Hamilton Brown (1776 – 18 September 1843) was a Scots-Irish planter, slave owner, and politician in

Saint Ann Parish Saint Ann is the largest parish in Jamaica. It is situated on the north coast of the island, in the county of Middlesex, roughly halfway between the eastern and western ends of the island. It is often called "the Garden Parish of Jamaica" on ac ...

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

which he represented in the

House of Assembly of Jamaica The House of Assembly was the legislature of the British colony of Jamaica. It held its first meeting on 20 January 1664 at Spanish Town. Cundall, Frank. (1915''Historic Jamaica''.London: Institute of Jamaica. p. 15. As a result of the Morant ...

for 22 years. Brown founded the settlement of Hamilton Town in Saint Ann Parish, which was named after him.

Early life

Hamilton Brown was born in 1776, to an Ulster-Scots

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

family in

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, ) is one of six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and has a population o ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

Career

Brown began his career as an estate bookkeeper but acquired significant land holdings and agricultural interests in the British

colony of Jamaica The Crown Colony of Jamaica and Dependencies was a British colony from 1655, when it was captured by the English Protectorate from the Spanish Empire. Jamaica became a British colony from 1707 and a Crown colony in 1866. The Colony was prima ...

. He was a pen-keeper (cattle breeder) and was responsible for a large cattle fair held on Pedro Plains in

Saint Elizabeth Parish Saint Elizabeth, one of Jamaica's largest parishes, is located in the southwest of the island, in the county of Cornwall. Its capital, Black River, is located at the mouth of the Black River, the widest on the island. History Saint Elizabe ...

in 1829. He also grew sugar and owned the Antrim, Colliston, Grier Park, and Minard plantations, all in St Ann, as well as having interests in numerous others. He gave his name to Brown's Town, originally known as Hamilton Town, in St Ann, which he founded,''Place Names in St. Ann''.
The National Library of Jamaica, 2015. and in 1805 he paid for the construction of the original St Mark's Anglican Church in Brown's Town. He was a member of the

in 1820 and represented Saint Ann Parish in that assembly for 22 years. In 1832, he met Henry Whiteley on his trip to Jamaica to whom he argued that Jamaican slaves were better off than the English poor and therefore the British government should not interfere with the way the Jamaican planters managed their slaves; Whiteley went on to witness harsh and arbitrary whipping of slaves at the plantations that he visited during his stay. According to the '' Legacies of British Slave-Ownership'' at the

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

, Brown was awarded a payment under the

Slave Compensation Act 1837 The Slave Compensation Act 1837 (1 & 2 Vict. c. 3) was an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom, signed into law on 23 December 1837. It authorised the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt to compensate slave owners in the Brit ...

as a former slave owner in the aftermath of the

Slavery Abolition Act 1833 The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 (3 & 4 Will. IV c. 73) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which provided for the gradual abolition of slavery in most parts of the British Empire. It was passed by Earl Grey's reforming administrat ...

. The British Government took out a £15 million loan (worth £ in ) with interest from Nathan Mayer Rothschild and

Moses Montefiore Sir Moses Haim Montefiore, 1st Baronet, (24 October 1784 – 28 July 1885) was a British financier and banker, activist, philanthropist and Sheriff of London. Born to an Italian Sephardic Jewish family based in London, aft ...

which was subsequently paid off by the British taxpayers (ending in 2015). Brown was a prolific slave owner in the context of Jamaican society and was associated with a large number of claims, twenty-five in total, he owned 1,120 slaves most of them on sugar plantations in

and received a £24,144 (equivalent to £ in ) payment at the time. Brown was active in trying to recruit Irish people to work in Jamaica. In December 1835, 121 people from

Ballymoney Ballymoney ( ga, Baile Monaidh , meaning 'townland of the moor') is a small town and civil parish in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is within the Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council area. The civil parish of Ballymoney is situated i ...

, Antrim, set off from Belfast for Jamaica on the ''James Ray'', a brig owned by Brown. They settled in St Ann. In 1836 he brought a further 185 Irish people to Saint Ann. An effort by planters in 1840 to encourage large-scale Irish migration to Jamaica to settle lands that might otherwise be occupied by newly freed slaves, failed after the project was criticised in Ireland as potentially transforming the migrants into slaves.Mitchell, Madeleine E. (2008) ''Jamaican Ancestry: How To Find Out More''. Revised edition. Heritage Books. pp. 110–112.

Death

Brown died on 18 September 1843 and is buried in the Protestant graveyard of St Mark's Anglican church in Brown's Town, Jamaica.Hamilton Brown Profile & Legacies Summary.
Legacies of British Slave-ownership. University College London. Retrieved 23 January 2019.
Robert Lalah, ''

The Gleaner ''The Gleaner'' is an English-language, morning daily newspaper founded by two brothers, Jacob and Joshua de Cordova on 13 September 1834 in Kingston, Jamaica. Originally called the ''Daily Gleaner'', the name was changed on 7 December 1992 to ' ...

'', 10 July 2012. Retrieved 23 January 2019.

References

External links

Fact check: Kamala Harris is “a cop whose family owned slaves in Jamaica” claim is missing context
Reuters
Snopes report on claim that U.S Senator Kamala Harris is a descendant of Hamilton Brown

Kamala Harris Family History
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Hamilton 1776 births 1843 deaths Members of the House of Assembly of Jamaica Jamaican landowners People from Saint Ann Parish Irish slave owners 19th-century Irish businesspeople 19th-century Jamaican people Irish emigrants to Jamaica Politicians from County Antrim Bookkeepers Ulster Scots people Recipients of payments from the Slavery Abolition Act 1833

Early life

Career

Death

References

Further reading

External links