Charles Brown (New Zealand politician, born 1820)

Charles Brown (1820–1901) was a New Zealand politician from the Taranaki area.

Brown was born in London, England, the son of Charles Armitage Brown (the close friend and biographer of the poet John Keats) and Abigail O'Donohue, an Irish house servant at Wentworth Place where Brown and Keats resided. Brown said later in life that his parents were married in a Catholic service in Ireland in August 1819, but this claim seems to be discounted by biographers as an attempt to cover up his illegitimacy, which was a social stigma in those times.

At the age of two, he was taken by his father to Italy, where they lived for a number of years, initially in Pisa and later in Florence. Brown received all his early education in Italy from his father. In his writings his father refers to his son by the name "Carlino", and this appeared to be his commonly used name in England and Europe. In 1826 at age six, Carlino's portrait was painted by artist Joseph Severn, who had nursed John Keats in his final illness and was a close friend of his father.

Around 1836 in order to provide a better education for Brown, they returned to England and lived in Plymouth. Unlike his literary father, Brown had a more pragmatic nature and was attracted to civil engineering.

In 1840, his father became a shareholder in the newly formed Plymouth Company, which aimed to colonise New Plymouth, New Zealand. Shortly afterwards, his father's finances were ruined when he was forced to repay a friend's loan having agreed to be guarantor. With what little fortune remained to him, his father decided that they should emigrate to New Plymouth, as a pioneer community would provide the best opportunities for Carlino as a civil engineer given their limited capital. Aged 17, Brown junior emigrated on the Amelia Thompson, the first settler ship of the Plymouth Company, arriving in 1841. His father followed on the Oriental, arriving three weeks later.

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