Abraham Browne, of Watertown - Disputed origins

Started by Erica Howton on Saturday, January 16, 2021
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1/16/2021 at 2:10 PM

From (No Name)

I am contacting you about this profile: Edmund Browne, of Sawbridgeworth

“ABRAHAM1 BROWNE (EdmundA, WilliamB), surveyor, baptized Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire 22 October 1588; died Watertown, MA between 26 March 1645”

>“[Abraham Browne, of Watertown Abraham Browne of Watertown] and [John Brown of Watertown John Browne of Watertown] are not related. I am a descendant of John Browne and I did a DNA test of a descendant of Abraham Browne who name is xxx Brown. We are not related. The Abraham line ties back to the Ireland Brown's.”

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Any comments?

1/16/2021 at 2:51 PM

Hi Erica,

Has Theodore Richard Brown a full tree on Geni? It would help if he did I am a descendant of John Brown and Theodore Richard Brown is not related to me on Geni.

Skeeter Wesinger

1/16/2021 at 3:01 PM

(No Name) - I see you only have a “beginning” tree on Geni. Meet your likely cousin Skeeter. If you keep a tree on another site perhaps we can help you port over.

1/16/2021 at 3:03 PM

I looked at the Brown ftdNA site but couldn’t interpret.

https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/brown-dna-study/about/goals

2/2/2021 at 11:24 AM

The Ancestry of Eva Belle Kempton 1878-1908
Dean Crawford Smith and Melinde Lutz Sanborn, The Ancestry of Eva Belle Kempton 1878-1908 (Boston : New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1996) Part 1 p 173

EDMUNDA BROWNE (WilliamB), born about 1547 (under age twenty in father's 1565 will, but "95" at burial); buried Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire 21 January 1638/9, aged 95 years; married Sawbridgeworth 23 July 1584 MARY CRAMPHORNE, baptized Sawbridgeworth 27 September 1562, living 1607 (birth of last child), daughter of WILLIAM and JONE (PLOWE) CRAMPHORNE (see Cramphome Appendix).

Wife Mary Cramphome was aunt to another Mary Cramphome, who married William Heath of Ware, Hertfordshire, and later of Roxbury, MA, making a cluster of Browne and Heath first cousins among the early immigrants to Massachusetts Bay.

The identification of this family as that of the New England immigrants is also based upon the children's associations in Watertown and Boston and their connection to William Colbron. Of this couple's four known immigrant children, son Edmund Browne and daughter Anne Browne's husband Matthew Ines, were servants of Mr. William Colbron, who was of South Weald and Little Harley, Essex, England. William Colbron was married to Margery Huxton on 22 October 1618 in nearby Childerditch,
the same parish in which son Abraham Brown's first marriage and the baptisms of three of his children were recorded. South Weald itself, held the burial records of Abraham's first wife and the only one of the three children baptized in Childerditch who did not appear in New England. Sons Abraham and John Browne of Watertown arrived along with many other Essex immigrants. While John left no records aside from his baptism in England, it was his land that Abraham Browne succeeded to in Watertown {vide post).

On 1 January 1672[/3], Jonathan2 Browne of Watertown and Mary his wife, sold rights to land in Boston in which he called himself "cousin and next heir" of his "uncle" Edmund Browne (Suffolk Deed 8:43-4 & vide post), confirming that the immigrants Edmund and Abraham Browne were brothers.

In view of this evidence, speculations by Bond in the mid-1800s based on the work of Horatio Somerby regarding the Hawkendon origin of this family were clearly mistaken.

Children: Elizabeth, Richard, George, Abraham, John, Sarah, John, John, Edmund,

2/2/2021 at 11:26 AM

Son John1 Brown (EdmundA, WilliamB) brother of Abraham baptized Sawbridgeworth 23 April 1598; buried Watertown 20 June 1636, age 36 [sic] (WVR 1:4); married before 1634 DOROTHY ( ), evidently not the "Widow Browne" mentioned in Watertown 4 December 1648 (WTR 1:3:16), survived her husband if she married second William. Potter of Watertown, and went with him to Stamford, CT in 1645.

Potter died in 1685, naming only son-in-law John Mead, who may have been the husband of John's daughter Hannah (GMB 1:413).

John is reputed to have come on the Lion 16 September 1632 and settled in Watertown. The first two purchases of land made by Abraham Browne were from this John Browne.

Children, surname Browne:

1) Hannah, born Watertown 9 September 1634 (WVR 1:3)
2) Mary, born Watertown 24 March 1635/6 (WVR 1:4)

2/2/2021 at 11:34 AM

Since John1 Browne of Watertown brother of Abraham1 Brown of said Watertown left no male heirs (only two daughters) therefore the petitioner who sent the message can not be a direct lineal male descendant of John1 Browne and does not carry the Y chromosome of John1 Browne of Watertown. Therefore any Y chromosome comparison is not valid. I think it is clear that Abraham1 Browne and John1 Browne were both sons of Edmund Browne of Sawbridgeworth.

2/2/2021 at 11:48 AM

Whereas the evidence that they were indeed brothers as presented in Dean Crawford Smith and Melinde Lutz Sanborn, The Ancestry of Eva Belle Kempton 1878-1908 (Boston : New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1996) Part 1 p 173 is very convincing. The book is available on archive.org. I would suggest reconnecting Abraham back to his parents Edmund Browne and Mary Cramphorne.

https://archive.org/stream/ancestryofevabel01smit#page/180/mode/1up

Hope everyone is doing well! Stay safe!

2/2/2021 at 12:14 PM

Thank you, Roland Henry Baker, III

Agreed and done.

2/2/2021 at 1:19 PM

Thank you Erica Howton!

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