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Richard would be a little known Non-conformist English farmer and Quaker activist if it weren't for two of his sons, James and William, emigrating to the Province of Pennsylvania in America, becoming Gateway Ancestors and in turn, spawning a huge interest among their descendants in the early Pennsylvania settlements. James left England in 1677 and William, sometime around 1682/4.[1] Richard did not live to know of their sea voyages nor that accounts of his spiritual life would be preserved by his descendants and disseminated around the globe for centuries to come. The stories William Brown had told in the new settlement in America over the years, were recounted by his great-nephew, some forty years after his death and placed in the minutes of the East Nottingham Quaker Meeting in 1786, for posterity.[2] That account from the Quaker minutes forms the beginning of Gilbert Cope's book, The Browns of Nottingham and is freely accessible to read online.[3] It's been helpful for historians over the centuries who were able to build upon the biography of Richard Browne and his family despite a dearth of primary sources. It contains small details of life in 17th Century England, anecdotes of early hardship during a terrible time of religious persecution, and confirms with unique closeness, the impact prominent Quaker William Dewsbury had upon the later immigration to America.
It is believed that Richard was born in Leicestershire, England. Two handwritten death entries exist in Northamptonshire Quaker minutes, the later from the Northampton Quarterly Meeting that reads;
Richard then, was from Boasworth, or Bosworth, and in keeping with his occupation and station in English life, more likely from Husbands Bosworth, a small village located close to the border of Northamptonshire and only 15 miles from Wellingborough.[5] The village name was derived from the surname Bar and until the early 17thC, about the time Richard was born, it was known variously as Boresworth, Borisworth and Baresworth. The prefix was added to further identify it as the smaller, husbandmen's Bosworth as opposed to the larger, historically famous market-town of Bosworth.
Richard's wife's birth, marriage and death details are currently unknown and we only have references to her first name, Margery, on the birth entries of her two youngest children, from the Northamptonshire Quarterly Meeting. Based on their births and the births of their older siblings, it's assumed Richard married in the early 1640s and was born around 1620.
Margery's name on the two existing birth entries was often mistranscribed by historians and researchers over the centuries, not just the years, and pivotal errors crept into many Brown family trees. Her name was fumbled on William's entry as it was written into the Northampton Quarterly Meeting record.[6] [7] It was recorded as Mary by earlier historians and incorrectly affirmed as such by later ones, and she eventually became confused with Mary (Master) Browne of Cirencester, daughter of a Knight who married Richard Browne Esq., a Gloucestershire member of the landed Gentry, in 1651.[8]
According to the stories of William Brown, Richard had nine children, seven sons and two daughters of which William was supposed to have been the youngest but we know that Jeremiah was born after him, in 1660.[9] The account is confirmed not to be entirely correct in all detail. Given that William was only four at the time of his father's death, so one of the youngest children, it should be considered that some of the events figuring in William's stories occurred before he was born when the family may have lived in another parish or district. This likely possibility means that research into the birth records of Richard's older children will be more difficult to confirm, especially if Margery was his second wife. We can deduce that closer to Richard's death though, the family lived on a farm located nearer to Wellingborough than to Northampton because of the location of the Meetinghouse at which the births of his younger children were registered. Later mentions of possible family members refer to some of them as being of Puddington which does conform with the detail from the East Nottingham account where it states;
Puddington, now Podington, was part of the district of Wellingborough in Northamptonshire but is now part of Bedfordshire.
The East Nottingham record in Pennsylvania suggests that the Browne patriarch, Richard, was first drawn to Baptism and Puritanism until being convinced as a Quaker in 1654 by William Dewsbury, a leading preacher of the Religious Society of Friends in England.
In 1654 Dewsbury toured the Eastern Midland counties of Leicestershire, Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire, and experienced constant harassment and none more so than that in Northampton where he was falsely accused and imprisoned for six months.
It was a time of deep distrust and religious Intolerance and those not conforming to the common view of the Church of England, or refusing to pay tithes to it, were frequently persecuted, fined and jailed. In records of Defendants at the High Sheriff Assizes of 1667 and 1668 - several years after Richard has died - we find the names of quaker Brownes who were most likely his sons and widowed daughter-in-law.
Richard was a yeoman farmer, and maybe a husbandman, who was portrayed by his son as a man whose religious convictions led to loss of property and esteem but who eventually found a new farm to work where his reputation was regained. William's stories have helped to flesh out Richard's place in rural England, namely, that he had rented a farmhouse and land, alongside other renters, on the fringes perhaps of an Estate;
The story continues, Richard hadn't required a receipt the last time he paid the steward. The embittered landlord asked for proof of his payment trying to provoke the newly convinced Quaker into swearing an oath, something the Quakers were adamantly opposed to. Richard would not swear to it so he was forced to pay his rent twice and was also turned off his farmland. It was difficult for him to find another property given the circumstances but when he did, he prospered there.
The persecution of Quakers didn't let up until the Act of Tolerance was approved in 1689. It was no wonder America called Richard's sons. It was suggested by historian Rufus M. Jones though, that in addition to purely religious reasons, an entirely practical reason also existed for Quaker yeomen to emigrate. In his book, The Quakers in the American Colonies, he points out that Penn pre-sold land in the Colony at affordable prices, "[enabling] many a poor English renter to become a landowner in Pennsylvania". [13]
We don't know how Richard worked his farm, that is, whether he kept livestock or planted crops but we do know from early American sources that his son James was a weaver and William was a maltster.[14] From the later assize records, Jeremiah Browne of Barford - a possible son- was a shoemaker while Daniel Browne of Puddington was a yeoman. The skills that James and William put to good use when pioneering the Nottingham lots in America - cropping, milling, carpentry, animal husbandry - were no doubt gained from the rural environment in which they were raised. In addition to farming, Richard was described in the East Nottingham account as an "approved minister". While this has yet to be confirmed through English Quaker minutes, we might assume he was literate, like his sons, and able to read and reflect upon Quaker texts and scripture, and in this sense, was considered active in the role of ministering by way of giving advice and sharing insight within a religious community.
Shortly before Richard died, he shared with his wife a prophecy that she would live to see all their children grow and prosper and that they would all remain in the faith, which they did.
Richard Browne died in 1662. The correct date was the 8th of November, as recorded by the Wellingborough Monthly Meeting.[4]
19th Century Historian George Johnston wrote of Richard's Quaker descendants in America;
In simple terms, Richard's legacy lay in the Quaker values he imbued in his offspring, one of whom spoke often about his father to younger generations of Quakers who were born in America. Richard thus became venerated by those younger generations, and for all the Brownes at least, he represented the very beginning of their particular Quaker lineage. The stories that were chosen to be included in the account placed on the Pennsylvania Quaker record in 1786 supported the design that it be a, "profitable Memorandum concerning the pious Ancestors of many living in [those] parts."[3] It's an age-old consequence of celebrating longevity and achievement, and more so perhaps for pioneers, that they looked back to a distant point in history to measure the long road from their humble beginnings. On this occasion Richard, their earliest Quaker ancestor, was that distant point and an exemplar of the Quaker values that were most revered by the Pennsylvanian communities at that time.
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Richard is 22 degrees from Herbert Adair, 22 degrees from Richard Adams, 16 degrees from Mel Blanc, 24 degrees from Dick Bruna, 18 degrees from Bunny DeBarge, 32 degrees from Peter Dinklage, 17 degrees from Sam Edwards, 13 degrees from Ginnifer Goodwin, 18 degrees from Marty Krofft, 13 degrees from Junius Matthews, 13 degrees from Rachel Mellon and 18 degrees from Harold Warstler on our single family tree. Login to find your connection.
Categories: Wellingborough Monthly Meeting, Northamptonshire
Would there be benefit in both projects managing both profiles?
Richard died a Quaker in England but he wasn't born one. There are 3 counties in which to find yeoman/farming & probate records - Leicestershire, Northamptonshire & Bedfordshire. The profiles lack births/baptism/marriage records and death/probate dox for both, sufficient to confirm the cohesion of their relationships.
In regards to English Quaker sources on their profiles, more of a picture is needed to flesh out their shared lives through the 17thC English Quaker milieu, and to substantiate facts referred to in the Pennsylvanian Quaker record of son, William.
I also oppose detaching children historically noted as this couple's children without more cause than lack of a proper birth certificate unless some member can state categorically that they did local research in England and failed to find them.