Peter Broun
From Freepedia
Peter Nicholas Broun (August 17 1797–November 5 1846), known for most of his life as Peter Nicholas Brown, was the first Colonial Secretary of Western Australia, and a member of Western Australia's first Legislative Council.
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Early Life
Peter Broun was born at Guernsey on August 17 1797, a member of an ancient French family, and the nephew of the Seventh Baronet Broun of Nova Scotia. Nothing is known of his early life, but Bryan and Bray (1935) report a doubtful claim that he served in the Royal Navy in his youth. In 1824 he married Caroline Simpson, and his first son was born in Scotland in 1827.
Colonial Secretary
On September 30 1828, Lieutenant-Governor James Stirling made a number of appointments to important public service positions for the planned colony of Western Australia, including appointing Peter Broun to the position of Colonial Secretary. Broun's appointment was on the nomination of Sir George Murray, Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, who was a close family friend of the Brouns.
Broun sailed for the new colony on board the Parmelia, arriving in June 1829. Initially he worked out of a group of tents on Garden Island, before transferring to a temporary building on the new site of Perth, constructed by Broun with the intention of being his home. In 1832, the Colonial Secretary's office moved to more permanent quarters.
In 1830, a Legislative Council was formed to help the Governor to rule the colony, with the first sitting in 1832. As Colonial Secretary, Broun was automatically appointed to the Council. He remained a member until his death.
Broun took up tracts of land in Upper Swan and west of Guildford. The latter estate, which he named Bassendean after the Berwickshire residence of an ancestor, is now the suburb of Bassendean.
Broun the Banker
As Colonial Secretary, Broun was initially responsible for managing much of the government's funds, and so when settlers needed to lodge their funds for safekeeping they naturally turned to him. Broun was entirely untrained in matters of finance and accounting, and the large distances over which the colony was spread meant that cheques were often held for long periods of time. By 1835, the Broun's makeshift bank had effectively collapsed, and government funds had to be used to settle the matter. To repay the government, Broun sold out his entire estate at Bassendean, and assigned one quarter of his income to the government until the debt was repayed.
Not all settlers were prepared to accept that Broun's failure as a banker was entirely innocent, for on January 12 1836 he was verbally assaulted in the street by a settler named Will Shaw, who had previously been involved in a protracted dispute with Broun over the boundary between their grants. Shaw was fined for the assault, but went on to slander Broun throughout the town. Broun then brought a slander case against Shaw, which he won easily. The court case won Broun much public goodwill, for it showed that he had only agreed to act as banker for the good of the public, and that as soon as he had had to suspend payments he had sold his own estate to settle the debts.
Death
Broun first became ill in July 1846. After a brief recovery, he relapsed in August. He eventually died in Fremantle on November 5 1846. He was survived by his wife and a number of sons. A grandson, Frank Broun, later became Member for Beverley in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly, and, like his grandfather, Colonial Secretary of Western Australia.
Brown or Broun
For most of his life, Broun spelled his surname Brown, despite the fact that the family name had been spelled Broun for most of the family's history. James Battye claims1 that the entire family had changed the spelling of their surname to Brown in an attempt to avoid the consequences of an involvement in the Jacobite Rising of 1745. The entire family, including Peter Broun, changed back to Broun in 1843. Although Broun lived for only a further three years, most current resources adopt the Broun spelling.
Notes
- This claim of Battye is repeated in Bryan and Bray (1935), but no reference is given.
References
Bryan, Cyril and F. Bray (1935), Peter Nicholas Brown (1797–1846): First Colonial Secretary of Western Australia (1829–1846) in Early Days II(XVIII).
Categories: 1797 births | 1846 deaths | Colonial Secretaries of Western Australia | Members of the Western Australian Legislative Council
