Julia was born in Zillah, and was named after her aunt, Julia Rebecca Mabbott, a sister of her mother who had been born in 1838. Julia was sent to school in England and was at the Indies School in Lambeth for the 1861 census, aged 11 years. Ten years later she was living with her parents at 6 Vanbrugh Park Road, Greenwich, but had no occupation recorded. She became a teacher and in 1881 was living in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire as a schoolmistress at a small school. She seemed to be settled into life as a single woman, but on 6th June 1883 married George Mabbott Brown. Her husband’s second name indicates that he was probably a relation in her mother’s family. The marriage did not take place in Britain.
Julia Charlotte and George Mabbott Brown emigrated to the United States in 1883 and settled in Sonoma County, California. She had studied music in England and Germany and became a concert pianist. According to her obituary, she gave a number of performances for royalty. Her husband died in 1905 and she then moved to Fowler and taught music for several generations of pupils, retiring at the age of 81. At the census of 1900 in Sonoma, Julia and George Brown had four children - Mabbott Christina Olive (b. 8th July 1884); Ronald Alwyn Brown (b. 10th February 1886); Laurie Mary Ainslie Brown (b. 2nd January 1891) and William Brown (b. 11 December 1892). They had also had another child, Elsie, who was born on 12th July 1889, but died on 7th July 1894. Julia died in Fowler, Fresno Co. on 16th May 1942. Laurie married Leland Stanford Hayes.