MC3028: John Browne Letters: [1843-1849]
Dates of creation: Photocopied 2001
Physical description: 12p. of textual records
Biographical Sketch / Administrative History
Born in Ireland about 1790, John Browne emigrated
from County Clare to New Brunswick, probably in the early 1820s. By 1831 he
was living in the parish of Bathurst, Gloucester County, where he had found
employment as a carpenter and joiner. He married prior to 1825, but the name
of his wife is unknown. These letters suggest that he was keenly interested
in provincial, colonial, and Irish politics, as well as in events occurring
in British North America, the United States of America, the West Indies, and
Mexico. No stranger to financial hardship, he found himself occasionally unemployed
or working for low wages. John Browne died on 16 August 1865, and is buried
in Old Holy Family Catholic Cemetery, Bathurst.
Scope and Content
These three letters were written by John Browne,
of Bathurst, Gloucester County, New Brunswick, to his friend Michael Studdert
of Rehy Park, near Kilrush, County Clare, Ireland in the 1840s. Browne discusses
various aspects of colonial life in New Brunswick -- trade, economic depression,
poverty, manufactures (grindstones, railroad sleepers), industry (agriculture,
lumbering, shipping, fishing), railway construction, weather conditions, the
arrival of the famine Irish, out-migration to the United States, the state of
the colonial press, and the collapse of Joseph Cunard's business in 1847.
He also comments on provincial, North American,
and colonial politics, notably debates in the New Brunswick House of Assembly,
general elections, the Acadian-Irish factor in Gloucester County politics, the
career of politician and barrister William End, the Boundary Question, the movement
toward Responsible Government, the Mexican War, and the possibilities of Confederation
or annexation to the United States. In addition, Browne notes economic conditions
prevailing in Nova Scotia, the Canadas (later Québec and Ontario), the West
Indies, Ireland, and Newfoundland, as well as the discovery of gold in California,
his own financial difficulties, and the activities of his acquaintances.
INVENTORY
MS1
Letter from John Browne to Michael Studdert, 23 July
1843.
MS2
Letter from John Browne to Michael Studdert, 21 February
1848.
MS3
Letter from John Browne to Michael Studdert, 16 January
1849.