However, the following year his father was appointed to an official position as magistrate in Fremantle, and the family moved there, all except for Brown who stayed to manage Glengarry.
Over time, Glengarry became one of the most successful racehorse breeding establishments in the colony for thoroughbred race horses and cavalry re-mounts that were sold to India.
Of his time in Melbourne, Peter Cowan (1988) wrote[This quote needs a citation]:He apparently began to lose considerable sums, he became increasingly restless, and drank heavily.
In Thames, Brown showed a range of anti-social behavior that included two court appearances for assault on a local shop keeper and threatening to kill his wife.
The family returned to Western Australia in September 1875, by which time the marriage was in trouble, and there are a range of further references to them constantly and openly quarrelling.
During this time, Brown continued to show a range of anti-social behaviours, and, on Monday 3 January 1876, during the process of packing up their house to move to other accommodation, he shot his wife dead.
At trial, he elected not to provide any explanation or excuse for his actions and his legal team mounted a defence based on diminished responsibility.
Brown was found guilty of wilful murder and sentenced to death by the Chief Justice Archibald Burt and hanged on 10 June 1876 at Perth Gaol.
Many years later, Rose Burges, the eldest daughter of Brown's second marriage, claimed that while travelling in America she had met her father in a hotel.
Julie Lewis has suggested that Brown's life and death:[This quote needs a citation]is to some extent responsible for Peter Cowan's biographical method and also the motivating force behind some of his fiction.