Author: Browne, William
Biography:
BROWNE, William (1692-1774: ODNB)
Baptised on 6 Jan. 1691/2 at St. Oswald’s, Durham, he was the second son of William Browne, a medical doctor, and his wife Martha Fenwick. They had married on 26 Dec. 1682 at Hexham, Northumberland. He was educated in Durham and matriculated at Peterhouse College, Cambridge, in 1707 (BA 1710, MA 1714, MD 1721). He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1726 and subsequently served the college in various roles including president. In 1739 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society. He practiced in Lynn, Norfolk, from 1716 to 1749 and he married Mary Greene there. Although no record has been located, Browne’s will states that at her death on 25 July 1763 they had been married for 45 years; this would give a marriage year of 1718. They had one surviving daughter, Mary (later Folkes) who was born in about 1730. In 1748 he was knighted. He moved to London in 1749 where he was known as an eccentric: Samuel Foote caricatured him in his play satirising the medical profession, The Devil on Two Sticks (1768), but Browne took it in good humour. He died at his home on Queen’s Square, Bloomsbury, on 10 Mar. 1774. His elaborately detailed will directs that he should be buried near his wife in Hillington, Norfolk. While his daughter and her son inherited his many properties and assets, he left bequests to servants and a scholarship, three gold medals, and a silver gilt cup to Peterhouse College. The silver cup is still in use on special occasions at the college which in 2016 purchased Thomas Hudson’s portrait of Browne. (ODNB 7 Sept. 2023; ancestry.co.uk 7 Sept. 2023; ACAD; Peterhouse 17 [2015-16]; National Archives [UK] PROB 11/996/278)
Other Names:
- Gulielmus Browne
- Sir William Browne