Sir Anthony Browne
QS (1509–1567), sometimes referred to as Antony Browne, was a British justice.
Life
He came from a family of lawyers. His father, Sir Wistan Browne, was a barrister of the
Middle Temple
The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...
, and three of his uncles served as benchers there, one of whom was Sir Humphrey Browne, a justice of the
Court of Common Pleas
A court of common pleas is a common kind of court structure found in various common law jurisdictions. The form originated with the Court of Common Pleas at Westminster, which was created to permit individuals to press civil grievances against one ...
.
On his mother, Elizabeth's side were
Sir John Mordaunt, chancellor of the
Duchy of Cornwall
The Duchy of Cornwall ( kw, Duketh Kernow) is one of two royal duchies in England, the other being the Duchy of Lancaster. The eldest son of the reigning British monarch obtains possession of the duchy and the title of 'Duke of Cornwall' at ...
, and William Mordaunt, chief
Prothonotary
The word prothonotary is recorded in English since 1447, as "principal clerk of a court," from L.L. ''prothonotarius'' ( c. 400), from Greek ''protonotarios'' "first scribe," originally the chief of the college of recorders of the court of the B ...
of the Common Pleas.
Keeping with family tradition he joined Middle Temple, and became a pupil of
John Jenour
John Jenour (146517 September 1542) was a British legal official. He was the son of William Jenour of Stonham Aspal, Suffolk and his wife Katherine Whiting, and the elder brother of Robert Jenour, who became an officer of the Court of Common Pleas ...
, at the time the second Prothonotary of the Common Pleas.
In 1545, he became a
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
, and in 1554 a bencher of Middle Temple.
He was made a
Serjeant-at-law
A Serjeant-at-Law (SL), commonly known simply as a Serjeant, was a member of an order of barristers at the English and Irish Bar. The position of Serjeant-at-Law (''servientes ad legem''), or Sergeant-Counter, was centuries old; there are writ ...
in 1555 under the patronage of the
Earl of Oxford
Earl of Oxford is a dormant title in the Peerage of England, first created for Aubrey de Vere by the Empress Matilda in 1141. His family was to hold the title for more than five and a half centuries, until the death of the 20th Earl in 1703. ...
, and was then immediately made
Queen's Serjeant
A Serjeant-at-Law (SL), commonly known simply as a Serjeant, was a member of an order of barristers at the Barristers in England and Wales, English and Irish Bar. The position of Serjeant-at-Law (''servientes ad legem''), or Sergeant-Counter, ...
, obliged as the junior serjeant of his inn to give a reading, which he did on the subject of the Statute of Jeofails.
On 5 October 1558, Browne was appointed
Chief Justice of the Common Pleas
The chief justice of the Common Pleas was the head of the Court of Common Pleas, also known as the Common Bench or Common Place, which was the second-highest common law court in the English legal system until 1875, when it, along with the other ...
by
Mary I
Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558), also known as Mary Tudor, and as "Bloody Mary" by her Protestant opponents, was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 and Queen of Spain from January 1556 until her death in 1558. Sh ...
; his appointment was reconfirmed in November by her successor,
Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen".
El ...
. He was removed by Elizabeth in the following January by means of appointing him a
Puisne Justice
A puisne judge or puisne justice (; from french: puisné or ; , 'since, later' + , 'born', i.e. 'junior') is a dated term for an ordinary judge or a judge of lesser rank of a particular court. Use
The term is used almost exclusively in common law ...
of the Queen's Bench, most likely due to his religious disagreements with the new queen; while it was not serious enough to demand removal from the court, it would be unthinkable to have the head of a major court in religious disagreement with the monarch.
In 1563, it was rumoured he would replace
Nicholas Bacon as
Lord Keeper of the Great Seal
The Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England, and later of Great Britain, was formerly an officer of the English Crown charged with physical custody of the Great Seal of England. This position evolved into that of one of the Great Officers of Sta ...
; if so he rejected it on grounds of religion.
In 1565, he wrote an essay supporting the claim to the throne of
Mary Stuart, which was later included in
John Lesley
John Lesley (or Leslie) (29 September 1527 – 31 May 1596) was a Scottish Roman Catholic bishop and historian. His father was Gavin Lesley, rector of Kingussie, Badenoch.
Early career
He was educated at the University of Aberdeen, where he ...
's ''A Treatise concerning the Defence of the Honour of Marie, Queene of Scotland, made by Morgan Philippes, Bachelar of Divinitie, Piae afflicts animi consoleiones, ad Mariam Scot. Reg.'' in 1571, and also encouraged
Edmund Plowden
Sir Edmund Plowden (1519/20 – 6 February 1585) was a distinguished English lawyer, legal scholar and theorist during the late Tudor period.
Early life
Plowden was born at Plowden Hall, Lydbury North, Shropshire. He was the son of Humphrey ...
to write ''A Treatise on Succession'', which attempted to prove that Mary was not debarred from the English throne under
Henry VIII
Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...
's will.
It is likely Elizabeth was aware of these anti-Protestant efforts as she knighted him in February 1567. Browne remained a justice of the Common Pleas until his death on 16 May 1567 at
Weald Hall
Weald Country Park is a 700-year-old, 500 acre (2 km²) country park in South Weald in the borough of Brentwood in the English county of Essex. It is on the north-east fringe of Greater London.
Weald manor, parts of which dated to the 1 ...
in Essex.
Plowden described him at his death as a judge 'de profound ingeny et graund eloquence' (of profound ingenuity and grand eloquence), and the Spanish ambassador called his death a great loss to the
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
faction in England. His funeral was performed, per his request, with the traditional Catholic ceremonies, and at his funeral various friends were given gold
mourning ring
Mourning is the expression of an experience that is the consequence of an event in life involving loss, causing grief, occurring as a result of someone's death, specifically someone who was loved although loss from death is not exclusively ...
s in the style of those of Serjeants-at-Law with 'Wee dye' engraved on the outside and 'Forgett nott' on the inside.
He was buried in St Peter's Church in
South Weald South Weald is a mainly farmland and park settlement in the Borough of Brentwood in Essex, England. The civil parish of South Weald was absorbed by Brentwood Urban District in 1934. In 1931 the civil parish had a population of 6370.
South Weald con ...
, but his tomb was badly damaged in the 1868 church restoration, leaving only a headless figure in judicial robes and part of an inscription, which gives his age at death as fifty seven.
Family
Browne married Jane, the daughter of William Farrington at an undetermined point, but, as the marriage was childless, most of his estate was left to his brother George and various friends.
His most lasting creation is
Brentwood School, created as 'The Grammar School of Anthony Browne, Serjeant at the Law, in Brentwood'.
Parliament
Browne was a Member (MP) of the
Parliament of England
The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England from the 13th century until 1707 when it was replaced by the Parliament of Great Britain. Parliament evolved from the great council of bishops and peers that advised t ...
for
Lostwithiel
Lostwithiel (; kw, Lostwydhyel) is a civil parish and small town in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom at the head of the estuary of the River Fowey. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 2,739, increasing to 2,899 at the 2011 c ...
1545,
Great Bedwyn
Great Bedwyn is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in east Wiltshire, England. The village is on the River Dun (River Kennet), River Dun about southwest of Hungerford, southeast of Swindon and southeast of Marlborough, Wilt ...
1547,
Preston March 1553 and October 1553,
Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to:
People
* Scarborough (surname)
* Earl of Scarbrough
Places Australia
* Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth
* Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong
* Scarborough, Queensland, su ...
April 1554 and
Maldon
Maldon (, locally ) is a town and civil parish on the River Blackwater, Essex, Blackwater estuary in Essex, England. It is the seat of the Maldon District and starting point of the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation. It is known for Maldon Sea ...
November 1554.
References
;Attribution
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Browne, Anthony
1509 births
1567 deaths
Chief Justices of the Common Pleas
Knights Bachelor
Members of the Middle Temple
Serjeants-at-law (England)
Justices of the Common Pleas
Anthony
Anthony or Antony is a masculine given name, derived from the ''Antonia (gens), Antonii'', a ''gens'' (Roman naming conventions, Roman family name) to which Mark Antony (''Marcus Antonius'') belonged. According to Plutarch, the Antonii gens were ...
People from the Borough of Brentwood
Members of the Parliament of England for Lostwithiel
English MPs 1545–1547
English MPs 1547–1552
English MPs 1553 (Edward VI)
English MPs 1553 (Mary I)
English MPs 1554
English MPs 1554–1555
16th-century English judges
16th-century English lawyers
Members of Parliament for Maldon
Members of Parliament for Great Bedwyn