Geoffrey Browne (died 14 January 1668) was an Irish lawyer and politician. Browne was a son of

Sir Dominick Browne Sir Dominick Browne was an Irish merchant and landowner, – . Biography Browne was the eldest of three sons of Geoffrey Browne, alderman of Galway (died 1608), a member of the Tribes of Galway. He was of age and married at the time of his fat ...

and Anastasia Darcy, both members of the

Tribes of Galway The Tribes of Galway () were 14 merchant families who dominated the political, commercial and social life of the city of Galway in western Ireland between the mid-13th and late 19th centuries. They were the families of Athy, Blake, Bodkin, Brown ...

. He was a nephew to

Patrick D'Arcy Patrick D'Arcy (1598–1668) was an Irish Catholic Confederate and lawyer who wrote the constitution of Confederate Ireland. Background Born in County Galway, Ireland, D'Arcy was the youngest son of James Riabhach D'Arcy by his second marria ...

(1598–1668), the Confederate lawyer who wrote the constitution of

Confederate Ireland Confederate Ireland, also referred to as the Irish Catholic Confederation, was a period of Irish Catholic Church, Catholic self-government between 1642 and 1652, during the Irish Confederate Wars, Eleven Years' War. Formed by Catholic aristoc ...

, and son-in-law of Sir Henry Lynch, 1st Baronet, agent to

Richard Burke, 4th Earl of Clanricarde Richard Burke (or de Burgh), 4th Earl of Clanricarde Privy Counsellor, PC (Ire) ( ; 1572 – 12 November 1635), styled Lord Dunkellin ( ) until 1601, was an Irish nobleman and politician. He was the son of Ulick Burke, 3rd Earl of Clanricarde ...

. In 1640 he was elected M.P. for

Athenry Athenry (; ) is a town in County Galway, Ireland, which lies east of Galway city. Some of the attractions of the medieval town are its town wall, Athenry Castle, its priory and its 13th-century street-plan. The town is also well known by virt ...

and was actively involved in the parliament's affairs in the period leading up to the

Irish Rebellion of 1641 The Irish Rebellion of 1641 was an uprising in Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland, initiated on 23 October 1641 by Catholic gentry and military officers. Their demands included an end to anti-Catholic discrimination, greater Irish self-governance, and ...

, including one to England in late 1640. On the outbreak of hostilities in

Connacht Connacht or Connaught ( ; or ), is the smallest of the four provinces of Ireland, situated in the west of Ireland. Until the ninth century it consisted of several independent major Gaelic kingdoms (Uí Fiachrach, Uí Briúin, Uí Maine, C ...

, he returned to

Galway Galway ( ; , ) is a City status in Ireland, city in (and the county town of) County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay. It is the most populous settlement in the province of Connacht, the List of settleme ...

, becoming involved with figures such as

, Richard Martyn,

Ulick Burke, 1st Marquess of Clanricarde Ulick MacRichard Burke, 1st Marquess of Clanricarde, 5th Earl of Clanricarde, 2nd Earl of St Albans PC (Ire) ( ; 1604 – July 1657), styled Lord Dunkellin ( ) until 1635, was an Irish nobleman who was involved in the Wars of the Three Kingd ...

and Walter Lynch (mayor). He became a member of the first Supreme Council in November 1642, and a member of each successive one until February 1646. He was a principal figure in the negotiations between the Confederates and

James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde Lieutenant general, Lieutenant-General James FitzThomas Butler, 1st Duke of Ormond, Knight of the Garter, KG, Privy Council of England, PC (19 October 1610 – 21 July 1688), was an Anglo-Irish statesman and soldier, known as Earl of Ormond fr ...

, and a direct negotiator with

Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...

in 1644. He was regarded as a leading member of the confederate peace party and involved in friction with papal

nuncio An apostolic nuncio (; also known as a papal nuncio or simply as a nuncio) is an ecclesiastical diplomat, serving as an envoy or a permanent diplomatic representative of the Holy See to a state or to an international organization. A nuncio is ...

Giovanni Battista Rinuccini Giovanni Battista Rinuccini (1592–1653) was an Italian Roman Catholic archbishop in the mid-seventeenth century. He was a noted legal scholar and became chamberlain to Pope Gregory XV. In 1625 Pope Urban VIII made him the Archbishop of Fer ...

. Arriving in Paris in March 1648, Browne co-operated with a now exiled Ormond in an effort to lay aside religious differences and discussions, which allowed the later to return to Ireland as crown negotiator. Ormond named him as an agent to treat with Charles,

Duke of Lorraine The kings and dukes of Lorraine have held different posts under different governments over different regions, since its creation as the kingdom of Lotharingia by the Treaty of Prüm, in 855. The first rulers of the newly established region were ...

, who had offered the confederates aid against the English parliament. He reached

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

on 12 June 1651 and had signed a treaty on 12 July, one which was however rejected by Clanricarde. His life after his return to Ireland in 1651 is unclear. On 12 August 1652 he was named as exempt from pardon for life and estate by the Parliamentarians, and may have been in London in May 1653. He was M.P. for

Tuam Tuam (; , meaning 'mound' or 'burial-place') is a town in Ireland and the second-largest settlement in County Galway. It is west of the midland Region, Ireland, midlands of Ireland, about north of Galway city. The town is in a civil parishe ...

in 1661, its only Catholic, but was unseated by the commons. By his wife, Mary Lynch, he had four sons and one daughter. His senior male descendants became Baron Oranmore and Browne.

References

* ''Pedigree of the Brownes of Castle mac Garrett'', Lord Oranmore and Browne, ''Journal of the

Galway Archaeological and Historical Society The Galway Archaeological and Historical Society was founded on 21 March 1900. It promotes historical preservation, as well as the study of the archaeology and history of the west of Ireland. As of January 2002, the Society had published 53 cons ...

'', volume 5, 1907–08. * ''Old Galway'',

Maureen Donovan O'Sullivan Mary Josephine Donovan O'Sullivan was professor of history at Queens College, Galway (now NUI Galway) from 1914 to 1957. Biography One of ten children, four of whom survived infancy, Donovan was born at Fair Hill Road in Galway on 24 November ...

, Oxford, 1942 * ''Confederate Ireland 1642–49'', Micheal O'Siochru,

Four Courts Press Four Courts Press is an independent Irish academic publishing house, with its office at Malpas Street, Dublin 8, Ireland. Founded in 1970 by Michael Adams, who died in February 2009, its early publications were primarily theological, notably ...

, Dublin, 1999 * ''Kingdoms in Crisis: Ireland in the 1640s'', Micheál Ó Siochrú, ed., Dublin, 2000. * ''The Tribes of Galway'', Adrian James Martyn, Galway, 2001 * ''Dictionary of Irish Biography:from the Earliest Times to the Year 2002'', p. 903, Cambridge, 2010 {{DEFAULTSORT:Browne, Geoffrey Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) for County Galway constituencies Politicians from County Galway People of the Irish Confederate Wars 1668 deaths Year of birth unknown Irish MPs 1639–1649