Alfred Nesbit Brown

Who was Alfred Nesbit Brown?

Alfred Nesbit Brown was a member of the Church Missionary Society and one of a number of missionaries who travelled to New Zealand in the early 19th century to bring Christianity to the Māori people.

Brown was born in Colchester, England and joined the CMS at the age of 20. He was ordained as a priest on 1 June 1828 by the Bishop of London. He married his first wife Charlotte Arnett in 1829. They sailed for Sydney, New South Wales on 25 April 1829 on the Elizabeth. The couple arrived at Paihia on board the City of Edinburghon 29 November 1829.

Although an ordained priest, Brown was sent to New Zealand to instruct the children of the mission families in the Bay of Islands. Charlotte, who had been a teacher in Islington, London, taught the girls from the Paihia mission station. A son, Alfred Marsh, was born in Paihia on 22 June 1831.

From late 1833 to late 1834 Brown made several long journeys through the Auckland and Waikato regions before he was appointed to open a mission station in Matamata early in 1835. Due to persistent inter-tribal warfare he was forced to abandon the mission in late 1836.