It has been very difficult to ascertain where and when Robert Brown / Broun was born. The certificates of marriage to his first wife, Isabella Wyld, and his second wife, Margaret Campbell, do not indicate this, so it is almost impossible, with the information I currently have, to determine this. Likewise the birth certificates which I have looked at sofar for his children are equally unrevealing. If his mother was born in 1728, then it is most likely that he would have been born somewhere between 1745 and 1765, but he could have been born later. He married Isabella Wyld in 1799, who was born in 1780, so it looks likely that he was quite a bit older than her, unless his mother had children at an older age than usual - which is possible bearing in mind that she must have been very strong to live to 100. I do however have a reasonable amount information regarding most of his children on the main chart.
It is quite likely that he was responsible for changing the family name from Broun to Brown, as, despite being a Scot (sofar as we know), he preferred the English culture to his own.
Robert Stodart Wyld published in 1889 his family memoirs. RSW was the brother of my great great grandfather George Wyld. RSW's aunt Isabella Wyld was married to Robert Brown.
"...When Mr. Brown became unfortunate in business, he left Glasgow and came with his family to Leith, as agent for the Australian Shipping Company, then newly started, with a view of encouraging trade between Leith and this colony. Australia was then very little known except as a penal colony. My father was one of the original directors of this company; and it was through his influence that Mr. Brown got the appointment we have mentioned...
"...The Australian shipping company ... was planned about the year 1824, by Mr. Forrest Alexander. It did not prove successful ... after, I suppose, ten years, the Company closed its business with a serious loss, and with a lawsuit brought against the directors by a number of shareholders ... after the Australian Company broke up, Mr. Brown sent his second son, Thomas, to Sydney, while he remained in Leith, and shipped to his son the goods. Thus was started a business that was destined by and bye to become one of the largest and most lucrative in Sydney. It did not, however, attain any great dimensions under Thomas Brown, who had the merit of starting it; he was too timid. After his brother John, however, who had been educated as a law agent, joined him in 1832, it made a start. They became great tea brokers, as well as merchants ... "
It also seems to be that through the Australian Company the Browns and Mackellars became connected. Duncan Mackellar captained one of their ships, and more about the Australian Shipping Company can be read on the following page about Captain Duncan Mackellar. RSW also mentioned beforehand that he had an appeal to the House of Lords and an association with John Campbell, later Lord Chancellor:
"While he wandered through the Courts of Law at Westminster, listening to the pleadings of the barristers, he formed a very high opinion of a young Scotchman, John Campbell, and he insisted that his agent should secure him as his counsel. The agent objected that this could not be done, for Mr. Campbell had never yet pleaded in the House of Lords. Mr Brown was, however, steady to his point; the result was that Mr Campbell accepted the fee offered him; he pleaded in the House of Lords, and gained the cause; the judgement was given in favour of my uncle Brown. The young man, I need scarcely say, was afterwards Lord Chancellor &c.; andit was my crotchety uncle Brown who first introduced him to the Court over which he afterwards so worthily presided."
There are records of various court cases involving the Australian Company with Robert Brown involved. For example there is a Court of Session case in Scotland December 21st, 1833, Urquhart v Brown. Alexander Urquhart, Pursuer. - Robertson. Robert Brown (Manager of Australian Compay), Defender. - Cuninghame. In the Scottish Jurist there is a report of a case of 19th December 1834: Archibald Lumsdaine Suspender, v Robert Brown, Manager of the Edinburgh Australian Company, and William Alexander, W.S., Chargers.
I also found the following in Studies in Scottish Business History by Peter Lester Payne:
"If the bounty scheme had been in operation or if wool had been available as a return cargo when the Australian Company was struggling to survive in the later 1820's, it would almost certainly have overcome its difficulties. The last recorded act of its Leith manager, Robert Brown, was to petition the Colonial Office in 1835 on behalf of the partners, asking for some form of compensation for their losses on the unpaid passages of working class emigrants taken out in its ships before the bounty scheme came into operation. The plea was unavailing, and the verdict on the 'Leith Company' must be that it was premature.(31) Robert Brown to Lord Glenelg, 20th July, 1835, CO 384/39, f. 168."
Apparently, the official name of the company was the "Australian Company of Edinburgh", and was formed 31st October 1822; established by Act of Parliament 28th May, 1824.
For further information a good place to look is Scotland and Australia, 1788-1850: Emigration, Commerce and Investment by David Stirling Macmillan.
My name is Alasdair Broun and I was born and brought up in Scotland, son of a clergyman and a freelance journalist. I took up genealogy as a hobby when I was 17 and I went on to write a PhD thesis in philosophical psychology ... more >
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