 Brown is of English ancestry , from a family that has been in New Hampshire since the colonial era . His earliest American ancestor was 17th century immigrant Francis Matthews , who sailed from Devonshire , England . Brown is part of a 9th generation New Hampshire family and was born on September 12 , 1959 at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard located on Seavey 's Island in Kittery , Maine but after his parents divorced , when he was a young child , his mother moved him from Portsmouth , NH to Wakefield , Massachusetts . He often spent his summers in Newburyport , Massachusetts , where his father served as a city councilor for 18 years . He also spent summers in Portsmouth , New Hampshire during his youth . Brown 's father , Claude Bruce Brown , and mother , Judith Ann “ Judi ” ( née Rugg ) , divorced when he was about a year old . His father and his grandfather were Republicans . His father has said that young Scott became interested in running for political office in the mid @-@ 1960s while accompanying him on a campaign for state office . Brown recalls holding campaign signs for his father . 
