Geoffrey Browne (died 14 January 1668) was an Irish lawyer and politician. Browne was a son of Sir Dominick Browne and Anastasia Darcy, both members of the

Tribes of Galway The Tribes of Galway ( ga, Treibheanna na Gaillimhe) 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 ...

. He was a nephew to

Patrick D'Arcy Patrick d'Arcy (27 September 1725 – 18 October 1779) was an Irish mathematician born in Kiltullagh, County Galway in the west of Ireland. His family, who were Catholics, suffered under the penal laws. In 1739 d'Arcy was sent abroad b ...

(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 self-government between 1642 and 1649, during the Eleven Years' War. Formed by Catholic aristocrats, landed gentry, clergy and military ...

, and son-in-law of

Sir Henry Lynch, 1st Baronet Sir Henry Lynch, 1st Baronet (died 1635) was an Irish baronet, knight, lawyer, and land agent (i.e. estate manager). Lynch was among the first of his family to become a lawyer, and several of his younger sons followed him into this profession, ...

, agent to

Richard Burke, 4th Earl of Clanricarde Richard Burke, 4th Earl of Clanricarde (also Richard de Burgh) (; ; ; ; 1572 – 12 November 1635) was an Irish nobleman and politician. He was the son of Ulick Burke, 3rd Earl of Clanricarde. Knighted in 1602 for his exploits as leader of the ...

. 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 virtu ...

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 ( ga, Éirí Amach 1641) was an uprising by Irish Catholics in the Kingdom of Ireland, who wanted an end to anti-Catholic discrimination, greater Irish self-governance, and to partially or fully reverse the plantatio ...

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

Connacht Connacht ( ; ga, Connachta or ), is one of the provinces of Ireland, in the west of Ireland. Until the ninth century it consisted of several independent major Gaelic kingdoms (Uí Fiachrach, Uí Briúin, Uí Maine, Conmhaícne, and Delbhn ...

, he returned to

Galway Galway ( ; ga, Gaillimh, ) is a City status in Ireland, city in the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht, which is the county town of County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lo ...

, 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 (; ; ; ; 1604, in London – July 1657, in Kent), was an Anglo-Irish nobleman who was involved in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. A Catholic Ro ...

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 James FitzThomas Butler, 1st Duke of Ormond, KG, PC (19 October 1610 – 21 July 1688), was a statesman and soldier, known as Earl of Ormond from 1634 to 1642 and Marquess of Ormond from 1642 to 1661. Following the failur ...

, 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 ( la, nuntius apostolicus; 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 or ...

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 Fermo ...

. 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 rulers 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 kings of t ...

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

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

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 ( ; ga, Tuaim , meaning 'mound' or 'burial-place') is a town in Ireland and the second-largest settlement in County Galway. It is west of the midlands of Ireland, about north of Galway city. Humans have lived in the area since the Bron ...

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 Baron Oranmore and Browne, of Carrabrowne Castle in the County of Galway and of Castle Macgarrett in the County of Mayo, is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1836 for Dominick Browne, who had earlier represented County Mayo in t ...

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, at the Railway Hotel, Galway. It promotes the study of the archaeology and history of the west of Ireland. Since 1900, the Society has published 70 volumes of the ''J ...

'', 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 t ...

, 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