[4] James established himself at New York City and John at Philadelphia, and on the death of their father the business, then the most extensive in the American trade, was continued by the four brothers, George remaining in Baltimore.

In 1809, William returned to the United Kingdom, established a branch of the firm in Liverpool, and they shortly afterwards abandoned the exclusive linen business and became general merchants.

[4] The disastrous aspect of affairs in financial crisis of 1837 induced the brothers George and John, who had by this time realised ample fortunes, to retire from the firm, leaving William the eldest and James the youngest to continue the concern.

"There is hardly," declared Richard Cobden at this period, "a wind that blows, or a tide that flows in the Mersey, that does not bring a ship freighted with cotton or some other costly commodity for Mr Brown's house."

They now became bankers in the sense of conducting transmissions of money on public account between the two hemispheres, and in this pursuit and the business of merchants they acquired immense wealth.

He erected the Free Public Library and Derby Museum at Liverpool, which was opened on 8 October 1860, at a cost to himself of £40,000, the corporation providing the site and foundation and furnishing the building.

[2] Before her death on 5 March 1858, they were the parents of two children, a daughter and a son:[5] He was created a baronet of Richmond Hill in the County Palatine of Lancaster on 24 January 1863.