Родился в 1821 году в Ирландии, ещё ребёнком был привезён своим отцом в Америку, где последний поселился в штате Кентукки. Будучи молодым человеком, он совершил на китоловном судне путешествие вокруг света, которое описал в книге под заглавием: «Etchings of a whaling cruise, with notes of are sidence on the island of Zanzibar».
В 1849 году он посетил Калифорнию, в 1851 году, в качестве газетного корреспондента, отправился в Европу, объехал Италию, Сицилию и Палестину и в 1853 году издал книгу «Yusuf», в которой дал описание этих путешествий. Затем, правительство Соединённых Штатов отправило его в качестве таможенного чиновника на северо-восточный берег Тихого океана. Плодом его пребывания здесь было сочинение «Adventures in the Apache country».
В 1861 году Броун снова отправился в Европу и объехал, кроме Германии, Польши и России, также Исландию и Алжир. Отчет об этих путешествиях напечатан в иллюстрированных самим автором сочинениях: «The land of Thor» и «An american family in Germany».
В 1868 году он был назначен посланником в Китае, но в 1870 году отозван оттуда.
1858 — Indian affairs in the Territories of Oregon and Washington: letter from the Secretary of the Interior, transmitting, in compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 19th instant, the report of J. Ross Browne, special agent, on the subject of Indian affairs in the Territories of Oregon and Washington, January 25, 1858, referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs and ordered to be printed. Ex. doc. / 35th Congress, 1st Session, House of Representatives, no. 39, Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1858, OCLC9654708
1860 — A Peep at Washoe, Harpers New Monthly Magazine, December 1860.
1860 — Report of the Secretary of the Interior, communicating, in compliance with a resolution of the Senate, the correspondence between the Indian Office and the present superintendents and agents in California, and J. Ross Browne, Esq.: together with the report of the Commissioner of Indians Affairs, inclosing the same to the department. Executive Document of the Senate, Congress of the United States, 1860, OCLC16852850
1861 — The Old Sea King: or, the wonderful adventures of Little Miché, Harper’s Weekly, no. 212, January 19, 1861, p. 44-45, OCLC62718058
1861—1862 — The Coast Rangers: a chronicle of adventures in California, Paisano Press, Balboa Island, Calif. 1959, reprinted from Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, volumes 23-24, 1861-62. Part 2 title: «The Indian Reservations»
1864—1865 — A tour through Arizona: San Francisco, California to Casa Grande, Arizona in October and November of 1864. Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, Oct.-Dec., 1864, Jan.-March, 1865, OCLC12044825
1865 — Washoe Revisited, Harpers New Monthly Magazine, May, 1865.
1865 — Down in the cinnabar mines; a visit to New Almaden in 1865, Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, October 1865, (v. 31, no. 185), OCLC42687253
1865 — The Bodie Bluff mines located in Mono county, California belonging to the Empire gold & silver mining co. of New York. With pen and pencil, Clark & Maynard, New York, 1865, OCLC13851324
1865 — A trip to Bodie Bluff and the Dead Sea of the West. Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, Sept. 1865, no. 184, OCLC21697588
1866 — An American Family in Germany, Harper and Brothers, New York, 1866, OCLC325598
1866 — The Reese River country, Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, June 1866 (v. 33, no. 193), OCLC18708280
1868 — Explorations in Lower California, Three papers in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, October, November & December 1868, OCLC20538246
1869 — Adventures in the Apache Country: A Tour Through Arizona and Sonora, with Notes on the Silver Regions of Nevada, Harper & Brothers, 1869. Also published in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, no. 173 (Oct. 1864) — 178 (Mar. 1865) (also numbered v. 29-30)
1869 — Sketch of the settlement and exploration of Lower California, H. H. Bancroft, San Francisco, 1869, OCLC795679890 — Also included as Part 2 of «Resources of the Pacific Slope»
1870 — The policy of extending local aid to railroads, with special reference to the proposed line through the San Joaquin Valley to the Colorado River, Alta California printing House, San Francisco, 1870, OCLC13851599
1872 — Reclamation of marsh and swamp lands and projected canals for irrigation in California: with notes on the canal systems of China, and other countries, Alta California printing House, San Francisco, 1872, OCLC13851612
1875 — Address to the territorial pioneers of California, on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the admission of the State into the Union, San Francisco News Letter and California Advertiser, San Francisco, 1875, OCLC11883585