Draft:James Brown (newspaper owner)

Brown's father Daniel Brown married Elizabeth Gough in December 1810 at Holy Trinity Church, Liverpool.^[1] Elizabeth was from a family of merchants while Daniel, a mariner, was likely the son of Cato Brown. In 1920, when his son John recounted his family history, he recalled Cato as James's father, a freed slave who had settled in Liverpool via Nova Scotia, after a career in the Royal Navy where he claimed he had served with Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar on HMS Victory.^[2] However, later genealogical research showed that his father was Daniel and it was assumed Cato was his grandfather. When James was baptised in 1815 at St Peter's Church, Liverpool, his father's career was recorded as blacksmith. He had an older brother, John.^[1]

Brown was educated at Liverpool Blue Coat School.^[3] He was then apprenticed to the printer George Wood of Price Street, going on to work in the print rooms of various Liverpool newspapers including the Liverpool Mercury.^[4] During his time in Liverpool, he sang in choirs and was known for his bass voice.^[4] He ran a pub, the Concert Tavern, in Beau Street.^[1] In 1837 he married Eleanor Jane McKenzie in St Peter's Church and their eldest son, John Archibald Brown, was born in 1839.^[3] The family moved to the Isle of Man, Eleanor's birthplace, in 1846.^[5]

In 1848, while working as a compositor at the Liverpool Mercury, Brown was invited to the Isle of Man to work on the National Reformer, a paper ran by an Irish Nationalist named O'Connell. At the time, the Isle of Man was home to many printing houses due in part to low taxes and a loophole which meant that any newspapers printed there could be sent to the United Kingdom free of postage costs. However, in the 1848 this privilege ended and many newspapers closed.^[5] Unemployed, Brown borrowed £30 and established his own printers in Duke Lane. He began publishing The Manx Lion, which became known for its "daring criticisms of local politics", but this folded after just three months, when, according to his son John, the advertising salesman walked off with most of the earnings.^[6]

On 1 February 1849, the first edition of Brown's Advertising Circular was published. It was distributed freely and relied on advertisements for income. However, Brown and his son had ambitions to become the island's paper of record, and merged their free paper into the Isle of Man Times and General Advertiser on 4 May 1861.^[7]The title had been used before but the earlier title folded in 1849.^[8] From the very first issue of the Times, Brown set out its radical and independent tone:

"Many reforms are needed in the machinery of the legislature and government of this island, and we shall most strenuously urge these reforms upon the highest officials"^[4]

The Isle of Man Times published the early verse of T. E. Brown from 1871, also serialising his poem Betsy Lee, as well as novels by Hall Caine.^[9]

His son, John Archibald Brown (1839–1925), also edited The Times. The office of James Brown & Sons was on 9 Athol Street, Douglas.^[10]

At the start of the 1860s, the Isle of Man's parliament, the Tynwald consisted of an upper house of Town Commissioners and the self appointed House of Keys. In 1863 the Town Commissioners applied for more powers, but were rejected by the House of Keys. Brown wrote critical articles which would lead to him being seen as a champion of democratic rights, while attracting the ire of the House of Keys. When a member of House of Keys suggested the Commissioners should be allowed powers over the donkeys on the beach, Brown published a remark that said "this elicited marks of approval from the donkeys around him".^[5]

Brown was summoned to the House of Keys on ---- and

• James Brown, Google Arts and Culture