Matthew Browne

Sir Matthew Browne (1563 – 1 August 1603) of Betchworth Castle, Surrey, MP, was the only son of Sir Thomas Browne and Mabel Fitzwilliam. He was involved in legal and financial transactions concerning the Globe Theatre in 1601. He was killed in a duel with his kinsman, Sir John Townshend, on 1 August 1603.

Family Matthew Browne was the only son of Sir Thomas Browne (d. 9 February 1597) and his first wife, Mabel Fitzwilliam, the eldest daughter and coheiress of the courtier Sir William Fitzwilliam, Gentleman of the Privy Chamber and Lieutenant of Windsor Castle, by Jane Roberts, daughter and coheiress of John Roberts of Cranbrook, Kent, and Mayfield, Sussex. He had two sisters, Jane Browne, who married Sir Oliph Lee, and Elizabeth Browne, who married Robert Honeywood.

After the death of his first wife, Mabel, Sir Thomas Browne married Helen or Ellen Harding, widow of Richard Knyvet, and daughter and heiress of William Harding, by whom he had a son, Richard Browne. son and heir of Thomas Brend (d. 1597), and John Bodley of Streatham, stepson of Thomas Brend, with whom he was later to be associated in connection with the Globe Theatre and other properties.

In 1596, Browne was knighted by Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, on the Cádiz expedition. In 1600 he was appointed deputy lieutenant of Surrey to Lord Charles Howard. In 1601, he was elected to Parliament for Gatton.

Browne was succeeded by his twelve-year-old son, Ambrose. His executors, Sir William Mynne and Browne's cousin, Thomas Browne, did not prove Browne's last will until 1608.