Anthony Browne

Son of Sir Weston Browne of Abbesroding and of Langenhoo in Essex Knight, (by Eliz. his Wife one of the Daughters of Will. Mordant of Turwey in Bedfordsh. Esq;) Son (*)(*) Cod. MS. D. Will. Dugdale in Museo Ashmoleano. E. 2. fol. 91. a. of Rob. Browne, (by Mary his Wife Daughter and Heir of Sir Thomas Charlton) Son of Rob. Browne of Wakefield in Yorkshire, (by Joane Kirkham his second Wife) Son of another Rob. Browne of the West Country, was born in Essex, and being made soon ripe for the University, was sent thereunto; but before he had taken a Degree he was transplanted to the Middle Temple; of which, after he had been some years an Inner Barrester, he was elected summer-Reader 1o Mariae, but did not read till the Lent following. In the 2 Year of the said Queens Reign he with several others were by writ called to the Degree of Serjeant at Law, and was the antientest of the call, and soon after was made Serjeant to the King and Queen. In oct. 1558. (5. and 6. of Ph. and Mar.) he was made Lord Chief Justice of the Common-pleas, but the said Qu. Mary dying soon after, and Elizabeth succeeding, she remov’d him thence and placed in his room Sir James Dyer. Whereupon A. Browne was made for a time (as it seems) a Justice of the Common-pleas, and soon after one of the Justices of the Common-bench, in which dignity he dyed; having, but an year before his death, received the honor of Knighthood from the Queen at the Parliament house. Edom. Plowden the famous Lawyer doth give this (a)(a) In his Commentaries or Reports of divers cases. Printed at Lond. 1599. [•] ol. 356. a. testimony of him that he was a Judge of a profound genie and great eloquence: And all eminent Men of that Age did esteem him as able a Person as any that lived in Qu. Elizabeths time, and therefore fit to have obliged posterity by his Pen, had not too much modesty laid in the way. What he did as to that, was concealed, and partly published under another name, as his Arguments for Marie Queen of Scots her right of Succession to the Crown of England, which were published by Joh. Lesley Bishop of Rosse, as I shall tell you in Morgan Philipps under the Year 1577. Besides which, there is a folio MS. at this day in a private hand entit.

A discourse upon certain points touching the inheritance of the Crown—conceiv’d by Sir Anth. Browne Justice. Which Book coming into the hands of Sir Nich. Bacon L. Keeper of England, was by him answered, and perhaps therein are contained the Arguments before mentioned. Our Author Sir Anthony wrot a Book also against Rob. Dudley Earl of Leycester, as one (b)(b) Dr. Matthew Pateuson, in his Book intit. Jerusalem and Babel, or the image of both Churches. Lond. 1653. second [〈◊〉] p. 587. reports, but what the contents of it are, he mentions not. At length having always lived a R. Catholick, he gave way to fate (c)(c) Lib. Cert [••] . in Col [•] . Arm. ut sup. J. 5. fol. 150. a. at his house in the Parish of South-weld in Essex on the 6. of May in Fifteen hundred sixty and seven; 1567 whereupon his body was buried in the Chancel of the Church there, on the tenth of June following. What Epitaph was put over his Grave, I know not: Sure it is, that these verses were made on him several years after his death, which may serve for one.

Elizabetha nonum regni dum transegit annum

Gentis & Anglorum regia sceptra tenet,

Antonium rapiunt Maii mala sydera Brownum

Legum qui vivus gloria magna fuit.

On the 9. Nov. in the same Year in which Sir Anthony died, Joan his Widow, Daughter of Will. Farington of Farington in Lancashire (and formerly the Widow of Charles Bothe Esq;) died, and the 22 of the same Month was buried near to the grave of her second husband Sir Anthony before-mentioned, who was Nephew to Sir Humph. Browne of the Middle Temple, made Serjeant at Law 23. Hen. 8. one of the Justices of the Kings-bench 34. Hen. 8. and continued in that place till 5 Elizab. at which time he died, being about 33 Years after he was made a Serjeant.