Brown, John

BROWN, JOHN. (1744–1780). Patriot leader. Massachusetts. Born 19 October 1744 in Haverhill, Massachusetts, John Brown graduated from Yale in 1771 and was admitted to the bar in Tryon County, New York, the next year. In 1773 he settled in Pittsfield and became a prominent Patriot and member of the Committee of Correspondence. In February 1775 he volunteered for a mission to Montreal on behalf of the Boston Committee of Correspondence, with the dual purpose of evaluating Canadian sentiment toward the Revolution and of setting up a network of informers. He is one of several credited with the rather obvious thought that the Patriots should seize Ticonderoga. While traveling across New Hampshire on his way to Montreal, he had been struck by the strategic importance of the place, and, probably, its defenselessness at the time. On 29 March he reported to Adams and Warren in Boston, and he participated in the capture of Ticonderoga on 10 May 1775. Ethan Allen selected Brown to take the news of the victory to Congress.

Commissioned a major in Colonel James Easton's Regiment on 6 July, he conducted a reconnaissance into Canada during the period 24 July to 10 August and reported his findings to General Philip Schuyler at Crown Point, New York. The degree to which Brown's scouting contributed to the advance of General Richard Montgomery's wing of the invasion of Canada is uncertain, but Brown figures prominently in all accounts of the operation. In September he notoriously abandoned Allen during the attack on Montreal, leading to the capture of Allen's entire force. The following month he played a significant part in the capture of Chambly, Quebec, on 19 October. Brown and Easton drove Allen McLean's Royal Highland Emigrants down the Sorel River to the St. Lawrence, and took over works that their foes had started at this strategic spot, capturing several tons of gunpowder.

During the Quebec siege, Brown's insubordination to Benedict Arnold would have resulted in his removal from the scene if General Montgomery had not intervened. Brown and Arnold clashed repeatedly over the next year, exchanging charges and calls for courts martial. Having been appointed lieutenant colonel of Colonel James Elmore's Connecticut Regiment on 1 August 1776, Brown took part in the fighting around Lake Champlain. He resigned in February 1777, citing his disagreements with Arnold as the cause. During General John Burgoyne's offensive, Brown returned to the field and took part in the Ticonderoga raid of 18 September 1777, surprising a British force and taking nearly 300 prisoners while freeing 100 Americans. After service at Bemis Heights, New York, Brown again returned to his law practice. Elected to the General Court in 1778, Brown became judge of the county court in February 1779. In the summer of 1780 he marched to the Mohawk Valley with the Massachussetts levies that were called out to oppose the Loyalist-Indian raids in the region. In an ambush near Fort Keyser on 19 October 1780, Brown and 45 of his men were killed.

SEE ALSO Fort Keyser, New York; Ticonderoga Raid.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Howe, Archibald M. Colonel John Brown of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Boston: W. B. Clarke, 1908.

                                   revised by Michael Bellesiles