Before my 10th great grandfather William Browne was even born his future was seemingly laid out before him. Browne men, after all, were educated at Cambridge and spent their lives serving as the rector or vicar of a parish church.
William’s grandfather, who was also named William, graduated in 1546 from Pembroke College, Cambridge and served as the Rector of Horley Parish in Surrey from 1561 until his death.
William’s father Joseph graduated from Queens’ College, Cambridge in 1583 and served as the Rector of Rusper Parish in Sussex County from 1590 until his death.
William’s uncle Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, graduated from Christ’s College, Cambridge in 1595 and served as the Vicar of Ifield Parish in Sussex County from 1596 until his death.
And, William’s younger brother Stephen, who entered Christ’s College, Cambridge at the same time as William, graduated on 26 September 1611 and was appointed the Rector of St. Michael’s Parish, Southampton, in Hampshire County in 1612.
William, the subject of this article, was baptized 5 December 1585 in St. Bartholomew's Church in Horley, Surrey County. He was the eldest son of Joseph and Margery (Patching) Browne.
William, the subject of this article, was baptized 5 December 1585 in St. Bartholomew's Church in Horley, Surrey County. He was the eldest son of Joseph and Margery (Patching) Browne.
The next record we have for William is this Cambridge Alumni record.
Browne, William.
Matric. sizar from CHRIST'S, July, 1604.
B. at Horley, Surrey. Ord. deacon (London for Winchester)
June 7, 1612, age 26. C. of Horley. ( Peile, I. 249.)
Matric. sizar from CHRIST'S, July, 1604.
B. at Horley, Surrey. Ord. deacon (London for Winchester)
June 7, 1612, age 26. C. of Horley. ( Peile, I. 249.)
From this we learn that William matriculated (was admitted) to Christ’s College as a ‘sizar’. Sizars were undergraduate students who financed their studies by undertaking more or less menial tasks within the college. As time went on, a sizar may have received small grants from the college. William’s brother Stephen also was admitted that same year as a sizar.
This provides a clear indication that William’s father Joseph was not as well off financially as his father.
The Alumni record discloses that William was ordained a deacon on 7 June 1612 at the age of 26 and that he became curate of Horley.
Their father and grandfather before them had both been admitted to Cambridge as a ‘pensioner,’ which meant that their tuition, room and board was paid for by their family.
The Alumni record discloses that William was ordained a deacon on 7 June 1612 at the age of 26 and that he became curate of Horley.
A curate was usually a young man who had recently been ordained as a deacon and who was training to become a priest. Curates were only permitted to perform certain functions within a parish and thus were required to serve under a rector or vicar.
Church records indicate that on 12 January 1613 George Medham was instituted as the Vicar of Horley Parish. Since William’s grandfather was still living at the time and still held the position of rector, this appears to indicate that William was no longer capable of performing the functions required of his position.
William's grandfather, William Browne, the Rector of Horley, died on 14 November 1613 at the age of 80.
FAMILY MAN AND SCHOOLMASTER
Prior to graduating from Cambridge, William returned home to Rusper where on 20 June 1611 he wed Jane Burgess at St. Mary Magdalene Church. Jane, the former Jane Mills, was the widow of John Burgess.
We’re able to trace the next several years of William’s life solely through the baptismal and death records for his children as found in the files of St. Magdalene Church in Rusper.
- Joseph, baptized on 8 August 8 1613 who died in March 1633 while at Christ’s College, Cambridge;
- John, baptized on 15 October 1615;
- Jane, baptized on 13 September 1618 and buried on 21 August 1620;
- Phebe, baptized on 1 October 1620;
- Mary, baptized on 6 October 1622;
- Thomas, baptized on 9 January 1625 and buried on 7 March 1646; and
- Henry, baptized on 28 December 1626.
In the papers of a descendant of William’s son Henry is a document whose text was published in the “Records and Papers of the New London County Historical Society,” Volume III, Part I, page 121, the text of which I’ve transcribed here (emphasis added):
3 Apr 1627. Mary Worffelde, widow of William Worffelde, of Rusper, Sussex Co., he late deceased, yeoman. Bound in £640--to Wm. Browne, Schoolmaster of Rusper, to faithfully administer & execute the last will & testament of William Worffelde; on her bond are Wm. Browne & William Willett of Horsham, Sussex Co., yeoman. Mentions George, Lord Bishop of Chirchester, signed in presence of Joseph Brown, John Bardine(?) and Wm. Simined(?).
From this we know that William became the schoolmaster of Rusper sometime before April 1627. Extensive research has failed to uncover additional documentation that might tell us when he became the schoolmaster.
The 1604 Canon Law very clearly spells out what was required for someone to become a schoolmaster.
Paragraph LXXVII of the Canons made it clear that the Bishop of the Diocese must first approve of a man before he would be allowed to teach either in a public or private school.
Paragraph LXXVIII dictated that a curate in a parish with the correct credentials and willingness to teach had first dibs on being granted a license to teach, unless there already existed a public school.
It seems most likely that William received approval from the Bishop of his diocese and that he was granted a license to teach during the time he was a curate. It’s unknown whether he remained a curate.
In October 1633, William’s father Joseph Browne the Rector of Rusper died. As his eldest son, William inherited the bulk of his father’s estate including his house, barn and land in Rusper.
CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS UNREST
Though Rusper was but a small parish, somewhat removed from the goings on in the King’s Court and in Parliament, its residents would not have been immune to the political and religious unrest that was unfolding around them.
Charles I ascended to the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland in 1625. His relationship with Parliament got off to a rocky start when he married a French Catholic against their wishes. They also clashed over foreign policy and over the old laws and taxes he revived without first obtaining Parliament’s agreement.
Charles also clashed with Parliament over religion. Religion was a vital part of everyday life at the time. By law, everybody was supposed to belong to the Church of England (though in practice there were still some lingering Roman Catholics). A Protestant offshoot known as the Puritans, which did not believe in the formality of the Church, was on the rise. While Parliament seemed somewhat tolerant of them, Charles and the Church were steadfastly against the Puritans.
In May 1641, thinking the Protestant Reformation was in danger of being undone the House of Commons drafted a national oath of loyalty declaration. All males above the age of 18 were asked to sign the declaration and all adult men were asked to swear an oath to the Protestant religion.
The declaration, or Protestation, read:
I, _ A.B. _ do, in the presence of Almighty God, promise, vow, and protest to maintain, and defend as far as lawfully I may, with my Life, Power and Estate, the true Reformed Protestant religion, expressed in the Doctrine of the Church of England, against all Popery and Popish Innovations, within this Realm, contrary to the same Doctrine, and according to the duty of my Allegiance, to His Majesties Royal Person, Honour and Estate, as also the Power and Privileges of Parliament, the lawful Rights and Liberties of the Subjects, and any person that maketh this Protestation, in whatsoever he shall do in the lawful Pursuance of the same: and to my power, and as far as lawfully I may, I will oppose and by all good Ways and Means endeavour to bring to condign Punishment all such as shall, either by Force, Practice, Councels, Plots, Conspiracies, or otherwise, doe any thing to the contrary of any thing in this present Protestation contained: and further, that I shall, in all just and honourable ways, endeavour to preserve the Union and Peace betwixt the Three Kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland: and neither for Hope, Fear, nor other Respect, shell relinquish this Promise, Vow and Protestation.
The names William Browne, gentleman, his son John Browne, and his son-in-law Thomas Lee, along with 71 other men were recorded in the West Sussex Protestation Returns for Rusper, Bramber Rape, Singlecross Hundred.
By signing as ‘gentleman’ and not as ‘cleric’ would seem to suggest that William was no longer a member of the clergy.
The following year, in August 1642 civil war broke out as a result of a conflict over the power of the monarchy and the rights of Parliament. For the most part, the Puritans supported Parliament. Royalist sympathizers, on the other had, remained true to a more traditional form of Protestantism.
On June 14, 1645, the King and his Royalist army fought the Parliamentarians, commanded by Sir Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell, at the Battle of Naseby. The battle was a decisive victory for Parliament. Charles fled the battlefield as soon as it was apparent that he had lost both the battle and the war.
LEAVING FOR AMERICA
We cannot know for certain what prompted William and his family to immigrate to America. At 61 William was rather old to embark on such a venture without having a very strong reason.
Were the Browne’s Royalists who saw their way of life being threatened by the civil war? Did they have Puritan leanings that caused them to leave for religious reasons? Were they drawn to this new land in hopes of obtaining a better life for themselves and their children?
Whatever their reason for leaving, in the property records held in East Sussex Record Office is an abstract to a title for an estate in Rusper. It is in this document that we learn that on 28 July 1645 William Browne, his wife Jane and their son Henry sold property consisting of:
- a barn and 6 acres called Court Hatch and two pieces of land called Venters Mead;
- the S (south?) half of a barn, buildings and eight pieces of land totaling 25 acres called Normans; and
- the south half of a messuage (a dwelling house with outbuildings and land assigned to its use) and buildings called Normans, in Rusper.
By divesting themselves of all the property they owned in Rusper, William, Jane and Henry would have obtained the funds necessary for them to purchase passage on a ship bound for America and have funds left over to start their new lives.
Before they left, William‘s son Thomas died from smallpox and was buried in the churchyard in Rusper on 7 March 1646.
The rest of the family must have set sail soon thereafter. Those on the voyage were William (age 61), his wife Jane (age 50), their children John (age 31), Phebe (age 26), Mary (age 24), and Henry (age 20), Phebe’s husband Thomas Lee (age 32) and the Lee children, Jane (age 6), Phebe (age 4) and Thomas (age 2).
Perhaps they carried the smallpox with them since William’s wife Jane, his son John, and Phebe’s husband Thomas Lee would all die from this dreaded disease and be buried at sea.
Despite their ravaged condition, residents of Saybrook Colony welcomed the Browne family and nursed them back to health.
The Saybrook Colony was situated on both sides of the Connecticut River at its confluence with the Black Hall River and where the river flowed into Long Island Sound directly across from Long Island.
William’s son Henry quickly moved 75 miles northeast to the larger and more well established Providence Plantation (now Providence, Rhode Island). There he took up a collection to help build a house for his father William and the rest of the family. When it became clear that the other family members would not be moving to Providence, the house was sold.
In 1647, William’s daughter Phebe married Greenfield Larrabee, a mariner and long time resident of Saybrook.
That same year, William left Saybrook to join the settlement of Southampton on the southeastern side of Long Island. This differs from my previous reports that William joined settlers at the settlement of Southold, which lies directly acrossed the sound from Saybrook.
In 1648 William’s daughter Mary married Robert Marvin in Saybrook. They joined William in Southampton.
Today we associate wealth and privilege with Southampton. Its roots however began in 1640 when settlers from Lynn, Massachusetts secured the rights to some land from local Shinnecock Indians. By 1644, those settlers had established an organized whale fishery. Among the early settlers was one Thomas Halsey whose Halsey House, which dates from 1648, is the oldest existing frame house in New York State.
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It’s nice to think that perhaps William and his daughter and son-in-law were able to construct a similar home for themselves.
From the Southampton town records we are able to learn some things about William’s life.
After his arrival, he was soon recognized as a freeman allowing him to become a member of the town council. He sat with the council to make and enforce laws and pass judgment in civil and criminal matters. And, he rose to the position of Secretary for the General Court.
It is in the town record for 23 July 1650 we learn that Robert Marvin and Mary his wife were granted administration in the estate of William Browne, deceased. And thus we learn of William’s death.
The following is the inventory of William’s estate as it appears in the records for the town of Southampton.
Although he wasn’t a wealthy man and he didn’t own any property, William acquired an estate valued at £160 0s 8p during his four short years in America.
It’s clear from this inventory that William was a merchant or trader. Note the quarter share he owned in a small ship that was to supply him with a quarter share in 19 hogsheads of sugar from England. The name ‘hogshead’ refers to the size of the wooden cask, whicih used to ship both liquid and solid products to America. Each hogshead held between 1,456–1,792 pounds avoirdupois of sugar making Henry’s share an astounding around 7,600 pounds of sugar.
While his time in America would be short lived, I hope he enjoyed his life on the shores of Long Island.
Thus ends the series about my Browne ancestors:
William Browne (1534-1613) - The Rector of Horley;
Joseph Browne (1561-1633) – The Rector of Rusper;
William Browne (1585-1650) – Curate, Schoolmaster & Merchant; and
Phebe Browne (1620-1664) – The Immigrant
Hopefully you’ve enjoyed learning their stories and a bit of the history of England and Colonial America along the way.
EPILOGUE
William’s children would go on to live full and prosperous lives in America:
- Phebe’s life was well documented in the blog about her life.
- Mary and Robert Marvin continued to live on Long Island. They were the parents of two known children, John and Mary.
- Henry continued to live in Providence, Rhode Island where in 1682 he married Waite Waterman. They were the parents of four known children: Richard, Joseph, Phebe and Henry.
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How we’re related:
William Browne/Jane Mills
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Greenfield Larrabee/Phoebe/Phebe Browne
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Elizabeth Larrabee/Joshua Hempstead
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Mary Hempstead/Green Plumb
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Samuel Plumb/Ana Roe
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Justus Plumb/Margaret Sammis
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Anna Plumb/Louis J. Houlette
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James Dale Houlette/Agnes Smith Clarke
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Anna Margaret Houlette/Levi Slinker
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Agnes Emeline Slinker/Peter Alexander Creger
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James Iver Creger/Gertrude Ethel Blayden
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Helen Pauline Creger/John Robert Nielsen
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Me
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