Capt. John Browne, of Manchester

NOT the same person as Rev. John Browne of Providence, RI.

May or may not belong to the Browne family from Visitations of Essex vol. 1, pp.. 164-165 / Visitations of London 1633-1635, p. 111. The pattern is good, but proof is lacking.

Belief that he was from Manchester, Lancashire is based on a tradition (and evidence from parish records) of mercantile Brownes in that locale.

He was granted 500 acres for bringing in settlers

He is mentioned here as Elinor's father -->https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=48260062

Captain John Brown of London, merchant, bursts into view because on 9 January 1700/1 he appointed Captain WILLIAM, mariner of the ship Happy Union, to be his lawful attorney for all goods, etc. of his son John Browne, late of London, mariner, deceased.[2] What can we infer from this brief legal act? Greg Todd offers the following hypothesis:

• Captain John Browne was running the business from London and his son, "John Browne, late of London, mariner," was a participant in this enterprise. Interestingly, Newman refers to Captain John Browne as a "merchant" rather than as a "mariner." Why would a London merchant be called "Captain" if he had not once been a mariner himself?
• If this interpretation of the Newman reference is correct, then Captain John Browne of London had a son named John who was involved in the merchant shipping business and predeceased his father. It would be expected that Captain John Browne would eventually prove too elderly to make the frequent voyages between England and America, and would at some point remain in London to oversee the family business. Captain John Browne's son was likely to have been involved as a "mariner" in this venture until his death in 1700/01.
• This interpretation is strengthened by the fact that no records indicate where Captain John Browne died (London or Maryland are equally possible), nor do we know that he had ever actually had a permanent residence in Maryland. The properties he purchased in 1673 in Anne Arundel Co., MD may very well have been a wedding gift to his daughter Elinor Browne, as the date of the purchase (1673) coincides with the likely marriage date of Elinor to Captain Richard WARFIELD. The names of these properties, "Hope" and "Increase," are also suggestive of marital themes. Captain John Browne may have continued to reside in London without ever having a permanent residence of his own in America.[3] https://web.archive.org/web/20150702083911/freepages.genealogy.root...

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There is information about Capt. John Browne in the book, The founders of Anne Arundel and Howard Counties, Maryland by J.D. Warfield. It is available in Google Books.

PARENTAGE UNCERTAIN:

In the 1962 Supplement to the Emison Families, Revised 1954; https://archive.org/details/emisonfamiliesre00emis_1/page/164; the father of Thomas Browne, Capt. John Browne, Capt. Peregrine Browne, and James Fristre Browne is said to be Sir John Browne of Essex, not Thomas Browne of Manchester. As Thomas appears to have been baptized in London, this makes sense geographically, but the author provides no source material. (Steven Ferry, January 4, 2020.)