Peter Johnson Brown (P. J.) Biography

Peter Johnson Brown (ca. 1840-1896) was a lawyer in Ingersoll, Ontario, and later worked in Toronto, after 1889, with the Department of the Provincial Secretary and as Clerk of Assize at Osgoode Hall.

He was born around 1840, and by 1869 he and a partner, Thomas Wells, had set up a law practice in Ingersoll. His work in this area involved him in the legal end of investment and speculation for the firm's clients. The firm involved itself in lumber, railway, mining, and real estate ventures, and was retained to act on behalf of both domestic and foreign investors when prospects for profit appeared. In 1883 Brown became involved in a scheme to acquire a large grant of land on the Athabaska and McLeod rivers and build a railway to develop it. In 1884, Brown was involved in an extensive land trading scheme, involving property in Toronto, Port Arthur, Winnipeg, Brandon, and other places. During this time period he was also carrying on property subdivision and development schemes in Fort William and Port Arthur. In 1890, Brown was implicated in the Hamilton election investigation because he had been attempting to acquire certain railway charters from the Ontario Government for Colonel William Collier, a Hamilton engineer who was a candidate in the election. Because Brown had recently become an employee of the Government (he had been appointed Clerk, Queen's Bench Division of the Ontario Department of the Provincial Secretary in December of 1890), he was requested to explain his actions by the Attorney General's office.

Also in 1890, Brown was hired by the Ontario Commissioner of Crown Lands to investigate complaints by local people against a dam that had been constructed in the South River by Ottawa lumber businessman, J.R. Booth. In January of 1891 he was appointed Commissioner for taking affidavits in York County, under jurisdiction of the Ontario High Court of Justice. In December, 1891, he was appointed by the Ontario Department of the Attorney General as Clerk of the Assize in Osgoode Hall.

Brown's son, George B. Brown, eventually joined the XI Bengal Regiment on duty in India following attendance at the Royal Military College, Kingston.

Brown's daughter Edith was employed by the Ontario Department of Public Works as a clerk and stenographer from 1895 to 1899, then took up a similar position with the Department of Education until the end of 1903.