Isaac Hawkins Browne FRS (21 January 1705 – 14 February 1760) was an English politician and poet. He is remembered as the author of some clever imitations of contemporary poets

Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish Satire, satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whig (British political party), Whigs, then for the Tories (British political party), Tories), poe ...

and

Alexander Pope Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early 18th century. An exponent of Augustan literature, ...

on the theme of ''

A Pipe of Tobacco A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes'' ...

'' (1736), somewhat analogous to the ''

Rejected Addresses ''Rejected Addresses'' was the title of an 1812 book of parodies by the brothers James and Horace Smith. In the line of 18th-century pastiches focussed on a single subject in the style of poets of the time, it contained twenty-one good-natured pa ...

'' of a later day. He also wrote a

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

poem on the immortality of the soul, ''De Animi Immortalitate'' (1754).

Life

He was born in

Burton-upon-Trent Burton upon Trent, also known as Burton-on-Trent or simply Burton, is a market town in the borough of East Staffordshire in the county of Staffordshire, England, close to the border with Derbyshire. In 2011, it had a population of 72,299. The d ...

, Staffordshire, the son of William Browne, Vicar of the parish, and Ann (née Hawkins) Browne. He was educated in

Lichfield Lichfield () is a cathedral city and civil parish in Staffordshire, England. Lichfield is situated roughly south-east of the county town of Stafford, south-east of Rugeley, north-east of Walsall, north-west of Tamworth and south-west of B ...

and at

Westminster School (God Gives the Increase) , established = Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560 , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , head_label = Hea ...

. He entered

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

, in 1721 and was said to have graduated as MA, although no record of the award has been found. A country gentleman and barrister, who had been

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

in 1728 from

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

, he had great conversational powers. He was a friend of

Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...

. He was MP for

Much Wenlock Much Wenlock is a market town and parish in Shropshire, England, situated on the A458 road between Shrewsbury and Bridgnorth. Nearby, to the northeast, is the Ironbridge Gorge, and the new town of Telford. The civil parish includes the villag ...

, Shropshire from 1744 to 1754, although he did not apparently contribute much in debates, Dr Johnson commenting that, ironically: ''Browne, one of the first great wits of this country, got into Parliament and never opened his mouth''. He was elected a

fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in February, 1750. Browne, recalled by Dr Johnson (in 1773) to have ''drunk hard for thirty years'', died at his London home in Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury Square, on 14 February 1760. He was memorialised at

chapel in 1804 with a monument sculpted by

John Flaxman John Flaxman (6 July 1755 – 7 December 1826) was a British sculptor and draughtsman, and a leading figure in British and European Neoclassicism. Early in his career, he worked as a modeller for Josiah Wedgwood's pottery. He spent several yea ...

.Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851 by Rupert Gunnis p.150

Family

He married Jane Trimnell, daughter of David Trimnell, in 1744. They had one child, Isaac Hawkins Browne

Notes

External links

Isaac Hawkins Browne
at th
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA)

References

;Attribution *

Sources

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Browne, Isaac Hawkins 1705 births 1760 deaths People from Burton upon Trent British poets Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies Fellows of the Royal Society British MPs 1741–1747 British MPs 1747–1754 Members of Lincoln's Inn British male poets