George Hubbard Brown Jr. (May 3, 1850 – March 16, 1926) was a justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court from 1905 to 1920.

[1][2] In 1927, Judge Robert Watson Winston said, "Justice Brown must be called our Dissenting Judge—he was unwilling to bend the law to meet difficult situations or to win popular favor.

[4] He was sometimes referred to as George Hubbard Brown Jr. because he shared the name with the uncle, a merchant and founder and president of the Bank of Washington.

[5] His maternal grandfather was Richard Bonner, a Washington merchant and the wealthiest man in Beaufort County when he died.

[2] His paternal ancestors included General Thomas Holliday and Captain George Hubbard, both Revolutionary War patriots.

[6] When he was sixteen years old, Brown enrolled in Horner's School in Oxford, North Carolina, attending from 1866 to 1868.

[2] Lacking money after his education, Brown became a telegraph operator at the main office in New York City in 1868, working at the desk next to Thomas Edison.

[1] There, he studied law with James E. Shepherd, who later became his brother-in-law and chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court.

[2][5] Governor Alfred Moore Scales appointed Brown to fill Shepherd's vacancy on the North Carolina Superior Court for the first judicial district, with a term starting January 1, 1889.

[1][4][8] In May 1889, he was assigned to cover fall term in Currituck, Camden, Chowan, Dare, Gates, Hertford, Hyde, Pamlico, Pasquotank, Perquimans, Terrell, and Washington counties.

[14] In 1902, Brown ran for the Democratic nomination for associate justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court against Henry G.

[15] When Brown lost in a tight vote at the 1902 Democratic State Convention, Daniels promised him a unanimous nomination in two years.

[15][3] In the summer of 1904, Brown sat in classes at the law school at the University of North Carolina, taught by Thomas Ruffin, in preparation for serving on the Supreme Court.

[1][18] She was the daughter of Eliza A (née Tripp) and Henry Ellison, a turpentine dealer and former sheriff of Beaufort County.

[21] Because of supply shortages caused by World War II, the town renovated Brown's former home at 122 Van Norden Street as an interim library until 1954.