Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 07.djvu/69

 orders, and was admitted a follow of Peterhouse on 15 July 1785. In December 1793 he was presented to the college living of Cherry Hinton, Cambridgeshire. While vicar of this country parish he adopted the positions of the Priestley school of unitarians, and resigned his living. In 1800 he became minister of the presbyterian congregation at Warminster. In 1807 he left Warminster for the post of classical and mathematical tutor at Manchester College, York. At midsummer, 1809, Browne left York to become minister of the Octagon Chapel, Norwich. He had preached at Norwich as a candidate in the previous January, and appears to have dissatisfied the college authorities by doing so without notice to them. His ministry at Norwich was unhappy; he is said to have 'magnified his office,' and not to have understood the dislike of his congregation to anything in the shape of a dogmatic creed. He took his stand upon his vested right to a small endowment, and was paid for his resignation at the end of 1810. He did not at once leave Norwich. A letter from him, dated Colgate, Norwich, 10 March 1812, appears in the 'Monthly Repository,' in which he says he will be at liberty to take a congregation at the end of March, and ofl'ers to go on six months' trial. He was minister at Congleton from 1812 to 1814. For a short time he acted as a supply at Chester, but removed to Barton Street Chapel, Gloucester, in 1815. He established a fellowship fund at Gloucester on 1 Nov. 1818, and a y^'ar or two afterwards created some consternation by proposing that unitarian fellowship funds should invest in state lotteries, with a view to gaining windfalls for denominational purposes. He remained at Gloucester till the close of 1823. From this time he resided at Bath, preaching only occasionally. He took great interest in education, and was president of the Bath Mechanics' Institution. His friend Brock speaks of him as 'conscientious almost to a fault,' and very generous to the poor. He lost his wife Anne, three years his senior, on Christmas day, 1884, and died, after a short illness, on 20 May 1835. He was buried at Lyncomb Vale, near Bath. There is a tablet to his memory in Trim Street Chapel, Bath. He published: 1. 'Eight Forms of Prayer for Public Social Worship,' Bath, 1803, 12mo. 2. 'Plain and Useful Selections from the Books of the Old and New Testament,' 1805, 8vo (intended as a lectionary, but not much esteemed; Browne projected a sequel to be taken from the apocrypha). 8. 'Religious Liberty and the Kights of Conscience and Private Judgment grossly violated,' &c., 1819, 12mo, and a sermon. The terms in which he dedicated this pamphlet to the Rev. T. Belsham, 'to whom, if to any, may be justly applied the title Head of the Unitarian Church, gave great offence to his co-religionists. Besides these he edited: 1. Select parts of William Melmoth's 'Great Importance of a Religious Life' (originally published in 1711). 2. A selection of 'Sermons'(1818, 12mo) by Joshua Toulmin, D.D. 3. 'Devotional Addresses and Hymns' (1819, 12mo), by William Russell of Birmingham.

 BROWNE, THOMAS (d. 1585), headmaster of Westminster, was born about 1535, and educated at Eton, whence he proceeded to King's College, Cambridge, in 1550. He graduated B.A. in 1554-5, M.A. in 1558, and B.A. in 1559. In the 'Alumni Etonenses' (p. 166) he is styled S.T.P. Wood (Athenæ, iii. 1004) also calls him a doctor of divinity. He was presented by the provost and scholars of King's College to the rectory of Dunton-Waylett in Essex, which he held from 18 April 1564 till his death (, ii. 231). In 1564 he was appointed to the head-mastership of Westminster School. In the following year he was made a canon of the church of Westminster, and acted for some time as sub-dean (, iii. 360;, Antiq. of West. p. 219). Browne was next promoted to the rectory of St. Leonard, Foster Lane, on the presentation of the dean and chapter of Westminster, 11 July 1567 (, i. 394). This preferment he resigned when presented, 7 June 1574, to the rectory of Chelsea, by Anne, duchess dowager of Somerset and Francis Newdigate (, i. 586). He had meanwhile resigned the mastership of Westminster in 1570 (so, Alumni West.; , p. 227, gives 1569 as the date). In 1584, when it was proposed to translate Aylmer to the vacant see of Ely, and promote Day, the provost of Eton, to London, the names of Mr. Browne and Mr. Blithe were submitted for the provostship in a scheme sent by Whitgift to the queen (, Whitgift, i. 337), but the scheme