Crean Brush was born in Dublin, Ireland circa 1725, and was educated to the profession of law. Brush's first wife was a Miss Cushing (d.1758). His second wife was Margaret Montuzan, mother of the second wife of Ethan Allen. Brush left Ireland for America around 1762 and was first employed as a secretary of the province of New York. By 1764 Brush was a licensed attorney in all the king's courts of the province. In 1771 Brush left New York and settled in Westminster, VT where he was appointed clerk of Cumberland County in 1772. Brush was a member of the New York colonial assembly from 1773 to 1775.
After the start of the Revolution Brush joined General Thomas Gage in Boston who employed him to take charge of the property in buildings seized for the British army. Plundering numerous houses and stores, Brush loaded the ship Elizabeth with goods and merchandise and set sail for Halifax, Nova Scotia. A few days later, Brush and his cargo were captured and he was imprisoned at Boston. Brush remained in prison for some nineteen months until November, 1777 when he donned the clothes of his visiting wife and walked unnoticed out of the jail yard. Brush then travelled to New York with the hopes of recovering his confiscated lands in the New Hampshire Grants (some 25,000 acres) and with the hope of obtaining redress from the British for his imprisonment. Brush received neither and in May of 1778 he "with a pistol, besmeared the rooms of his apartment with his brains."
From the description of Papers, 1763-1775. [microform]. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122519760
