Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 07.djvu/88

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Browning
82
Brownlow

lations) were published in the ‘Athenæum’ in 1842. 11. ‘Selections from Poems by E. B. Browning,’ edited by Robert Browning, first series, 12mo, 1866, reprinted in Tauchnitz series. 12. ‘Selections,’ &c., second series, 12mo, 1880. 13. 'Lady Geraldine's Courtship,' illustrated by Barton, 1876. 14. 'Rhyme of the Duchess May,' illustrated by M. B. Morrell, 1873. There are many American editions and selections.

[Personal information from Miss Browning, Lady Carmichael, and Mr. J. Dykes Campbell (secretary of the Browning Society); Horne's Letters of E. B. Browning, ed. Stoddard; Miss Mitford's Recollections of a Literary Life; British Encyclopædia, art 'Browning;' Macmillan's Magazine, vol. iv.: Quarterly Review, 1840; Biographie Générale, parts i. and ii.; Bayne's Two Great Englishwomen; Forster's and Colvin's Lives of Landor; Revue Littéraire, art. by Leo Quesnel on Mrs. Browning; Field's Yesterdays with Authors; Ireland's Bibliography of Leigh Hunt; Leigh Hunt's Correspondence, ii. 264; Mrs. Jameson's Memoirs; Browning Society's Papers, Nos. 1 and 2.]

A. R.


BROWNING, JOHN (fl. 1584), divine, matriculated as a sizar at Trinity College, Cambridge, on 14 Nov. 1658, and was afterwards elected to a scholarship and a fellowship. He proceeded B.A. 1562–8, M.A. 1566, and B.D. 1577. He opposed the adoption of the new university statutes of 1572. At the close of the same year he was charged before Dr. Whitgift, deputy vice-chancellor, and the heads of houses, with preaching the Novatian heresy at St. Mary's, and was ordered to abstain from preaching for a time. But he disobeyed the order, and was committed by the vice-chancellor to the Tolbooth on 27 Jan. 1572–3. In February he was released on giving sureties to abstain from preaching until he had come up for further examination. He afterwards sent to Lord Burghley (17 March 1572–3) a formal confession of his errors. Burghley forwarded the confession to the vice-chancellor, with a warning that steps should be taken to see that Browning acted up to his professions of conformity. On 8 July 1580 Browning was created D.D. at Oxford. Dr. Still, master of Trinity College, Cambridge, complained to Lord Burghley that Browning's standing did not permit him to receive the degree; but on 8 Dec. 1581 Still signed the grace by which Browning was incorporated D.D. of Cambridge. On 7 Sept. 1584 Browning, as vice-master of the college, issued an order suspending Still, the master, from his office, on the ground that he had married, contrary to his oath, that he had broken many college statutes, and had wasted the college resources. Still replied by ejecting Browning from his fellowship; but Browning refused to leave, and had to be dragged from his rooms by force. Browning had been chaplain in earlier years to Francis, earl of Bedford, and the earl appealed to Burghley to restore Browning to his fellowship, insisting on 'his sufficiency in the sounde prechinge of the trueth,' and his 'godly conversacion.' But nothing is known of the result of this appeal, or of Browning's subsequent career.

Another John Browning was rector of Easton Parva, Essex, from 22 April 1634 till 1639, and of Easton Magna from 9 Nov. 1639. He was the author of 'Concerning Publike Prayer and the Fasts of the Church: six sermons and tractates,' 2 parts, London, 1636 (Newcourt, Diocese of London; Brit. Mus. Cat.)

[Cooper's Athenæ Cantab, ii. 239; Wood's Fasti (Bliss), i. 216; Strype's Annals, ii. i. 278–81; Strype's Whitgift, i. 98; Strype's Parker, ii. 195–7; Hist MSS. Comm. 4th Rep. 214.]

S. L. L.


BROWNLOW, RICHARD (1553–1638), chief prothonotary of the court of common pleas, was the son of John Brownlow of High Holborn, by a daughter of Sir John Zouch of Stoughton Grange, Leicestershire. He was born 2 April 1553, and baptised 12 April at St. Andrew's, Holborn. In 1583 he was entered at the Inner Temple, and was treasurer of that society in 1606. On 9 Oct. 1591 he was made chief prothonotary of the court of common pleas, which office he continued to hold until his death, deriving from it an annual profit of 6,000l., with which he purchased the reversion of the estate of Belton, near Grantham, and other properties in Lincolnshire. He married Katherine, daughter of John Page of Wembly, Middlesex, one of the first governors of Harrow School, and by her had three sons and three daughters. He died at Enfield on 21 July 1638 in his eighty-sixth year; his bowels were buried in Enfield church, but his body was carried to Belton, and buried 1 Aug. in the church there, where there is a figure of him in his prothonotary's gown surmounting his monument. A portrait in similar dress is preserved at Belton House, and was engraved by Thomas Cross as frontispiece to his works. His will is dated 1 Jan. 1637–8, and was proved 8 Aug. 1638 by his two sons, John and William Brownlow, who were both created baronets, the latter being the ancestor of John Brownlow, viscount Tyrconnel, whose sister married Sir Richard Cust, bart., the ancestor of the present Earl Brownlow. A street in Holborn still bears the name. After his death various