Thomas Browne MA, MD (1605 - 1682)

Born 19 Oct 1605 in London, England

Descendants

Died 19 Oct 1682 at age 77 in Norwich, Norfolk, England

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Biography

Sir Thomas Browne was a member of the aristocracy in British Isles.

Thomas Browne MA, MD is Notable.

Lore is that the Browne family was French-Norman, and were supposed to have come to England with William the Conqueror.

The Browne family lived at Upton for several generations, "evidently people of some importance" who "intermarried with families of position in that neighbourhood", and were armigerous.

His paternal grandmother, Elizabeth, was the daughter of Henry Birkenhead, Clerk of the Green Cloth to Queen Elizabeth I and Clerk of the Crown for the counties of Cheshire and Flintshire.

Thomas Browne, Jr. was born on 19 October 1605 in St.Michael Parish, Cheapside, London, England and was the the youngest child of Ann Gannaway (daughter of Paul Gannaway or Garraway, the Lord Mayor of London) and Thomas Browne, Sr., a silk merchant who dealt in textiles, doing business at St.Michael le Quiens, in the commercial section of London, England.

His father died while he was still young, and his mother remarried to Sir Thomas Dutton (1575–1634), of Gloucester and of Isleworth, Middlesex.

After graduating M.A. from Broadgates Hall, Oxford (1629), he studied medicine privately and worked as an assistant to an Oxford doctor. He then attended the Universities of Montpellier and Padua, and in 1633 he was graduated M.D. at Leiden. His medical education in Europe also earned him incorporation as M.D. from Oxford.

In 1637 he moved to Norwich, in eastern Norfolk County, England, near the North Sea where he practiced medicine until his death.

Thomas Browne, Jr. married about 1641 to Dorothy Mileham (1621–1685). They had ten children, six of whom died before their parents.

During the English Civil War (1642–1651), he declared his support for King Charles I and received a knighthood from King Charles II in 1671.

He was the author of varied works which reveal his wide learning in diverse fields including science, religion and the esoteric. He was also known for his writing of medical books. While he seems to have had a keen intellect and was interested in many subjects, his life was outwardly uneventful.

On 14 March 1673, he sent a short autobiography to the antiquarian John Aubrey, presumably for Aubrey's collection of "Brief Lives".

Sir Thomas Browne died on his 77th birthday on 19 October 1682 and was buried at the chancel of St.Peter Mancroft in Norwich, England.

In 1840 workmen accidentally re-opened his lead coffin and his skull and coffin plate were stolen. They were eventually recovered with the coffin plate broken into two halves, one of which is on display at St.Peter Mancroft. The skull was not re-interred at St.Peter Mancroft until 04 July 1922 when it was recorded in the burial register as aged 317 years. ^[1]

The "Library of Sir Thomas Browne" was held in the care of his eldest son Edward until 1708 and their libraries were auctioned off in 1711. Editions from the library were subsequently included in the founding collection of the British Library.

Children

1. John Browne, b: 1623; occ: Capt.; d: 1702 Crownsville, Anne Arundel Co, MD
2. Peregrine Browne, b: 1625.
3. Sarah Browne, b: 20 Mar 1628; d: 03 Oct 1664 Manchester, Lancashire, England
4. Clement Browne, b: 11 Nov 1639; d: 1671 London, England; m: Mary Glebe.

Sources

1. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Browne

• http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/browne/brownebio.htm

• http://www.geni.com/people/Sir-Thomas-Browne/5070522609870039927

• https://familysearch.org/tree/#view=ancestor&person=9Z48-P76&spouse=LHZL-C7W

• Pedigree and notes of genealogist, Marie Louise Tomlinson Day, of Tulia TX in 1972

See also:

• Records of the Family of Deacon, of Kettering and London, with notices of allied families