Henry Browne

Henry Browne, owner of Hope Estate in St George, Jamaica, which he inherited from another Henry Browne. 

1. In the Jamaica Almanacs of 1826 and 1833, Hope estate was registered to the heirs of Henry Browne. But the new owner, also Henry Browne, was in London to sign for his compensation in the mid-1830s. 

2. There was a Henry Browne, Fellow of the Royal Society, who was listed as a director of Palladium Life Assurance in 1830 (along with, inter alios, Edward Hyde East, Samuel Bosanquet and William Keith Robert Douglas (all q.v.). "Henry Browne was a gentleman who, having realized a fortune as a commander in the merchants' service, had subsequently, in retirement, pursued his favourite study of nautical astronomy, and had much benefited his profession by his accurate observations of headlands etc." He lived at 2 Portland Place, London, married Caroline Susanna Sabine in Marylebone, 21/06/1797 and was brother-in-law to Sir Edward Sabine (1788-1883). If this Henry Browne was the same owner of Hope Estate, then the awardee of compensation was his son Henry Sabine Browne, born 19/03/1808 to Henry Browne and Caroline Susanna Browne née Sabine and baptised in Marylebone, London, 28/05/1808. Henry Sabine Browne became an Ensign 23/06/1825, a Lieutenant 11/07/1830 and a Captain 30/09/1836. Henry Sabine Browne married Isabel Harriet Ann Bremer, 26/02/1840. Death of only son, Henry Sabine Browne, Capt in 85th Light Infantry, of the late Henry Browne of Portland Place, London, 24/02/1843 at Stonehouse, Plymouth. The (completely uninformative) will of Henry Browne of Portland Place, however, was proved 03/07/1830, which does not fit easily with the Jamaica Almanac sequence in 1. above, nor with the fact that George Hall registered the enslaved on Hope as guardian of Henry Browne in 1832, implying that the Henry Browne of the award reached his majority only between 1832 and 1835.

3. With a date of birth between 1811 and 1813, and one of his guardians being Ann Browne, he is much more likely to be the Henry Browne, son of Henry Richard Browne and Ann Browne, born 13/02/1812 who was baptised in St George, Jamaica, 10/03/1812. Henry Richard Browne married Ann Hall at Union, St George, Jamaica, 16/03/1807.

T71/869 St George claim no. 3 (Hope Estate). 

1. Jamaica Almanac (1826 and 1833). NDO4/4. 

2. Times 11/12/1830 p. 1. 'Literary and Scientific Intelligence - Royal Society', Gentleman's Magazine Vol. 100, December 1830, p. 540. Gregory A. Good, ‘Sabine, Sir Edward (1788–1883)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2004), online edn, Jan 2011 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/24436, [accessed 26/06/2012]]. www.familysearch.org batch no. M03524-3. www.familysearch.org batch no. C03524-4. H.G. Hart, The New Annual Army List, for 1841 (London, John Murray, 1841) p. 237. Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. 168, p. 427, April 1840. Times 03/03/1843 p. 8; PROB 11/1773/191.

3. Familysearch.org, Jamaica Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880 [database online].