College of Physicians. He was censor in 1587, and several times afterwards; an elect in 1599; and a member of the council of the college in 1604-5; but died in 1605, probably shortly before 11 Dec. Browne was physician to Queen Elizabeth, to James I, and to his queen. He is not known to have written anything except a commendatory letter in Latin prefixed to Gerarde's 'Herbal' (first edition, 1597). He was one of those entrusted by the College of Physicians in 1589 with the preparation of a pharmacopoeia, and in 1594 was on a committee appointed for the same object, but for some reason the work was stopped, and not resumed till twenty years afterwards, when Browne was no longer living.
[Cooper's Athenæ Cantabrigienses, ii. 421; Munk's Coll. of Phys. (2nd ed.) ii. 86.]
BROWNE, LYDE (d. 1787), the elder, virtuoso, was a director of the Bank of England, having a town house in Foster Lane, City, and a country house at Wimbledon. He commenced the antique-art collections for which he was distinguished about 1747. He became F.S.A. on 5 April 1752; he resigned the fellowship in 1772. In April 1768 he was elected director of the Bank of England. By that year he had gathered together at his Wimbledon house as many as eighty-one rare statues and other precious examples of Greek and Roman art. Browne's art treasures were described in a Latin catalogue, 8vo, published in 1768, together with the sources whence some of them were obtained. By 1779 Browne had largely increased his collection. An Italian catalogue of it (4to, Rivingtons) was published in that year, and this speaks of 236 pieces as being the choicest of Browne's possessions, and comprising some said to be 'd' uno stile il più sublime' and in perfect preservation. About 1786 Browne arranged to sell the whole of these treasures (or a portion, it is not clear) to the Empress of Russia, and the price he was to be paid was 22,000l. Choosing a merchant in St. Petersburg, on the recommendation of some friends, to receive and transmit this sum of money, Browne had 10,000l. of it duly forwarded, but the balance was never sent, owing to the merchant's bankruptcy. The loss caused Browne much depression, and he soon afterwards (10 Sept. 1787) died of apoplexy.
His Wimbledon mansion was tenanted after his death by Henry Dundas (Lord Melville), and subsequently by the Earl of Aberdeen and by Lord Lovaine (Lysons, Environs, Supplement, p. 96).
[Gent. Mag. 1787, vol. lvii. pt. ii. p. 840, under 'Brown ;' Bibliotheca Typographica Britannica, x. 64; Catalogus Veteris Ævi varii, &c.; Catalogo dei più scelti e preziosi Marmi, &c.; Lysons's Environs, i. 540, Supplement, 96; private information.]
BROWNE, LYDE (d. 1803), the younger, lieutenant-colonel 21st royal Scots fusiliers, who was killed by Emmett's mob in Dublin in 1803, entered the army as cornet in the 3rd dragoons 11 June 1777, and obtained his troop in the 20th light dragoons, a corps formed during the American war out of the light troops of some other cavalry regiments, and which was disbanded in 1783, when he was placed on half pay. He was brought on full pay in the 40th foot in May 1794, and served with that regiment in the West Indies, and became major in the 4th (Nicholl's) West India regiment in 1797. His subsequent commissions were major 90th foot, 1798; lieutenant-colonel 35th foot, with which he served at Malta, 1800; lieutenant-colonel 85th foot, 1801; and lieutenant-colonel 21st fusiliers, 25 Jan. 1802. The latter regiment was stationed in Cork Street, Thomas Street, and Coombe Barracks in July 1803, and Browne was repairing thither to join his men on the alarm being given at dusk on 23 July, when he was shot dead by some of the same mob which immediately afterwards murdered the aged Lord Kilwarden in an adjoining street.
[Annual Army Lists; Trimen's Hist. Rec. 35th Foot (Southampton, 1874); H. Stooks-Smith's Alph. List Officers, 85th Lt. Inf. (London, 1850): Cannon's Hist. Rec. 21st Fusiliers.
BROWNE, MOSES (1704–1787), poet, born in 1704, was originally a pen-cutter. His earliest production in print was a weak tragedy called 'Polidus, or Distress'd Love,' and an equally weak farce 'All Bedevil'd, or the House in a Hurry,' neither of which was ever performed by regular actors or in a licensed theatre. His earliest studies were patronised by Robert, viscount Molesworth, and his poems of 'Piscatory Eclogues,' 1729, were dedicated to Dodington, afterwards Lord Melcombe. They were reissued with other works in 1739 under the title of 'Poems on various Subjects,' and again in 1773 as 'Angling Sports, in nine Piscatory Eclogues.' Browne found a kind friend in Cave, the proprietor of the 'Gentleman's Magazine,' and for a long time he was the principal poetical contributor to that periodical. The prize of 50l. offered by Cave for the best theological poem was awarded to Browne by Dr. Birch; it is printed, with other prize poems of his composition, in the 'Poems on various Subjects.'
