Note: John Brown appears in two different tours on this site. First, he issued the call for interested parties to meet at James Sabin’s tavern in June, 1772, to plan the destruction of the British revenue ship, HMS Gaspee, and thus appears in the Gaspee Affair Tour.

John’s oldest brother, James, died as a young man, but he and his surviving three brothers were key figures in the history of Providence. As such, all four, including John, are used to effect in weird fiction author H.P. Lovecraft’s novel, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, where Lovecraft makes them all part of the “select group bent on Curwen’s extirpation.” This calls for his inclusion in the H.P. Lovecraft Tour.

John Brown was born in Providence, Rhode Island on January 27, 1736. He was the fifth of six children born to Captain James Brown and Hope Power, and a great‑great‑grandchild of Chad Brown, who was one of the original settlers of Providence.

As a young teen, he was smart and confident, describing himself in his cipher book as “the cleverest boy in Providence Town.” He married Sarah Smith in 1760, and together they would have six children, two of whom died young.

Over his long career, John made and lost and remade fortunes. He was at various times a merchant, slave trader, patriot, China trader, ship builder, fleet owner, statesman, industrialist, and banker.

Between 1786 and 1788 he built a home for himself and his family at the corner of Benefit St. and Power St. in Providence, a house John Quincy Adams described as the “most magnificent and elegant private mansion that I have ever see on this continent.” The John Brown House is now owned by the Rhode Island Historical Society and available for tours.

John died of heart failure on September 20, 1803. His remains lie in the oldest part of the cemetery, near those of many of his family members.

Catherine Beyer Hurst, MBA, Writer and Community Historian

Further Reading

The Gaspee Virtual Archives, a site established and maintained by the Gaspee Days Committee, contains an excellent summary of the extant information about John Brown, including research culled from a number of cited sources.

The relationship between Brown University and various members of the Brown family, including John, are discussed in an entry on the university’s website.