George Brown (November 29, 1818, to May 9, 1880) was a Scottish-born journalist who founded the Toronto Globe on March 5, 1844, led the Reform side of Canadian politics, and helped bring about Confederation in 1867. He died in Toronto, about six weeks after a former employee shot him at the Globe office.
Brown arrived in the city in 1843 as a newspaper publisher, not as a politician. The paper he built made him one of the best-known public figures in Canada West, and his later work on a federal union of the British North American colonies places him among the people usually called Fathers of Confederation. This article follows his Toronto career and links to fuller accounts of the events around it.
Life in brief
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | November 29, 1818, Alloa, Clackmannan, Scotland |
| Died | May 9, 1880, Lambton Lodge, Toronto |
| Role | Newspaper publisher, Reform politician, member of the Great Coalition of 1864, senator from 1874 |
| Toronto connection | Founder and head of the Globe (first issue March 5, 1844); lived in Toronto until his death |
| Spouse | Anne Nelson, married November 27, 1862, in Edinburgh |
The dates and places come from the Dictionary of Canadian Biography.
From Edinburgh to Toronto
Brown was the elder of two sons in a family of six children. His parents were Peter Brown and Marianne Mackenzie. He attended the High School and the Southern Academy in Edinburgh, then worked in his father’s wholesale business. After Peter Brown lost about £2,800 in municipal funds in 1836, George left Liverpool with his father on April 30, 1837, bound for New York, where the family opened a dry goods shop.
Newspapers followed. Father and son began a weekly, the British Chronicle, in New York on June 30, 1842. In Toronto, the Presbyterian paper the Banner first appeared on August 18, 1843, with Peter Brown handling the religious department and George the secular one. Peter supported the Free Church of Scotland after the Great Disruption of May 1843, and that religious setting shaped both men’s public views.
The Globe
The first Globe appeared in Toronto on March 5, 1844. Four Reformers had offered £250 in starting capital, and Brown was effectively the head of the paper from the beginning. It grew from a weekly to a semi-weekly, then to a tri-weekly by 1849, and became a daily in October 1853. A steam press supported the larger output. A western edition, the Western Globe, was founded in 1845 with a sub-office in London, Ontario.
Brown gave his first major political speech on March 25, 1844, to the Reform Association of Canada, in opposition to Governor Metcalfe. From then on the paper and its owner pressed the Reform case: responsible government, representation by population, and the separation of church and state. Readers looking for the wider history of the city’s newspapers can start with the article on Toronto’s historical newspapers and archives.
Politics and the voluntary principle
Brown held what the Dictionary of Canadian Biography calls the voluntary principle: the state should not support churches. He opposed public funding of the clergy reserves and of Catholic separate schools, and in the papal aggression controversy of 1851 the Globe clashed with the Catholic press. These positions made him a strong ally to some and a bitter opponent to others.
He lost a by-election in Haldimand in April 1851 to William Lyon Mackenzie, then won Kent the same year. Later seats were Lambton in 1854 and, in 1857, both Toronto and North Oxford. He lost his Toronto seat in 1861 and won South Oxford in a March 1863 by-election. In March 1853 he moved for representation by population, a demand that became central to his politics. The career of his early rival is told in the article on William Lyon Mackenzie.
Two meetings stand out. A Reform convention of about 150 delegates met on January 8, 1857, with a platform that included representation by population, non-sectarian education, and free trade. On November 9, 1859, a second convention of 570 delegates met at St. Lawrence Hall in Toronto and adopted federation as party policy. In 1858 Brown formed a short-lived ministry with Antoine-Aimé Dorion and resigned on August 4, 1858, when the governor refused a dissolution.
Anti-slavery work
Library and Archives Canada lists Brown among the founders of the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada, which was formed at a public meeting in Toronto in 1851 and led by the Presbyterian minister Michael Willis. The Canadian Encyclopedia gives the date of the founding meeting as February 26, 1851. The society aided refugees from American slavery who had settled in Canada West, and the Globe supported the cause. The Dictionary of Canadian Biography entry on Brown does not discuss the society, so this claim rests on the Library and Archives Canada and Canadian Encyclopedia accounts. The wider story is in the article on Black history in Toronto and the Underground Railroad.
Confederation
In 1864 a deadlock in the legislature of the Province of Canada led to a select committee. Its motion passed on May 19, and its report of June 14 favoured a federative system. On June 17 Brown met John A. Macdonald and Alexander Galt at the St. Louis Hotel, and on June 22 the Great Coalition was announced, with Brown as president of the council. The leader of the Reformers and his long-time opponents now sat in one cabinet.
Brown spoke at the Charlottetown conference on September 5, 1864, and moved key resolutions at the Quebec conference that October. He gave a major Toronto speech on November 3, 1864, and a parliamentary speech on February 8, 1865, and he went on missions to London in December 1864 and again in May and June 1865. On December 19, 1865, he left the cabinet over the question of a reciprocity arrangement with the United States. He lost his South Ontario seat in August 1867 and traveled to Scotland that October. Confederation itself took effect on July 1, 1867.
Business and later years
Brown acquired large tracts of land in Lambton County in the early 1850s, and the village of Bothwell grew on his estate after the Great Western Railway opened in 1855. He sold the Bothwell properties in 1865 for $275,000 and bought Bow Park, near Brantford, in 1866, where he built a shorthorn cattle herd. Bow Park became a joint-stock company in 1876 after British investors raised close to $400,000. Fires in 1879 destroyed the main buildings and the stables.
He was named to the Senate in 1874 and took his seat in 1875. That year he turned down the lieutenant governorship of Ontario, and in 1879 he declined a knighthood.
The shooting and death
On March 25, 1880, George Bennett, a former engine-room employee of the Globe who had been dismissed for intemperance, shot Brown at the newspaper’s office. Brown suffered a wound to the thigh. The wound became infected, and he died at Lambton Lodge, his Toronto home, on May 9, 1880, at the age of 61.
Memorials
A statue of Brown stands on the grounds of the Ontario Legislative Building at Queen’s Park. The Legislative Assembly of Ontario says it was placed there in 1884 and credits the English sculptor C. B. Birch, although one catalogue entry on Wikidata names a different sculptor. George Brown College in Toronto also carries his name. For the surrounding grounds, see the article on Queen’s Park and the Ontario Legislative Building.
Frequently asked questions
When did George Brown found the Globe?
The first issue of the Toronto Globe appeared on March 5, 1844, according to the Dictionary of Canadian Biography. It was a weekly at first and became a daily in October 1853.
Was George Brown a Father of Confederation?
Yes. He joined the Great Coalition in June 1864, took part in the Charlottetown and Quebec conferences, and moved key resolutions at Quebec. He left the cabinet in December 1865, before Confederation took effect in 1867.
How did George Brown die?
A former Globe employee, George Bennett, shot him at the newspaper’s Toronto office on March 25, 1880. The thigh wound became infected, and Brown died on May 9, 1880.
Where did George Brown live in Toronto?
The Dictionary of Canadian Biography names Lambton Lodge as his Toronto home and the place of his death. It does not give a street address, so none is stated here.
Last verified: October 2026
Sources
- Dictionary of Canadian Biography, “Brown, George,” volume X
- Library and Archives Canada, “Anti-Slavery Movement in Canada”
- The Canadian Encyclopedia, “Anti-Slavery Society of Canada”
- Legislative Assembly of Ontario, “Explore Queen’s Park”
Related reading
- Mary Ann Shadd, publisher and abolitionist
- Immigration and communities in Toronto’s history
- Black history and the Underground Railroad in Toronto
- William Lyon Mackenzie and the Reform movement
- People of Toronto history
Cite this page
APA: History of Toronto. (2026, October 23). George Brown: Founder of the Globe and Confederation Figure. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/george-brown
MLA: “George Brown: Founder of the Globe and Confederation Figure.” History of Toronto, 23 Oct. 2026, https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/george-brown. Accessed .
Chicago: History of Toronto. “George Brown: Founder of the Globe and Confederation Figure.” Last modified October 23, 2026. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/george-brown.
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