Brown, Thomas [I]

Born in Willenhall, Staffordshire, as Thomas Smallwood; changed his surname to Brown for unknown reasons. Deafened by smallpox as a small child. Apprenticed to an uncle as a sawyer, then by age 20 was an itinerant peddler of goods. Switched to buying and selling horses, then joined a gang of horse thieves. Arrested for horse theft in 1795, but bought his release from prison, leaving him and his family poor. Joined a hearing partner to rob a mail carrier, for which both were caught, tried and sentenced to death. Brown was hung and his body left on a gibbet, the only known British deaf person to receive the death penalty.