James Brown was an Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

 businessman and politician. He represented Hastings West

Hastings West

Hastings West was a federal electoral district in the province of Ontario, Canada, that was represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1867 to 1925...

 in the Canadian House of Commons

Canadian House of Commons

The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...

 as a Conservative

Conservative Party of Canada (historical)

The Conservative Party of Canada has gone by a variety of names over the years since Canadian Confederation. Initially known as the "Liberal-Conservative Party", it dropped "Liberal" from its name in 1873, although many of its candidates continued to use this name.As a result of World War I and the...

 member from 1867 to 1882.

He was born in Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 in 1828 (1826 in some sources). He was an owner of a company which manufactured iron agricultural implements in Belleville

Belleville, Ontario

Belleville is a city located at the mouth of the Moira River on the Bay of Quinte in Southern Ontario, Canada, in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor. It is the seat of Hastings County, but is politically independent of it. and the centre of the Bay of Quinte Region...

and vice-president of the Belleville and North Hastings Railway. Brown was a lieutenant-colonel in the local militia, served as mayor of Belleville in 1862 and 1863 and was also reeve for Hastings for six years. He ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the assembly for the Province of Canada in 1861. Brown died in Belleville at the age of 68.