853). In Aug 1854 he was elected M.H.R. for City of Auckland. A few months later Wynyard resigned the Superintendency and Brown was elected by a large majority over Whitaker (14 Mar 1855). He had a difficult session with a Council which was generally opposed to his policy, and in Sep obtained a dissolution, which necessitated a fresh election for both Superintendent and Council. He was entering into this contest with vigour when family reasons called him to Scotland, and he retired from politics (Nov 1855). He did not return, but remained associated with Campbell until his death (on 19 Jan 1898). Brown was a man of high principle, wide experience and considerable energy and would doubtless have gone far in politics had he remained in the colony. Carleton described him as 'one of the most severely truthful and worthy men that ever set foot in the colony.' Brown wrote in 1840 the first chapter of his book New Zealand and its Aborigines, which he rewrote on the passage home and published in 1845.

G.B.ap., 1843/323, 1850/1280, 1851/1420; Auckland P.C. Proc.; N.Z.P.D., 1855; Campbell; Thomson; Cycl. N.Z., ii (p); Southern Cross, 17 Aug, 3 Sep 1852, et pass.; New Zealander, 10 Sep 1853, et pass.

Portrait: N.Z. Herald, 13 Nov 1933

Reference: Volume 1, page 68

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