Brown, William

Born: 1809-XX-XX Kentucky

Died: 1871-XX-XX Jacksonville, Illinois

Around 1835, Brown moved to Jacksonville, Illinois, where he became a member of the Jacksonville bar. Brown was judge of the First Judicial Circuit from March 20, 1837, to July 20, 1837. On March 29, 1839, he entered into a law partnership with Richard Yates. In 1850, Brown was an attorney in Morgan County, and had amassed $16,000 in real property. Also in 1850, upon Edward D. Baker’s resignation as congressman, Brown became a candidate for the United States House of Representatives, but withdrew his name after John Henry, a fellow Whig, announced his candidacy for the same position.

Brown Family, vertical file, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Springfield, IL; John Palmer, ed., The Bench and Bar of Illinois: Historical and Reminiscent (Chicago: Lewis, 1899), 1:338; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States, (1850), Morgan County, IL, 187.