Godfrey Brown (Hawaii)

Godfrey Brown (c. 1838 – January 9, 1928) was Minister of Foreign Affairs under King Kalākaua and Minister of Finance and under both Kalākaua and Liliʻuokalani. Background Godfrey Brown was born about 1838 in Slough, near Windsor Castle in England, to landscape gardener Thomas Brown and his wife Mary Ann Rhodes. His maternal grandfather Godfrey Rhodes was a bank executive, and his maternal uncle also bore the name Godfrey. His father's ill health precipitated a relocation to Hawaii in 1844, by way of a six-month sea voyage around the Falkland Islands. At the time of the voyage, Godfrey had an older brother Arthur, and younger siblings Alice, Frank and Malcolm. Three maternal aunts Annie Rhodes Covington, Sarah Rhodes Pfister and Susannah Rhodes Robinson made the relocation to Hawaii with the Brown family. Brother Cecil Brown was born in 1850 at Wailua, Kauai County, Hawaii. Hawaii Youngest brother Cecil Brown was born in 1850 in Hawaii. All brothers except Cecil were schooled in New England, after which Godfrey worked for a while in New York, followed by employment in British Columbia, and an eventual return to Hawaii. Godfrey and Cecil became financial officers of the Hawaiian Hardware Company. Legislative career