Powys-Lybbe Forbears - Person Sheet
Powys-Lybbe Forbears - Person Sheet
NameJohn Browne 
[158, p. 13], [54, His own article], [56, Surrey of 1662-8, pub Harleian 1910, Browne p. 17]
[158, p. 13], [54, His own article], [56, Surrey of 1662-8, pub Harleian 1910, Browne p. 17]Birthca 1590
Death1655
GeneralIronmaster. Of Brenchley & Horsmonden, Kent.
FatherThomas Browne (->1609)
MotherAnn
Spouses
Marriage24 Oct 1616, Brenchley [100, Adrian Channing “OT Elizabeth Browne”, 5 Mar 2006]
ChildrenGeorge (-1675)
DNB Main notes for John Browne
Browne, John c.1590-1651
Name: Browne, John
Dates: c.1590-1651
Active Date: 1630
Gender: Male
Field of Interest: Miscellaneous
Occupation: Royal gun-founder and patentee
Place of
Birth: Chiddingstone, Kent
Burial: Horsmonden
Spouse: Martha, daughter of Henry Tilden, Elizabeth, daughter of Lancelot Bathurst
Sources: Browne MSS (West Kent archives); State Papers, Domestic (Public Record...
Contributor: Michael Zell
Article
Browne, John c.1590-1651, royal gun-founder and patentee, was born in Chiddingstone, Kent, about 1590, the son of Thomas Browne, founder of iron ordnance to Queen Elizabeth I and James I. He joined his father’s thriving business, although not apprenticed in ironmaking, and took over Thomas’s patent in 1615. The Brownes cast iron ordnance for both the Crown and private merchants, and exported guns when permitted by the Crown.
John Browne supplied ordnance to the Dutch until 1619, at which time he employed 200 men at ironworks in Brenchley and Horsmonden, Kent. Half of his production was exported, and from 1618 to 1621 he also cast cannon for Spain. In 1621 his domestic sales were cut sharply by a patent issued to Sir Sackville Crowe [q.v.] to supply ordnance to all English merchants. The rival patentees quarrelled for over a decade, taking the fight to Parliament in 1624. Crowe sub-contracted half his sales to Browne in 1626 and finally resigned his patent in 1635. From the mid-1620s Browne developed new, lighter, iron cannon. These ‘turned’ guns (or drakes) weighed a third less than conventional iron cannon and were intended to replace the costlier (but lighter) bronze guns on ships.
The tempo of Browne’s gun-founding business followed the cycles of peace and war from the 1620s to the 1640s. A stagnant market and trade rivalries in the early 1620s were followed by expansion in the later 1620s (between 1625 and 1629 Browne’s sales to the Crown were over £4,300 per annum), and then another slow period in the early 1630s. Renewed efforts to sell ordnance in the Netherlands, from 1629, met with intense competition from Swedish suppliers and resulted in substantial losses, including the £12,000 Browne paid the king for the licence. But within a few years Browne’s fortunes were restored: he acquired monopolies of the manufacture and sales of both iron and bronze ordnance, as well as iron pots, kettles, chimney backs, and iron weights ‘in the French manner’. The Crown renewed purchases of bronze and iron naval guns, and the ordnance market expanded further with the Scottish rebellion of 1639-40 and the outbreak of civil war in 1642. Browne, the king’s gun-founder, became Parliament’s gun-founder. His business grew as Parliament gave him control of a number of ironworks, including the former royal ironworks in the Forest of Dean.
Browne’s prosperity and monopolies were only once endangered, in 1645, when an intercepted letter named him as a Royalist sympathizer. He and his son John protested their innocence to a Parliamentary committee, and nothing could be proved against them. When, in 1651, the Rump ordered guns from a former employee of his, Browne delivered an emotional remonstrance to the House of Commons: the state’s security, he claimed, depended upon a single gun-founder; his enterprise employed a ‘stock’ of £30,000, had overheads of at least £4,000 per annum, and had to be kept busy.
Browne resided in Brenchley from about 1615 to 1635, then in Horsmonden. His stock in trade was valued at £16,000 in c.1650. Browne married Martha, daughter of Henry Tilden, gentleman, in 1616. They had a daughter and three sons. After Martha’s death in 1644 Browne married Elizabeth, daughter of Lancelot Bathurst, alderman of London. His will, made 15 May 1651, included cash legacies totalling £14,000, and named his son George and his son-in-law Thomas Foley [q.v.] as executors. He was buried in Horsmonden 13 June 1651.
Sources
Browne MSS (West Kent archives); State Papers, Domestic (Public Record Office); Brenchley and Horsmonden parish registers; H. Cleere and D. Crossley, The Iron Industry of the Weald, 1985.
Contributor: Michael Zell
published 1993
Name: Browne, John
Dates: c.1590-1651
Active Date: 1630
Gender: Male
Field of Interest: Miscellaneous
Occupation: Royal gun-founder and patentee
Place of
Birth: Chiddingstone, Kent
Burial: Horsmonden
Spouse: Martha, daughter of Henry Tilden, Elizabeth, daughter of Lancelot Bathurst
Sources: Browne MSS (West Kent archives); State Papers, Domestic (Public Record...
Contributor: Michael Zell
Article
Browne, John c.1590-1651, royal gun-founder and patentee, was born in Chiddingstone, Kent, about 1590, the son of Thomas Browne, founder of iron ordnance to Queen Elizabeth I and James I. He joined his father’s thriving business, although not apprenticed in ironmaking, and took over Thomas’s patent in 1615. The Brownes cast iron ordnance for both the Crown and private merchants, and exported guns when permitted by the Crown.
John Browne supplied ordnance to the Dutch until 1619, at which time he employed 200 men at ironworks in Brenchley and Horsmonden, Kent. Half of his production was exported, and from 1618 to 1621 he also cast cannon for Spain. In 1621 his domestic sales were cut sharply by a patent issued to Sir Sackville Crowe [q.v.] to supply ordnance to all English merchants. The rival patentees quarrelled for over a decade, taking the fight to Parliament in 1624. Crowe sub-contracted half his sales to Browne in 1626 and finally resigned his patent in 1635. From the mid-1620s Browne developed new, lighter, iron cannon. These ‘turned’ guns (or drakes) weighed a third less than conventional iron cannon and were intended to replace the costlier (but lighter) bronze guns on ships.
The tempo of Browne’s gun-founding business followed the cycles of peace and war from the 1620s to the 1640s. A stagnant market and trade rivalries in the early 1620s were followed by expansion in the later 1620s (between 1625 and 1629 Browne’s sales to the Crown were over £4,300 per annum), and then another slow period in the early 1630s. Renewed efforts to sell ordnance in the Netherlands, from 1629, met with intense competition from Swedish suppliers and resulted in substantial losses, including the £12,000 Browne paid the king for the licence. But within a few years Browne’s fortunes were restored: he acquired monopolies of the manufacture and sales of both iron and bronze ordnance, as well as iron pots, kettles, chimney backs, and iron weights ‘in the French manner’. The Crown renewed purchases of bronze and iron naval guns, and the ordnance market expanded further with the Scottish rebellion of 1639-40 and the outbreak of civil war in 1642. Browne, the king’s gun-founder, became Parliament’s gun-founder. His business grew as Parliament gave him control of a number of ironworks, including the former royal ironworks in the Forest of Dean.
Browne’s prosperity and monopolies were only once endangered, in 1645, when an intercepted letter named him as a Royalist sympathizer. He and his son John protested their innocence to a Parliamentary committee, and nothing could be proved against them. When, in 1651, the Rump ordered guns from a former employee of his, Browne delivered an emotional remonstrance to the House of Commons: the state’s security, he claimed, depended upon a single gun-founder; his enterprise employed a ‘stock’ of £30,000, had overheads of at least £4,000 per annum, and had to be kept busy.
Browne resided in Brenchley from about 1615 to 1635, then in Horsmonden. His stock in trade was valued at £16,000 in c.1650. Browne married Martha, daughter of Henry Tilden, gentleman, in 1616. They had a daughter and three sons. After Martha’s death in 1644 Browne married Elizabeth, daughter of Lancelot Bathurst, alderman of London. His will, made 15 May 1651, included cash legacies totalling £14,000, and named his son George and his son-in-law Thomas Foley [q.v.] as executors. He was buried in Horsmonden 13 June 1651.
Sources
Browne MSS (West Kent archives); State Papers, Domestic (Public Record Office); Brenchley and Horsmonden parish registers; H. Cleere and D. Crossley, The Iron Industry of the Weald, 1985.
Contributor: Michael Zell
published 1993