Sir Matthew Browne (1563 – 1 August 1603) of

Betchworth Castle Betchworth Castle is a mostly crumbled ruin of a fortified medieval stone house with some tall, two-storey corners strengthened in the 18th century, in the north of the semi-rural parish of Brockham. It is built on a sandstone spur overlookin ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

, MP, was the only son of

Sir Thomas Browne Sir Thomas Browne ( "brown"; 19 October 160519 October 1682) was an English polymath and author of varied works which reveal his wide learning in diverse fields including science and medicine, religion and the esoteric. His writings display a d ...

and Mabel Fitzwilliam. He was involved in legal and financial transactions concerning the

Globe Theatre The Globe Theatre was a Theater (structure), theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 at Southwark, close to the south bank of the Thames, by Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men. It was ...

in 1601.. He was killed in a duel with his kinsman, Sir John Townshend, on 1 August 1603.

Family

Matthew Browne was the only son of

(d. 9 February 1597) and his first wife, Mabel Fitzwilliam, the eldest daughter and coheiress of the courtier Sir William Fitzwilliam,

Gentleman of the Privy Chamber A privy chamber was the private apartment of a royal residence in England. The Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber were noble-born servants to the Crown who would wait and attend on the King in private, as well as during various court activities, f ...

and Lieutenant of

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a List of British royal residences, royal residence at Windsor, Berkshire, Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, about west of central London. It is strongly associated with the Kingdom of England, English and succee ...

, by Jane Roberts, daughter and coheiress of John Roberts of

Cranbrook, Kent Cranbrook is a town in the civil parish of Cranbrook and Sissinghurst, in the Weald of Kent in South East England. It lies roughly half-way between Maidstone and Hastings, about southeast of central London. The smaller settlements of Sissin ...

, and

Mayfield, Sussex Mayfield and Five Ashes is a civil parish in the High Weald of East Sussex, England. The two villages making up the principal part of the parish lie on the A267 road between Royal Tunbridge Wells and Eastbourne: Mayfield, the larger of the two ...

. He had two sisters, Jane Browne, who married Sir Oliph Lee, and Elizabeth Browne, who married Robert Honeywood..Browne, Sir Matthew (1563-1603), History of Parliament
Retrieved 23 March 2013. After the death of his first wife, Mabel, Sir Thomas Browne married Helen or Ellen Harding, widow of Richard Knyvet, and daughter and heiress of William Harding, by whom he had a son, Richard Browne.

Career

Browne was at

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College ( ) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by Bishop of Winchester William of Waynflete. It is one of the wealthiest Oxford colleges, as of 2022, and ...

, in 1576. By a parliament held 11 February 1582 he was granted special admission to the

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional association for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practice as a barrister in England and Wa ...

together with

Nicholas Brend Nicholas Brend (c. 1560 – 12 October 1601) was an English landowner who inherited from his father the land on which the Globe Theatre was built, and on 21 February 1599 leased it to Cuthbert Burbage, Richard Burbage, William Shakespeare, ...

(d. 12 October 1601), son and heir of Thomas Brend (d. 1597), and John Bodley of

Streatham Streatham ( ) is a district in south London, England. Centred south of Charing Cross, it lies mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, with some parts extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth. Streatham was in Surrey ...

, stepson of Thomas Brend, with whom he was later to be associated in connection with the

and other properties. In 1596, Browne was knighted by

Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex (; 10 November 1565 – 25 February 1601) was an English nobleman and a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I. Politically ambitious, he was placed under house arrest following a poor campaign in Ireland during th ...

, on the Cadiz expedition. In 1600 he was appointed deputy lieutenant of Surrey to Lord Charles Howard. In 1601, he was elected to Parliament for Gatton. In October 1601, as Nicholas Brend, with whom Browne had been admitted to the Inner Temple in 1582, lay dying, he entered into complicated legal and financial transactions to ensure payment of his debts by which his stepbrother, John Bodley, John Collet, and Sir Matthew Browne would act as his trustees, and by which:

Bodley would pay the debts and in return take a mortgage on the properties in
Bread Street Bread Street is one of the 25 Wards of the City of London, wards of the City of London, the name deriving from its principal street, which was anciently the city's bread marketplace, market; already named ''Bredstrate'' (to at least 1180) for by ...
and
Southwark Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...
, including, now, the
Globe A globe is a spherical Earth, spherical Model#Physical model, model of Earth, of some other astronomical object, celestial body, or of the celestial sphere. Globes serve purposes similar to maps, but, unlike maps, they do not distort the surface ...
...So on October 7, Bodley, Collet, and Browne agreed in writing to pay the debts and Collet to give Nicholas £250 in cash. In return, Nicholas mortgaged his properties in Bread Street and Southwark to Collet and Browne for the supposed amount of the debts, £1478. On October 8 he signed a bond in which he promised to pay Collet and Browne £2500 if he did not perform the requirements of the mortgage. On October 10 he drew his will, providing among other things that Bodley and Browne should have various properties they would sell, including the house in St. Peter's Hill where all this was taking place...And on 12 October 1601, at the age of forty or forty-one, the first owner of the Globe died.

Browne himself died less than two years later. On 1 August 1603 he fought a duel on horseback on

Hounslow Heath Hounslow Heath is a local nature reserve in the London Borough of Hounslow and at a point borders London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, Richmond upon Thames. The public open space, which covers , is all that remains of the historic Hounslow He ...

with a kinsman, Sir John Townshend. Browne was killed on the spot, while Townshend was mortally wounded and died the following day. Browne was succeeded by his twelve-year-old son,

Ambrose Ambrose of Milan (; 4 April 397), venerated as Saint Ambrose, was a theologian and statesman who served as Bishop of Milan from 374 to 397. He expressed himself prominently as a public figure, fiercely promoting Roman Christianity against Ari ...

. His executors, Sir William Mynne and Browne's cousin, Thomas Browne, did not prove Browne's last will until 1608.

Marriage and issue

Browne married Jane Vincent, the daughter of Sir Thomas Vincent of

Stoke d'Abernon __NOTOC__ Stoke d'Abernon () is a village and former civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Borough of Elmbridge, Elmbridge district, in Surrey, England. It is on the bank (geography), right bank of the River Mole contiguously south of ...

, by Jane Lyfield, the daughter and heiress of Thomas Lyfield, esquire, by whom he had four sons, Sir Ambrose Browne, 1st Baronet, Edward, Henry and Thomas, and two daughters, Jane, who married

Sir Robert Kemp, 2nd Baronet Sir Robert Kemp, 2nd Baronet (2 February 1627 – 26 September 1710), of Gissing Hall, Norfolk and Ubbeston, Suffolk, was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons of England, House of Commons between 1675 and 1685. Kemp was bor ...

, and Mabel.Plantagenet Ancestry of Seventeenth-Century Colonists, by David Faris, 2nd Edition 1999, NEHGS Page: 50-51

Notes

References

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External links

Browne, Sir Matthew (1563-1603), History of Parliament
Retrieved 23 March 2013
Fitzwilliam, Sir William (d.1559), History of Parliament
Retrieved 23 March 2013
Will of Thomas Brend, gentleman, of West Molesey, Surrey, National Archives
Retrieved 23 March 2013
Will of Sir Matthew Browne of Betchworth Castle, Surrey, National Archives
Retrieved 23 March 2013
Will of Sir Nicholas Brend of West Molesey, Surrey, National Archives
Retrieved 23 March 2013 {{DEFAULTSORT:Browne, Matthew 1563 births 1603 deaths Matthew Duelling fatalities English duellists 16th-century English knights English MPs 1601 People from Mole Valley (district)