Brown, James Morgan (18??-1893)

A short biography of James Morgan Brown, tailor, poet, gay socialist and anarchist communist.

Author
Submitted by Battlescarred on December 4, 2016

“A beloved comrade and genial propagandist”. John Bruce Glasier

“He (tailor by trade) the very picture of kindness and broad good-nature would move among the crowd as if he hardly belonged to us, and engaging persuasively in conversation, first with one and then with another, would draw many a doubter into the fold”. Edward Carpenter

James Brown was a Glasgow tailor who became interested in radical politics, first joining the Secular Society where he was a keen reader of Goethe and Carlyle, and then with his friend Dan McCulloch becoming one of the first members of the Glasgow branch of the newly created Socialist League in early 1885. The branch had been set up on the initiative of John Bruce Glasier, at that time working in a foundry, and Glasier became the first secretary of the branch. Other members who took an active role in public speaking were James Gilbert, Carr, and Pollock, and the brothers Joe and Tim Burgoyne. Mc Culloch took over very soon as secretary from Glasier. The branch initially met at the Ram’s Horn Assembly Hall in Ingram Street.

James Brown was not a public speaker but made up for this by his friendly and welcoming attitude, as Glasier was to write, “ yet by good humour, good sense and remarkable gift of ‘chumminess’ exercised a most helpful influence upon the propaganda”. He attended all the League meetings, whether outdoor or indoor and sold literature enthusiastically. “None of our propaganda excursions were successful without him-his snatches of song and amusing stories and comments enlivening our long tramps. He was always making converts, and ever and anon introduced to us new comrades of the most wonderfully diverse external and internal characteristics”(Glasier)(1)

Alas, Brown did not suffer from good health because of his working conditions as a tailor, and because of a congenital weakness of the heart. As a result he experienced great physical suffering. He was one of several gay socialists who gravitated towards Edward Carpenter, whom he came to know. In fact Carpenter paid for him to convalesce in the village of Comrie for a year or so. He was able to recover enough to start work again in the town of Beith in Ayrshire, where he stayed for around a year, keeping in close contact with the Glasgow comrades.

Three years later he moved to Dore, near Sheffield at the prompting of his friends Edward Carpenter and Robert Muirhead, an engine fitter, both active in the Sheffield Socialist Club. He moved there partly for his health, and partly to be near Carpenter and Muirhead. He was also close to another Sheffield socialist, Jim Shortland, a labourer at the armour-plate department of Vickers and Maxim’s.

Brown was part of the pronouncedly anarchist wing of the League and enthusiastically supported Dr. John Creaghe during his agitation in Sheffield. However, he was able to establish enough distance to criticise the blood and guts outlook of Creaghe and his associate from Chesterfield, Andrew “Navvy” Hall, as revealed in letters to Carpenter. A good friend of Creaghe and Fred Charles, he fell out with Carpenter when he felt that he did not offer enough help to the defendants of the Walsall Anarchist Trial.

However, Carpenter and Brown reconciled shortly before the latter’s death from Bright’s Disease on April 7th, 1893. Indeed Carpenter edited a collection of Brown’s poems, some with a homoerotic accent, for the Labour Literature Society of Glasgow, with a preface by Carpenter, published in the year of Brown’s death.
The John Morgan Brown Review, edited by Brian Dempsey in Dundee, a review of lgbtqi literature, two issues so far, is named after Brown.

(1) Glasier is best remembered for being one of the important figures within the Independent Labour Party which he remained active in from 1893 until his death in 1920. Up until then, as his obituary of Brown reveals, he was a staunch anarchist communist, a fact not remarked upon very much by historians.

Nick Heath

Sources:

Carpenter, Edward. My Days and Dreams. Autobiography available at http://www.edwardcarpenter.net/ecdd7.htm
Glasier, John Bruce. Obituary in Freedom, May 1893.
Rowbotham, Sheila. The Sheffield Anarchists in the 1890s in Threads Through Time
and Edward Carpenter: A Life of Liberty and Love
Tsuzuki, Chushichi. Edward Carpenter 1844-1929. Prophet of Human Fellowship

Comments

Steven.

7 years 3 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Steven. on December 5, 2016

Excellent as always!

Linsertfan

6 years 10 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Linsertfan on May 17, 2017

Dear Nick, Great to see some interest in James Morgan Brown. As you note, I reprinted Glasier's obit for JMB in Autumn 2016 in my journal The James Morgan Brown Review and I am also (slowly) publishing the poems. I located some materials relating to JMB's great love, Bob Muirhead, in Muirhead family hands which is now in the Glasgow Uni archives but frustratingly many letters and papers that were extant at JMB's death and even in 1924 seem to have disappeared - http://www.linsert.org/james-morgan-brown-review

Steven.

6 years 10 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Steven. on May 17, 2017

Very interesting stuff! Do you have any photographs or images of James or Bob?

Sheffielder

6 years 1 month ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Sheffielder on February 21, 2018

James Morgan Brown
BIRTH 22 Mar 1858 Glasgow, Glasgow City, Scotland
DEATH 7 Mar 1893 Derbyshire, England

Sheffielder

6 years 1 month ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Sheffielder on February 21, 2018

James Morgan Brown
BIRTH 22 Mar 1858 Glasgow, Glasgow City, Scotland
DEATH 7 Mar 1893 Derbyshire, England

Steven.

6 years 1 month ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Steven. on February 21, 2018

Sheffielder

James Morgan Brown
BIRTH 22 Mar 1858 Glasgow, Glasgow City, Scotland
DEATH 7 Mar 1893 Derbyshire, England

that's great, thanks, can we ask what the source for that info is? As the article doesn't have his birthdate but has the death date of 7 April so would be good to confirm which is correct

Sheffielder

6 years 1 month ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Sheffielder on February 22, 2018

From his gravestone, I will go to the cemetery and check the date again today.

Sheffielder

6 years 1 month ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Sheffielder on February 22, 2018

Just checked his gravestone in Norton Cemetery on Derbyshire Lane, Sheffield and those dates are the dates shown on the gravestone. I took a pic or two, but there is also a picture on find a grave website for that cemetery.

Steven.

6 years 1 month ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Steven. on February 22, 2018

That's great! Could you give us a link to the picture so we can add it as a source?

Also if you could find the exact location of the grave and let us know the geo-tag coordinates (using a site like this: https://maps.cga.harvard.edu/gpf/), then we can add it to the WCH radical history map we are building!

Sheffielder

3 months 1 week ago

Submitted by Sheffielder on December 16, 2023

Grave is 53.3465583, -1.4750470