Sir Humphrey Browne

Born in Cheshire, England on 1522 to Thomas Brown and Mary Carleton. Humphrey married Agnes Hussey. Humphrey married Ann Hussey and had 3 children. Humphrey married Ann Vere. He passed away on 1558 in Ridley Hall Terling, Essex, England.

Biography

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Brown-46220

Sir Humphrey Browne, from Ridley in Cheshire, was an English judge. There are varying accounts of who his parents were.

He appears to have married thrice:

1. Firstly to Anne Vere, dead by 1515 - had a son George, married to Anne Shelton.[1]
2. Secondly to Elizabeth Shelton nee Rawlins in or about 1516 [2]
3. Thirdly to Agnes (Anne) Hussey, daughter of Lord Hussey, who survived him.[3] They had three daughter Mary, Christian and Catherine.

Humphrey left a will dated 12 Nov 1562. [3]He made bequests to and mentioned:

• my wife Agnes
• my brother in law Sir Robert Throckmorton
• my daughter Christian
• my son George Browne
• my daughters Mary Browne and Katherine Browne
• Richard Townshend and Katherine his wife
• Thomas and Gilbert Hussey, gentlemen, my brothers in law
• Robert and John Hussey of Gray's Inn
• my nephew Anthony Browne

He died on 5 Dec 1562 and was buried in the church of St Martin Orgar, as per his request, on 15 Dec 1562. He left three daughters: Mary, Christian, and Catherine.[4] His will, naming his widow Agnes as sole executor, was proved on 14 Jan 1563.[5]

Research Notes

It is through his marriage to Agnes Hussey that he calls Robert Throckmorton brother in law.

Extracted from http://www.oxford-shakespeare.com/Probate/PROB_11-46-19.pdf

For the testator’s family background, see the Browne pedigree recorded in 1612 in Metcalfe, Walter C., ed., The Visitations of Essex, (London: Harleian Society, 1878), Vol. XIII, pp. 165-7 at:

https://books.google.ca/books?id=0m1KAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA166

The testator was a younger son of Thomas Browne (d.1488) of Abbess Roding, Essex, by Mary Charlton, the daughter of Thomas Charlton, who was perhaps the Sir Thomas Charlton (c.1417–1465) who was Speaker of the House of Commons.

The testator married firstly, as her second husband, Anne Vere (died 5 September 1506), widow of Robert Mordaunt, son of Sir John Mordaunt (30 December 1455 – 11 September 1504), Speaker of the House of Commons, for whom see the Turvey website at:

http://www.turveybeds.com/mordaunts.html See also:

Sir John Mordaunt, MP, Speaker of the House of Commons

Anne Vere was one of the four daughters and coheirs of Henry Vere (d.1493) of Great Addington. By Anne Vere, the testator had his only son and heir:

• George Browne. His mother, Anne Vere, died in 1506, and George Browne was thus at least 55 years of age when the testator died in 1562. He was perhaps a few years older than that, since by 1518 (see TNA C 1/392/14 and TNA C 1/494/2) he had married his step-sister, Anne Shelton, one of the daughters of the London alderman, Nicholas Shelton (d.1515), the testator having married Nicholas Shelton’s widow, Elizabeth Rawlyns, as his second wife (see below). According to the Browne pedigree, supra, the testator’s only son and heir, George Browne, died in 1558. This is clearly an error, since he was living when the testator made the will below. However as the will indicates, he had no issue, and his eventual heirs were his three half sisters by the testator’s third marriage to Agnes Hussey (see below).

As noted above, the testator married secondly, in 1516, Elizabeth Rawlyns, heiress of her brother, William Rawlyns, and widow of the London alderman, Nicholas Shelton (d.1515). For the will of Nicholas Shelton, see TNA PROB 11/18/230. In the period 1515-1518, Thomas Cumberford, Nicholas Shelton’s son-in-law and executor, sued the testator concerning Elizabeth’s share of the estate of her late husband, Nicholas Shelton. See TNA C 1/392/14 and TNA C 1/494/2.

By his second marriage, the testator had a daughter,

• Katherine Browne (c.1517-c.1560), who on 3 July 1537 married Richard Townshend (d.1551), the son of John Townshend (d.1543/4) of Raynham, Norfolk, by Eleanor Heydon, the daughter of the courtier Sir John Heydon (d.1551) of Baconsthorpe.

The testator married thirdly, about 1547, Agnes Hussey (born c.1515), widow of Henry Ryther (1511 – 5 January 1544), esquire, of Harewood Castle, son of Sir Ralph Ryther (d. 2 April 1520) by his second wife, Maud Percy, the daughter of Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland. For the argument that Maud Percy was the daughter of Henry Percy (c.1449–1489), 4th Earl of Northumberland, by Maud Herbert, see:

https://royaldescent.blogspot.ca/2010/02/ryther-1-who-was-maud-perc... ryther.html

The testator’s third wife, Agnes Hussey, was one of the daughters of John Hussey (executed 29 June 1537), 1st Baron Hussey of Sleaford, by Anne Grey, the daughter of George Grey (d. 21 December 1503), 2nd Earl of Kent, and his second wife, Katherine Herbert, third daughter of William Herbert (c.1423-1469), 1st Earl of Pembroke, by Anne Devereux, the daughter of Sir Walter Devereux (1411-1459). See the Hussey pedigree in Maddison, A.R., Lincolnshire Pedigrees (London: Harleian Society, 1908), pp. 526-30 at:

https://archive.org/stream/lincolnshirepedi51madd#page/526/mode/2up

There were no issue of Agnes Hussey’s first marriage to Henry Ryther, who made his first cousin, John Ryther, esquire, heir to certain of his properties. For the will, dated 23 January 1543 and proved 18 March 1544, of Henry Ryther, in which he mentions his father, Ralph Ryther, his mother, Maud Percy, and his wife, Agnes Hussey, and bequeaths his lands to ‘John Ryther of London, squire, and cofferer to our Sovereign Lord Prince Edward’, see Testamenta Eboracensia, Vol. VI, (London: Whittaker & Co., 1902), Surtees Society, Vol. CVI, pp. 170-1 at:

https://archive.org/stream/testamentaebora08claygoog#page/n188/mode...

According to the will below, the testator had three daughters by his third wife, Agnes Hussey:

• Mary Browne, who is said to have married Thomas Wilford of Hartridge, Kent.
• Christian Browne, who married, as his second wife, Sir John Tufton (d. 2 April 1624),
• Katherine Browne the younger (buried 20 February 1616 [=1617?]), … It appears that Katherine Browne’s husband was the grandson of the William Roper (1495x8-1578) who married Margaret More, i.e., William Roper (c.1557-1628), son of Thomas Roper (buried 26 February 1597 [=1598?]), esquire,

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Sources

1. "Parishes: Great Addington," in A History of the County of Northampton: Volume 3, ed. William Page (London: Victoria County History, 1930), 155-160. British History Online, accessed October 17, 2022,BHO
2. National Archives UK Short title: Jerome v Browne. Plaintiffs: William, Jerome, and Thomas SHELTON C 1/1160/30-32 Discovery
3. Will: "England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858"
4. The National Archives; Kew, Surrey, England; Records of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, Series PROB 11; Class: PROB 11; Piece: 46 Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry au Record 5111 #873953 (accessed 16 October 2022)
5. Will of Humfridi Browne, granted probate on 14 Jan 1562. Died about 1562.
6. J. H. Baker, "Browne, Sir Humphrey (d. 1562)" ODNB https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/69359
7. PROB 11/46/19 Will of Sir Humphrey Browne, one of the Queen's Majesty's Justice of Her Common Pleas at Westminster, 14 January 1563
8. https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D955484