Brown

Sir Thomas Browne (19 October 1605 – 19 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 father was a silk mercer from Upton. Sir Thomas is largely forgotten in Chester, where a family with a similar name are much better known for their department store "Browns of Chester" (often once called "The Harrods of the North"). However, a large bronze of him (by Henry Alfred Pegram) is to be found in Norwich city center and his writings have been the subject of vast scholarship.

Sir Thomas' writings display a deep curiosity towards the natural world, influenced by the scientific revolution of Baconian enquiry. Browne's literary works are permeated by references to Classical and Biblical sources as well as the idiosyncrasies of his own personality. Although often described as suffused with melancholia, his writings are also characterised by wit and subtle humour, while his literary style is varied, according to genre, resulting in a rich, unique prose which ranges from rough notebook observations to polished Baroque eloquence. Sir Thomas is cited as the first to use many words in common usage today, and it is generally believed that these words were ones that he himself coined from his vast classical knowledge. Somewhat surprisingly, these words include: "computer" and "electricity". In the 18th century, Samuel Johnson, who shared Browne's love of the Latinate, wrote a brief Life in which he praised Browne as a faithful Christian and assessed his prose thus:


 * "His style is, indeed, a tissue of many languages; a mixture of heterogeneous words, brought together from distant regions, with terms originally appropriated to one art, and drawn by violence into the service of another. He must, however, be confessed to have augmented our philosophical diction; and, in defence of his uncommon words and expressions, we must consider, that he had uncommon sentiments, and was not content to express, in many words, that idea for which any language could supply a single term"

Sir Thomas Browne is not a direct ancestor of the Browns who opened their noted store in Chester - the last common ancestors with the Brownes of Upton (and later Hoole) are his grandparents. While a look at his ancestry reveals that there were significant connections between the Brownes of Upton and the London fashion trade long before the store opened its doors. It also shows how the male line of the Browns from the Upton gentry almost died-out on the Chester side, and failed completely for the descendants of Sir Thomas. A little further investigation revealss that the Browns of "Brown's of Chester" are unrelated to the two branches of the Brownes in Chester (Netherlegh and Upton) and therefore unrelated to Sir Thomas Browne, despite what some "city guides" may be heard saying to tourists.

"Brown's of Chester"


Number #32-34 is a Greek Revival building from 1828 which was the first element of what was to become Browns Department Store (N.B. Wikipedia states the oldest part of the store dates from 1858). Following the Commercial News Rooms (1807-8, which also involved a Brown), this second neo-classical building was the first purpose built store in the City. William Brown was a successful druggist and was married to Susannah Towsey, an ambitious milliner, and they began to import the latest fashions from London. Susannah (who was christened at St Peters in 1758) ran a little drapery and haberdashery shop with her sister, Elizabeth, at the corner by the Cross. Her family had been connected with the hattery and hosiery business in Chester from the early 1700's. In the 1780's Susannah and Elizabeth would take the stage coach down to London twice a year to select the new season's fashions from the City wholesalers. On returning to Chester they would place an advert in the local mewspaper inviting the public to come and view their collection.



Susannah married John Brown, who had his druggist's shop a few yards down the street, in 1788. Children of John & Susannah included William Brown b. 10th Apr 1789 and Henry Brown b. 25th Jul 1795. Pigot's Directory of Cheshire 1828-29 lists 'Brown Wm & Hy Milliners Eastgate Street Row Chester'. The plans for the new shop were laid before the Assembly in 1828 and it was built by 1831. Browns directly employed 150 women in their own dressmaking workroom in the 1870s.

Brown of Netherlegh
There was a separate bramch of the Brownes south of the River Dee in Netherleigh and they may have been involved in the relocation of the High Cross to Netherleigh (see: Cowper) after the Civil War.

Mathew Browne (d. 1634)
According to Earwaker his funeral certificate reads:


 * "Mathew Browne of the City of Chester, gentleman, dyed at his house in Handbridge vpon the .. daye of .. 1634 and was interred in St Maryes Church in Chester aforsayd. He married Katherine, daughter to Rafe Allen of the City of Chester, Alderman and widow of Mathew Ellis of Overleigh, nere Chester, gent and by him hay yssue Thomas, his sonne and heyre of the age of 14 years or thereabout at tyme of his fathers death, George 2nd sonne; Alice the only daughter. He has yssue also by her Elizabeth and Anne and a son not baptised which all dyed younge."

Browne of Upton - Monuments
A good starting point for the story of the Brown(e)s of Chester is St Mary on the Hill, the original parish church of Upton, and where the Brownes provided many of the church-wardens. Earwaker's history of the church describes an early memorial board "formery placed against the north wall" (and since lost). The text (according to Earwaker) reads:


 * "This was set up in the memory of Richard Browne, of Upton, in y* County of Chester, gent, sone and heire to Thomas Browne, by Elizabeth his Wife, daughter to Henry Birkenhead, Esq., Clerk of ye Green Cloth to Queen Elizabeth, sone and heir of Rich. Browne, sone and heir of Thomas Browne, of Upton, aforesaid. The abovesaid Rich d Browne died the 4 of January 1624, having had 2 Wives, first Frances, daughter to Sr George Beverley, of Huntington, Knt, who died without Issue, secondly to Mary, daughter to Sr Tho. Aston, of Aston, Knt, by whom he had Issue Thomas Browne of Upton and Richd of London. She afterfwards married Jacques Arnodio, gent, and dyed y° 17 Feb. 1668 5 Aged 87 Years. Thomas Browne sone and heire died at Munster in Ireland 1643: he married Grissell daughter to Dobb of Ireland, by whom he had Issue Thomas, Rob e, Francis, Richard, Mary, Judith, Grissell and Dorothy. She died in Childbed ye 19 of June 1641. Thomas Browne sone and heire married Cicely daughter to William Glegge of Gayton Esq, who died in Childbed of her Daughter Cicely the 16 of March Ano Dni 1661."

The Clerk of the Green Cloth was a position in the British Royal Household. The clerk acted as secretary of the Board of Green Cloth, and was therefore responsible for organising royal journeys and assisting in the administration of the Royal Household. Henry Birkenhead senior (1548-1613) was appointed to the office of Prenotary of the Counties Chester and Flint around 1600, and Henry Birkenhead junior (1572-1646) to the office of Custos Brevium of the same counties.

One notes something odd about the monomental board descibed above: it was supposedly set up by Elizabeth, the wife of the Richard Browne who died in 1578. "Elizabeth", despite having died in 1602, then goes on to describe events as late as 1661: three generations later. It is possible that a later member of the family had the memorial board text added to, and if so, it is likely that was the Thomas Browne who died in 1702. An alternative reading of the text is that "it was set up to the memory of RB who was son to TB (by his wife EB)"

However Hanshall gives a different text (with the section relating to the Brownes of Upton itallicised in the text given below):


 * "Philippa wife of Thomas Browne, of Netherlegh, daughter of Tho. Berrington, of Chester, by whom he had 10 sons and 5 daughters; she died aged 42, May 6 1664 - The said Tho Berrington 1669 aged 42 having married to his second wife Jane, daughter Richard Leycester of Great Budworth, relict of Charles Levesby Chester who survived him - Ales daughter of Matthew Browne, of Netherlegh and wife of Thos Parnel of Chester obiit 5 Sept 1659. Matthew Browne gent obiit 24 Nov 1634. Richard Browne of Upton co Cest son & heir of Tho Browne by Elizabeth his wife to Henry Birkenhead Esq Clerk to the Green Cloth Q Eliz son and heir of Rich Browne son and heir of Tho Browne of Upton. This Richard Browne died Jan 4 1621, having had two wives; first Frances daughter of Sir Geo Beverley of Huntington Knt who died s.p. and 2d Mary daughter of Sir Thomas Ashton of Ashton Knt by whom he had Thos Browne of Upton, and Richard of London. She afterwards married Jaques Arnodie gent died 17th Feb 1668 aged 87 years. Thomas Browne, son died at Munster in Ireland having married Grisel daughter to --- Dobb of Ireland by whom he had Thomas, Robert, Francis, Mary, Judith, Grisel and Dorothy She died in Childbed 19th June 1641. Thomas Browne son and heir married Cicily daughter to Wm Glegg of Gayton Esq who died in Childbed of her daughter Cicily March 16 1661 --- Thomas Birkenhead gent Ales his wife; he died 12th November 1644; she died Jan 1691." ("died sp" means "decessit sine prole mascula" - died without male issue)

Richard Browne (b. 1562 - d. Jan 1624/5)
In 1587-8 Richard Browne sold land in Upton and Wervin to Henry Birkenhead (of Backford Hall). Called The Acres, it consisted of 16 acres in all lying between Upton Common, Wervin Common and the high road that led to Caughall. Secondly, in 1595-6 Richard Browne again sold land, this time to Will Aldersey. Called Great Acres, it had a value of £80 and was again in the vicinity of the first sale. Richard matriculated at Brasenose on 4th July 1579 at the age of 17 and by 1583 was a law-student at the Inner Temple in London, where he gave his address as Hoole.

Brothers Thomas (d. 1643) and Richard (bapt 1627) Brown
The unfortunate Richard Browne of London (Sir Thosas cousin) is described as a London silk merchant prior to 1646 and then afterwards described as "of Upton". His lands were sequestered in 1646 (when he was aged about 20) and he oompounded for his estate at £24/15s. Given his relatively young age he can hardly have done much in the Civil War. Richard's father, another Richard, died at about the time of Richard's birth in early 1625. It is worth noting that he was not the only member of the Browne family who had moved to London to enter the trade of a mercer (silk merchant) at about this time - Thomas (d. 1613) father of Sir Thomas Browne had done the same. Curiously, at about the same time, the family of a future wife of the founder of Brown's department store were seemingly already engaged in the London-Chester fashion trade.

It is very likely Richard Browne returned from London to Chester following the death of his elder brother, Thomas Browne of Upton, who died in Munster (Ireland) in 1643. Richard's sister-in-law (Grissell) had died in June 1641 (while giving birth to son Richard, who died in November of the same year) and his nephews, with the exception of one minor (Thomas b. circa 1639) had all pre-deceased his brother. Whether Thomas Browne who died in 1643 had any involvement with the ongoing war in Ireland is unknown but there was a minor battle at Cloughleagh (4 June 1643) involving Royalist troops from Munster, where this somewhat tragic Richard Browne died.

A look at the amcestral tree of the Browne's of Upton shows that the direct male line was reduced to a single member in and shortly after the time of Richard Brown. While the surviving nephew Thomas (b. 1639) would survive and marry Cicely Glegge, they would only have a single daughter at whose birth (March 1662) Cicely Glegge would herself perish.

In summary there are three distinct sets of Browns:
 * The Brownes of Upton (of whom a branch gave rise to the noted polymath Sir Thomas Browne;
 * The Brownes of Netherlegh;
 * The "Browna of Chester" Browns, who came from Lancashire;

Brown(e) of Upton Family Tree
Using Earwaker, Hanshall and other sources (see sources and links) it is possible to tentatively re-reate the predigree of the Browes of Upton as follows:


 * Thomas Browne of Upton = Alice Whitley of Shotton
 * *Thomas Browne = Katherine Harvey (lived in Upton)
 * *Thomas Browne (b. 1540 - d. 1578) = Eizabeth Birkenhead (d. 1602) - last common ancestors (grandparents) of the Brownes of Upton and Sir Thomas Browne
 * *Richard Browne (b. 1562 - d. Jan 1625 - lived in Hoole) = (1) Francis Beverley (no issue) = (2) Mary (d. 1668) (daughter to Sir Thomas Aston see:Civil War and Brereton - she later married Jaques Arnodio - "a Frenchman")
 * *Thomas Browne (d. 1643 in Munster (Ireland)) = Grissell (d. 1641)
 * *Thomas Browne (bapt. 1639 - d. 1702) = Cicely Gleggge of Gayton (bapt. 1624 - d. 1661)
 * *Cicely Browne (b. 1661 - d. 1702)
 * *Robert Browne (bapt. 1640 - d.1664)
 * *Francis (b. 1640, died young)
 * *Richard (b. 1641, died young)
 * *Mary (b. 1632) = Thomas Critchley (had issue..)
 * *Judith (b. 1634} = Thomas Kelsall
 * *Grissell (b. 1635) = (1) John Leacher = (2) Owen Sanderson
 * *Dorothy (b. 1636) = Thomas Shepherd

(other children of Richard Browne and Mary)
 * *Richard Brown (bapt 1627; later moved to London) - estates sequestered in 1646 (returned to Chester following death of elder brother) = Susan Cole (of St Albans) (had issue..)

(other children of Thomas Browne and Elizabeth - from her 1602 funeral certificate)
 * *Jane Brown = Richard Hartley (had issue..)
 * *Henry (d. in Oxford around 1580, aged 19)
 * *Edward
 * *Francis
 * *Anne
 * *William
 * *Fernando
 * *Hugh
 * *Thomas (d. 1613) = Anne Garraway (her scond marriage was to Sir Thomas Dutton)
 * *Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682) = Dorothy Mileham (1621-1685)
 * *Edward

(other children of Thomas and Anne - Sir Thomas sisters)
 * Anne = John Palmer
 * Jane = Thomas Price (1599-1685) - translated to the archbishopric of Cashel on 20 May 1667
 * Mary = Nevill Craddock

Browns of Chester (Hoole)


The Chester Courant and Advertiser (14th March 1900) gives the following information as to the ancestry of the "department store" Browns, triggered by the death of William Brown (links added for background):


 * '''The Browns who became "Browns of Chester" were in the seventeenth century a yeoman family hailing from Ribbleton, in Lancashire. In 1676 William Brown, an ancestor of deceased, resided at Cattford, near Woodplumpton. To him was born in Feb. of that year his eldest son, William, who was baptised at Catford, and was thrice married, but had no issue by either his first or second wife. He married for his first wife Catherine Latham, daughter and eventually sole heiress of Capt. Richard Latham, of Parbald Hall and Allerton, co. Lancaster, by Catherine Massey, his wife, one of the eleven children of Sir Wm. Massey, of Puddington, co. Chester, who was knighted at Chester by King James the First on Aug. 23rd, 1617. William Brown (or Browne, for prior to the Civil War the name was spelt with a final "e" settled with his young Lancashire wife in Chester, where in Barn-lane (now King-street) several children were born to him prior to the accession of George I., and where he died in 1720, being buried at St. Oswald's, Chester, on June 13th of that year. His eldest son, William Brown became an Alderman of the Cord- wainers' Company at Chester, having been sworn a freeman of the city and of that guild in 1733. He served the office of churchwarden of St. Oswald's in 1753, having married at that church on January 20th, 1730, Ann, daughter of Mr. John Golborne, second master or usher of the King's School, Chester. There were six children of this marriage, Christopher and Henry Brown being two of them. The eldest son, William Brown, born in 1733, married at St. Peter's Miss Katherine Meredith, and had issue—four sons and two daughters, of whom John Brown, the eldest son, was a druggist, born in Pepper-street in 1756. He married Susannah, daughter of Thomas Towsey, of St. Peter's, and, dying in 1810, was succeeded (with other issue), by his eldest son, William Brown, Mayor of Chester in 1841 and J.P., who died unmarried on June 13th, 1852. It was he, by the way, who founded the old Mechanics' Institution of this city. His third brother, Henry Brown, also died unmarried at Chester in the year of his mayoralty on August 6th, 1853, and was buried in the new cemetery. Their second brother, John Brown, born in 1792, continued the line, having married Ann, daughter of William Monk, collector of H.M. custom at Parkgate, and, dying in 1846, was buried at St. John's, having had issue four sons and four daughters. Of these latter the eldest is Miss Nessie Brown, of Richmond Bank, Boughton, while of the former Mr. William Brown, who has just died, born at Flookersbrook on May 31st, 1816, was the eldest son, and Mr. Charles Brown, Folly House, Flookersbrook, sheriff of Chester city in 1875, mayor in 1880 and 81 and again in 1884 and 85, is the second son. The deceased married at the Collegiate Church (now the Cathedral), Manchester, on December 10th, 1846, Emma, daughter of Charles Travis Faulkner, of Newton Grange, Manchester.'''



As a postscript to the above, Charles Brown was to survive his brother by only a few weeks, dying himself in April 1900. Despite the overheard comments of some Chester city guides, these Browns are not relatives of the Brownes who were silk-merchants in Chester and London and therefore unrelated to the Sir Thomas Browne who gave us the words "computer" and "electricity", despite the latter's connection with Chester.

It should perhaps be noted that Capt Richard Lathom's daughter (who may well have been Brown's third wife) may not have become his "sole heir", but that is off-topic.

Brown of Chester Ancestry (partial)
From the above, in places rather confusing newspaper report, it is possible to reconstruct the family of the "Browns of Chester" as follows:


 * William Brown (fl. 1676, d. 1720) = Catherine Lathom (b. 1659) - daughter of Richard Lathom (b. 1621 d. after 1664)
 * *William (b. 1676 ) = (1) wife (no issue) (2) wife (no issue) (3) Anne Golborne
 * *William (b. 1733) = Katherine Meredith
 * *John (b. 1756, d. 1810) = Susannah Towsey (founded "Browns of Chester")
 * *William (d. 1852, no issue)
 * *Henry (d. 1853, no issue)
 * *John (b. 1792, d. 1846) = Ann Monk
 * *William (of Hoole d. 1900) = Emma Faulkner
 * *Helena
 * *Louis (b. 1848)
 * *Francis
 * *Ernest
 * *Daniel
 * *Charles (of Hoole, d. 1900, no issue)
 * *Christopher
 * *Henry

Sir Thomas Browne
In his own words (omitting his part in Witch Trials):


 * "..I was born in St Michael's Cheap in London, went to school at Winchester College, then went to Oxford, spent some years in foreign parts, was admitted to be a Socius Honorarius of the College of Physicians in London, Knighted September 1671, when the King Charles II, the Queen and Court came to Norwich. Writ Religio Medici in English, which was since translated into Latin, French, Italian, High and Low Dutch, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, or Enquiries into Common and Vulgar Errors translated into Dutch four or five years ago. Hydriotaphia, or Urn Buriall. Hortus Cyri, or de Quincunce. Have some miscellaneous tracts which may be published.."

Early Years
Sir Thomas Browne was born in 1605, the third year of James I and just a few years before the publication of "Novum Organum" by Francis Bacon. The title of Bacon's work is a reference to Aristotle's work Organon, which was his treatise on logic and syllogism. In Novum Organum, Bacon details a new system of logic he believes to be superior to the old ways of syllogism and sets the scene for science to develop various methodologies, because he made the case against older Aristotelian approaches to science, arguing that method was needed because of the natural biases and weaknesses of the human mind, including the natural bias it has to seek metaphysical explanations which are not based on real observations. As will be seen, Browne did not entirely abandon the superstitions of earlier days: the believed in astrology and gave evidence before at least one witch trial. However he stands on the cusp of the "age of reason" when "free rational inquiry" superceeded religion and other forms of dogma.

Browne’s father, Thomas, had come in early manhood from Chester to London, where he was a mercer, or silk merchant. According to the most prevalent version, here he married Anne Garroway of Acton, Middlesex and they lived in comfortable circumstances with their son and four daughters. In the "Pedigree of Sir Thomas Browne" (see link below) a different version is given:


 * "The mother of Sir Thomas Browne was Anne, daughter of Powle Garraway of Lewes. She was married to Thomas Browne, mercer, of the parish of St. Michael-le-Querne, Cheapside, before 1605, in which year Sir Thomas was born. He was the youngest of four children — two sons and two daughters."

Browne himself is the only source for his mother having lived in Lewes, and does not help matters: writing to son Edward in the last winter of his life, Browne remembers "being carried to his grandfather's house in Lewys". This has been taken to suggest that his mother was born there, although it could equally mean that his grandfather moved there later.

Education
The senior Browne died when his son was eight years old, but apparently left sufficient means for his education. Accordingly, the boy was sent to Winchester College in 1615. William of Wykeham’s famous school (set up to educate "poor" sons of the lower gentry) was Anglican and Royalist, and provided a sound classical education that was a good foundation for the erudition acquired by Browne in later years. He remained at Winchester for eight years, until, in 1623, he proceeded to Oxford. After failing to get into New College following what may well have been aa rigged examination, he matriculated at Broadgates Hall, which soon afterward was upgraded to become Pembroke College. Browne, although only a freshman, was called upon (August 1624) to deliver a Latin oration at the inauguration ceremony.

Winchester would have afforded the boy little or no opportunity for study of the natural sciences (until the 1860s the predominant subject of instruction for Wykamites was classics), so it was probably during the school holidays that he began to acquire his knowledge of natural history.

At Oxford a chair of anatomy was just being established (the Chair of the Tomlins Readership in Anatomy was founded 1624) in addition to several other chairs of physical sciences. Browne’s teachers included Dr. Clayton, an anatomist and Regius professor of medicine, and Dr. Thomas Lushington, a mathematician and clergyman (and so fond of a drink that he eventually became the original "lush"). Clayton’s influence directed Browne’s attention to the study of medicine and human anatomy, but this could not begin seriously until he had taken his M.A. in philosophy in 1629.

Travels
He then left Oxford and spent some weeks in Ireland with his stepfather, Sir Thomas Dutton (a member of the Cheshire Duttons), before proceeding to Montpellier for full training in medicine. On his journey to see his stepfather (or his return) he may well have visited Chester - the Duttons of course had relatives here, and it was a principal port for the voyage to Ireland. Confirmation that he did visit Chester (on his return from Ireland) comes from a poem (in two versions) written by Browne, about his experiences of the stormy seas between Dublin and Chester. Writing to his daughter Elizabeth in September 1681, Browne includes a copy of the poem and recalls:


 * "I came once from Dublin to Chester at Michaelmas and was so tossed, that nothing but milk and possets would goe down me 2 or 3 days after.."

He might even have met somewhat tragic brothers Thomas and Richard Browne in Chester. The truly remarkable thing about the poem ("A tempest at sea") - said to be annotated: "at the Crowe Inne in Chester at his Coming from Ireland" - is that it has the same metrical structure as "Those in Peril on the Sea" (more properly known as "Eternal Father, Strong to Save"):


 * "In vayne we do the Pilot coart / the bottome of the sea's our port / no Anckers in the sea wee cast; / Our Ancker is in heaven fast. / our only hopes on him wee Laye / to whom both Seas and winds obeye."

An inn caled "The Sign of the Crow" existed in Chester from s first mention in 1580, until it became "The Royal Oak" by 1703. The pub (at 44 Foregate Street) sadly closed down in the 1980s and later became a branch of the electrical retailers Dixon's, and then Curry's, which in turn closed in 2009: it is now a health food store.

It is not known how long Browne remained in France, but his travels in several European countries cannot have occupied less than four years. He probably spent some time in Padua, but his final goal was Leiden, where he defended his thesis and received his M.D. in December 1633. During these travels he studied many subjects besides medicine, absorbing information of all kinds and acquiring knowledge of several modern languages.

Apprentice
English regulations required a medical man with a foreign degree to practice for four years with an established doctor before being allowed to have his M.D. by incorporation at Oxford or Cambridge. It is probable that Browne spent these years of apprenticeship somewhere in Oxfordshire, but no details are known. He took his M.D. at Oxford on 10 July 1637 and was then, at the age of thirty-two, free to practice anywhere that he chose. It was during these four years that Browne wrote his most famous book, Religio medici, which was not published until 1642.

Influenced, it is believed, by his former tutor at Oxford Dr. Lushington (who was the Rector of Burnham Westgate in Norfolk), Browne moved in 1637 to the East Anglia city of Norwich and established himself there as a physician.

In Norfolk he was largely shielded from the ongoing Civil War. The county supported Parliament, although there was a strong element of Royalist support. The defences of Norwich and the main ports were strengthened and in December 1642 the Eastern Association was formed to place the region on a war footing, but little blood was shed in Norfolk, which was held by Parliament throughout the war.



Married Life
In 1641 he married Dorothy Mileham, from the neighboring village of Burlingham. They had twelve children, only four of whom survived their parents. Keynes writes of Browne's life at this time:


 * "It is not known where they lived from 1643 to 1650, but it is certain that at this last date they were resident in the parish of St. Peter Mancroft in a large house at the south end of the Market Place facing the Haymarket, the side forming part of Orford Place. This fine house with its moulded ceilings and oak panelling was destroyed in 1845, the only remaining relic being th emagnificent carved-oak fireplace and overmantel with great onyx bosses in panels on either side. This object,now preserved in the Castle Museum, suggests a fairly sumptuous mode of life, and we may be sure that Browne enjoyed the rewards of a large private practice, no doubt conducted mostly on horseback, but perhaps going by coach for the longer journeys."

Edward, the eldest son, became a well-known physician in London and was president of the College of Physicians in 1704.

Browne was knighted in 1671 by King Charles II, who was visiting Norwich and wished to honor its most distinguished citizen. The courtier John Evelyn, who had occasionally corresponded with Browne, took good use of the royal visit to call upon "the learned doctor" of European fame and wrote of his visit, "His whole house and garden is a paradise and Cabinet of rarities and that of the best collection, amongst Medails, books, Plants, natural things". At the same time or shortly thereafter, Charles visited Browne's home. A banquet was held in St Andrew's Hall for the royal visit. Obliged to honour a notable local, the name of the Mayor of Norwich was proposed to the King for knighthood. The Mayor, however, declined the honour and proposed Browne's name instead.

Works
Browne’s Religio medici describes the religion and philosophy of a tolerant, humorous, and latitudinarian mind. He did not, however, expose in it much of his attitude toward the rapidly expanding world of science. Yet throughout his apprenticeship and first years in Norwich he must have been reading widely in travel, philosophy, medicine, and science, and compiling the notebooks from which he quarried his next, very long book, Pseudodoxia epidemica: or, Enquiries Into Very Many Received Tenents, And Commonly Presumed Truths (1646). In this he sought to dispel popular ignorance about many matters in history, folklore, philology, science, medicine, natural history, and embryology. He was, thus, to be designated an “enquirer after truth” rather than a “scientist” (a term not yet invented), his field of inquiry being as wide as all human knowledge. He accepted the authority of William Harvey, one of the first great experimental scientists, and told a young correspondent: “Be sure you make yourself master of Dr. Harvey’s piece, De circulatione sanguinis, which discovery I prefer to that of Columbus.”



Browne conducted many experiments in physics, electricity (a word of his own coining), biology, and comparative anatomy, dissecting animals, birds, fishes, reptiles, worms, and insects. He became an acknowledged authority on the plants, animals, birds, and fishes of East Anglia. Many of his experiments are mentioned in his Pseudodoxia epidemica and his letters. Others, such as investigations of bubbles, and of coagulation, freezing, and other properties of matter remained in the privacy of his notebooks.

He was deeply interested in archaeology; one of his most famous books was Hydriotaphia, or, Urneburiall (1658), occasioned by the discovery of some supposed Roman (really Saxon) burial urns near Norwich. He corresponded with other eminent antiquaries, such as Sir William Dugdale, Elias Ashmole, and John Aubrey. With these manifold interests and occupations, it is not surprising that Browne is remembered as a learned man and a literary artist rather than for any important contributions to contemporary science. His qualities served to foster a general interest in science and, above all, to illuminate thought by truth concerning the material world. Yet Hydriotaphia is about far more than science, as it wanders frequently into metaphysical speculation and commentary:


 * "But man is a Noble Animal, splendid in ashes, and pompous in the grave, solemnizing Nativities and Deaths with equal lustre, nor omitting Ceremonies of Bravery, in the infamy of his nature. Life is a pure flame, and we live by an invisible Sun within us."

Throughout his active life Browne lived on the fringe of the scientific world. His profession was medicine; his hobbies were science and natural history. He was an earnest amateur and never, as far as is known, left Norfolk for London. He was elected a fellow of the College of Physicians, but was never a fellow of the Royal Society of London, nor did he betray any desire for this kind of recognition. His elaborate and highly latinized prose style was very different from the much more austere style deliberately adopted by the fellows of the Royal Society. He was content to correspond with various fellows, such as Henry Oldenburg (secretary of the Society), John Ray, Christopher Merrett, and the diarist John Evelyn, and occasionally to send communications through his son Edward.

Superstition
In Religio Medici, Browne confirmed his belief, in accordance with the vast majority of seventeenth century European society, in the existence of angels and witchcraft. Similarly he believed in Astrology. He attended the 1662 Bury St Edmunds witch trial, where his citation of a similar trial in Denmark may have influenced the jury's minds of the guilt of two accused women. He also testified that:


 * "the young girls accusing Rose Cullender and Amy Denny were afflicted with organic problems, but that they undoubtedly also had been bewitched"

The two elderly defendents were subsequently executed for witchcraft. This case became a model for, and was referenced in, the Salem Witch Trials in Massachusetts, when the magistrates were looking for proof that "spectral evidence" could be used in a court of law. The original pamphlet "A Tryal of Witches", taken from a contemporary report of the Bury St Edmunds proceedings is mentioned by John Hale (whose wife was accused at Salem) in his publication, Modest Inquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft, which noted how the judges consulted for precedents and lists the 60-page publication "A Tryal of Witches".

Death


Browne died on 19 October 1682 and was buried in the chancel of St Peter Mancroft, Norwich. His skull was removed when his lead coffin was accidentally re-opened by workmen in 1840. It was not re-interred in St Peter Mancroft until 4 July 1922 when it was recorded in the burial register as aged 317 years. Browne's coffin plate, which was stolen the same time as his skull, was also eventually recovered, broken into two halves, one of which is on display at St Peter Mancroft. Alluding to the commonplace opus of alchemy it reads:


 * "Amplissimus Vir Dns. Thomas Browne, Miles, Medicinae Dr., Annos Natus 77 Denatus 19 Die mensis Octobris, Anno. Dni. 1682, hoc Loculo indormiens. Corporis Spagyrici pulvere plumbum in aurum Convertit." — translated from Latin as "The esteemed Gentleman Thomas Browne, Knight, Doctor of Medicine, 77 years old, died on the 19th of October in the year of Our Lord 1682 and lies sleeping in this coffin. With the dust of the alchemical body he converts lead into gold".

Brownes skull was presented to the Museum of the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital - where it remained until 1922 when, after a number of casts were taken, it was returned to his grave in St. Peter Mancroft. Ironically, Browne wrote: 'to be gnawed out of our graves, to have our skulls made drinking bowls and our bones turned into pipes is a Tragical abomination'. Little did he know that this would be his own fate. Worse was to come, in 2012 a sculpture of his brain was installed near the place of Browne’s internment.

Legacy
Sir Thomas Browne had, in total, forty children and grand-children, yet within twenty-eight years of his decease the male line had become extinct; and of the third generation, none survived their infancy, excepting in the family of his second daughter, Anne, of whose eight children none left any descendants, except the third daughter, Frances Fairfax, who had married the Earl of Buchan.

Browne appears at No. 69 in the Oxford English Dictionary's list of top cited sources. He has 775 entries in the OED of first usage of a word, is quoted in a total of 4131 entries of first evidence of a word, and is quoted 1596 times as first evidence of a particular meaning of a word. Examples of his coinages, many of which are of a scientific or medical nature, include 'ambidextrous', 'antediluvian', 'analogous', 'approximate', 'ascetic', 'anomalous', 'carnivorous', 'coexistence', 'coma', 'compensate', 'computer', 'cryptography', 'cylindrical', 'disruption','ergotisms', 'electricity', 'exhaustion', 'ferocious', 'follicle', 'generator', 'gymnastic', 'hallucination', 'herbaceous', 'holocaust', 'insecurity', 'indigenous', 'jocularity', 'literary', 'locomotion', 'medical', 'migrant', 'mucous', 'prairie', 'prostate', 'polarity', 'precocious', 'pubescent', 'therapeutic', 'suicide', 'ulterior', 'ultimate' and 'veterinarian'.

After his death on 19 October 1682 and following the death of his wife and sole executrix, Lady Dorothy Browne, on 24 February 1684/5, Browne's papers and library passed to his eldest surviving son, Dr Edward Browne (1644-1708). Following the latter's death, they passed to Sir Thomas's grandson, Dr Thomas Browne, who died in 1710. Certain members of the Browne family then took the decision to sell off the collections by auction in 1710. As for Sir Thomas's library, over 2,300 lots (amounting to nearly 2,900 volumes, in various languages) ‘Of the Libraries of the Learned Sir Thomas Brown, and Dr. Edward Brown, his Son’ were offered for sale by the London bookseller Thomas Ballard in an auction beginning on 8 January 1710.

Related Articles

 * Upton;
 * Hoole;
 * 1883 Reform Act

Sources and Links

 * Earwaker, 'History of the Church and Parish of St. Mary-on-the-Hill, Chester,' completed by Dr. R. H. Morris, 1898;
 * Gleggs of Wirral;
 * A Thomas Browne page - has links to the full texts of many of his works and of early biographies;
 * Barbour, "Sir Thomas Browne, A life" - Browne's life and works in detail;
 * The pedigree of Sir Thomas Browne by Williams, Charles, 1827-1907;
 * Calalog of English Literary Manuscripts 1450-1700 Sir Thomas Brown;
 * Sir Geoffrey Keynes on Browne - short, informative and at times amusing;
 * Death of Charles Brown - 1900;
 * Death of William Brown - 1900;
 * Thomas Browne as alchemist;
 * Quotes from Thomas Browne;
 * Thomas Brownes Skull;
 * The New Yorker on Browne;