Page:A Compendium of Irish Biography.djvu/64

 ." It is surmised that he died about 1556.  

Browne, George, Count de, an Irish soldier of fortune, born 15th June 1698. He distinguished himself in the Russian service, against the Poles, French, and Turks. His life was one of constant adventure, and he was thrice taken prisoner and sold as a slave. Appointed Field-Marshal under Peter III.,the government of Livonia was committed to him. At the end of thirty years he was anxious to retire from public duties; but the Empress Catherine would not consent to lose his services. He died in 1792, aged about 94. 

Browne, John Ross, traveller and author, was born in Ireland about the year 1822. Of his early years little is on record, beyond the fact that he was taken to America in childhood, and that he passed his youth in the State of Kentucky. When eighteen, he qualified himself as a shorthand reporter, and went to Washington with the view of earning money with which to travel. After a few months, not being successful, he shipped before the mast on a whaler bound for the Indian Ocean, and was absent eighteen mouths. On his return, he published his first work, Etchings of a Whaling Cruise. In 1849 he went to California, and was employed in reporting the proceedings of the convention which drafted the State Constitution. He then made the tour of the south of Europe, and the East. Returning, he settled in California—travelling from time to time in various parts of Europe and America, and recording his experiences in sundry books of travels, and in numerous articles in Harper's Magazine, written in a graphic and humorous style, and illustrated with clever sketches from his own pencil. In 1866, and again in 1868, having been commissioned for the purpose by the Government, he drew up valuable reports on the mineral resources of the States and Territories west of the Rocky Mountains. In 1868 he was sent as United States' minister to China, where he remained two years. On his return, he built a residence near Oakland, California, and devoted himself to the care of a numerous family, and to the promotion of various industrial schemes for the development of the resources of the country. He died rather suddenly, at Oakland, 7th December 1875, aged 53. He is described as singularly versatile and keen-witted, a delightful companion, genial in manners, possessing a graceful, fluent, and often brilliant style, good powers of observation, and a fund of quiet humour. 

Browne, Patrick, M.D., was born at Woodstock, County of Mayo, in 1720. For several years he resided with a relative in Antigua; but ill-health compelled his return to Europe. He studied and took his degree of M.D. at Leyden, where he formed an intimacy with Linnaeus and other eminent naturalists. After practising two years in London, he returned to the West Indies, and made collections of the fauna and flora of the islands. In 1755 he published in London a map of Jamaica. Next year he brought out his Civil and Natural History of Jamaica. Altogether he made six visits to the West Indies. The latter part of his life was spent in Mayo. In 1774 his catalogues of the birds and fishes of Ireland appeared in Exshaw's Magazine; and in 1788 appeared in Latin, English, and Irish, a short Fasciculus Plantarum Hiberniæ. He died at Rushbrook, County of Mayo, 29th August 1790, aged about 70, and was buried at Crossboyne. (1795)

Browne, Peter, Bishop of Cork; previously Provost of Trinity College. He was appointed to the former office in 1710. A very high character is given of him in Ware's Bishops, where also his generous charitable donations and bequests are mentioned. In 1730 he published a tract Against the Custom of Drinking to the Memory of the Dead, in truth levelled against those who were continually pledging to the memory of William III. It attracted considerable attention; but its only effect was that William's admirers appended to their toasts, "in spite of the Bishop of Cork." He died at Cork, 25th August 1735, and was buried at Bishopstown. Ware styles him "a great enemy to death-bed donations; an austere, retired and mortified man; his whole life was one uniform tenor of piety and true religion." "A man not unworthy of note in the philosophical annals of Ireland, as the author afterwards of the Procedure and Limits of Human Understanding, and the Divine Analogy, and as a learned, critical antagonist of Locke. &hellip; In 1700 he was known as the author of the most learned and vigorous reply then encountered by Toland's Christianity not Mysterious." 

Bruce, Sir Edward, brother of Robert Bruce, King of Scotland, was born about 1275, and crowned King of Ireland in 1316. Encouraged by the success of the Scotch at Bannockburn, and wearied by the contentions of Irish and Anglo-Irish chiefs, some of the leading princes in Ireland applied to Robert Bruce, as representative of the old Hiberno-Scotic colony, to accept the crown and secure the independence of Ireland. He declined for himself; but, perhaps anxious to be rid of a possible future cause of trouble at

40