Cornelius Brown

Cornelius Brown
Born	5 March 1852 Lowdham, Nottinghamshire, England
Died	4 November 1907 Newark
Nationality	English
Occupation	Reporter, Historian

Cornelius Brown (5 March 1852 in Lowdham, Nottinghamshire – 4 November 1907) was a British journalist and historian.

In 1874, 22-year-old Cornelius Brown was appointed editor of the Newark Advertiser in nearby Newark-on-Trent. Over the next 33 years, Cornelius Brown became the author of seven major books, including the massive two-volume History of Newark, which took 15 years to write, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Within months of taking the editor's chair, a young Mr Brown was ready to buy a half share in the newspaper, for which he paid Mr. Whiles £600. The two partners agreed that until a working fund of £300 had been created out of the profits neither would draw more than £8 a month from the profits for his own use. Mr. Whiles was to manage the business side while Mr. Brown was in charge of editorial matters. The Advertiser was being printed in Nottingham because there were no adequate facilities in Newark. But young Mr Brown found this a tedious disadvantage and in 1880 the firm took premises at the corner of Appletongate and Magnus Street to house a Wharfedale printing press.

Cornelius Brown married and set up home at Almar House, Westgate, Southwell. It was there that his first child was born in 1881. She was named Ethel and later became Mrs R. P. Blatherwick.

Cornelius Brown already had one book to his credit The Annals of Newark and in 1882 came The Worthies of Notts. Then Mr Brown laid his author's pen aside for three or four years to concentrate on the second important step in the Advertiser story.

The Newark Advertiser Co Ltd was incorporated on 19 September 1882. Six weeks later half a dozen men met at the Middlegate offices of solicitors Newton and Wallis (now Tallents Godfrey). They were the subscribers to the Memorandum of Association of the Newark Advertiser Co. Ltd. namely Mr Brown, Major George Mark, Leycester Egerton Captain William Henry Coape, Oates MP Mr William Newzam Nicholson, Mr John Burton Barrow, and Mr William Newton. They were all allocated shares as were four more men who had made application: Mr Joseph Gilstrap Branston, Mr William Evelyn, Denison Viscount Newark, (later MP for Newark) and Colonel James Thorpe. Mr Barrow's interest in the firm was short-lived. Either he found a better use for his money or he had little faith in the new venture for he sold his four shares two and a half years later. Mr Branston followed suit the next year. But at that meeting in 1882 the company got off the ground. Major Egerton was made chairman and Mr. Brown was appointed secretary, manager and editor at a salary of £200 a year. That salary remained unchanged for 21 years, at the end of which time Mr Brown himself proposed that it should be cut to £156 because he was handing over the responsibility of night-work to a younger man.

...
Wikipedia