Thomas Browne

Thomas Browne (died 9 February 1597), of Betchworth Castle, Surrey, was an English politician.

Family Browne was a descendant of Sir Thomas Browne, Treasurer of the Household to Henry VI, and related in the male line to the Viscounts Montagu of Cowdray, Sussex, and in the female line to Lord Buckhurst.

He was the eldest son of Henry Browne, esquire, of Betchworth Castle, Surrey, and his first wife, Katherine Shelley, the daughter of Sir William Shelley of Michelgrove in Clapham, Sussex, by Alice Belknap, daughter of Henry Belknap, esquire.

After the death of his first wife, Alice, Henry Browne married Mary Fitz Herbert, daughter of John Fitz Herbert, by whom he had no issue.

He was elected Member of Parliament for Surrey in 1559, Wallingford in 1563, Arundel in 1571, and Bletchingley in 1572 and 1586. Sir Matthew Browne, who married Jane Vincent, and was slain in a duel with his kinsman, Sir John Townshend, on 1 August 1603; Jane Browne, who married Sir Oliph Leigh; Mabel Browne

Browne married secondly Helen or Ellen Harding, one of the daughters of William Harding (d. 7 September 1549), citizen and goldsmith of London, by Cecily Marshe, the daughter of Walter Marshe of London. William Harding was the elder son of Robert Harding (d.1515) of Knowle Park in Cranleigh, Surrey; his sister, Elizabeth Harding, married Humphrey Pakington, the brother of Sir John Pakington and Robert Pakyngton.

After the death of William Harding, Cecily Marshe married Robert Warner, who in 1557 purchased the wardship of her daughters, Helen (d.1601) and Katherine (d.1599). In 1559 Katherine Harding married Queen Elizabeth's Solicitor General, Richard Onslow, and Helen Harding married firstly, Richard Knyvet, by whom she had issue, and secondly, Thomas Browne, by whom she had a son, Richard Browne.