Robert Brown (December 25, 1744 – February 26, 1823) was a

United States representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

from

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. Brown was born in Weaversville in East Allen Township, Pennsylvania, he attended the common schools and was apprenticed to the

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

trade.

American Revolutionary War

At the beginning of the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

, he was commissioned first lieutenant in the Pennsylvania "

Flying Camp A Flying Camp was a military formation employed by the Continental Army in the second half of 1776, during the American Revolutionary War. History After the British evacuation of Boston in March 1776, General George Washington met with members of ...

". On September 10, 1776; he was captured at the surrender of Fort Washington on November 16, 1776 and worked at the blacksmith trade while a prisoner. He was later put aboard the

prison ship A prison ship, often more accurately described as a prison hulk, is a current or former seagoing vessel that has been modified to become a place of substantive detention for convicts, prisoners of war or civilian internees. While many nation ...

Judith and was subsequently imprisoned in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

's Old City Hall. He was

parole Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...

d on board ship December 10, 1777.

Pennsylvania Senate and Congress

Brown was a member of the

Pennsylvania State Senate The Pennsylvania State Senate is the upper house of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, the Pennsylvania state legislature. The State Senate meets in the State Capitol building in Harrisburg. Senators are elected for four year terms, staggered ev ...

from 1783 to 1787, and was elected as a

Democratic-Republican The Democratic-Republican Party, known at the time as the Republican Party and also referred to as the Jeffersonian Republican Party among other names, was an American political party founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the early ...

to the Fifth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of

Samuel Sitgreaves Samuel Sitgreaves (March 16, 1764April 4, 1827) was a United States representative from Pennsylvania. Early life and education Sitgreaves was born in Philadelphia in the Province of Pennsylvania. He pursued classical studies, studied law, wa ...

. He was reelected to the Sixth and to seven succeeding Congresses, serving from December 4, 1798 to March 3, 1815. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1814, and retired from public life and lived on his farm.

Death

In 1823, Brown died near Weaversville. He is buried in Horner's Cemetery located beside Northampton God's Missionary Church in East Allen Township in

Northampton County, Pennsylvania Northampton County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 312,951. Its county seat is Easton. The county was formed in 1752 from parts of Bucks County. Its namesake was Northamptonshire, En ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Robert (Pennsylvania) 1744 births 1823 deaths American Revolutionary War prisoners of war held by Great Britain Continental Army officers from Pennsylvania Democratic-Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania Pennsylvania state senators Politicians from Northampton County, Pennsylvania