Colonial Despatches

Ebenezer Brown was a member of New Westminster's inaugural Municipal Council in 1860. 1 In the despatches, his name appears as one of four Municipal Council members of New Westminster wishing His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwall a safe and pleasant visit to Canada. 2

After his time as a municipal councilor, Brown went on to become the Member of the Legislative Assembly for New Westminster in the British Columbia legislature in 1876 and was appointed into the Cabinet as President of the Council. 3 He stepped down from the legislature in 1881 due to a disagreement over the construction of a railway, likely the Canadian Pacific Railway. 4 Prior to his involvement in politics, arrived to British Columbia from England in 1858 as a stonemason. 5 He was a successful businessperson, operating a hotel and wharf in an area of New Westminster that would later be named Brownsville in his honour 6

• 1. City Council minutes. - 1860-2014., New Westminster Archives.
• 2. Municipal Council of New Westminster to Prince of Wales, 25 August 1860, 11001, CO 60/9, 156.
• 3. The Canadian parliamentary companion and annual register, 1877, Early Canadiana Online, 376.
• 4. Brownsville, BC Geographical Names.
• 5. Brownsville, BC Geographical Names; The Canadian parliamentary companion and annual register, 1877, Early Canadiana Online, 376.
• 6. City Council minutes. - 1860-2014., New Westminster Archives.