Researching George Browne

Browne was descended from a family that could trace its descent to the time of William the Conqueror, and had settled in Ireland at a very early period. His immediate ancestors were the Brownes of Camas, Limerick, where he was born 15 June 1698. He was educated at Limerick diocesan school.

A Catholic and a Jacobite, Browne, like several of his other relations, sought scope for his ambition in a foreign military career (Flight of the Wild Geese). In his twenty-seventh year he entered the service of the Electoral Palatinate, from which he passed in 1730 to that of Russian Empire. He distinguished himself in the Polish, French, and Turkish wars, and had risen to the rank of general, with the command of 30,000 men, when he was taken prisoner by the Turks. After being sold three times as a slave to an Albanian, he obtained his freedom through the intervention of the French ambassador Villeneuve, at the instance of the Russian court, and, remaining for some time at Constantinople in his slave's costume, succeeded in discovering important state secrets which he carried to Saint Petersburg.

In recognition of this special service Browne was raised by Anna to the rank of major-general, and in this capacity accompanied General Lacy on his first expedition to Finland. On the outbreak of the Swedish war his tactical skill was displayed to great advantage in checking Swedish attacks on Livonia. In the Seven Years' War he rendered important assistance as lieutenant-general under his cousin Maximilian Ulysses, Reichsgraf von Browne.

Browne's fortunate diversion of the enemy's attacks at Kolin, 18 June 1757, contributed materially to the allied victory, and in token of her appreciation of his conduct on the occasion Maria Theresa presented him with a snuff-box set with brilliants and adorned with her portrait. At Zorndorf, 25 August 1758, he again distinguished himself in a similar manner, his opportune assistance of the right wing at the most critical moment of the battle changing almost inevitable defeat into victory. By Peter III he was named general-in-chief, and appointed to the chief command in the Danish war.

On his addressing a remonstrance to the czar against the war as impolitic, Browne was deprived of his honours and commanded to leave the country, but the czar, repenting of his hasty decision, recalled him three days afterward and appointed him Governor of Livonia. He was confirmed in the office under Catherine II who granted him Smiltene Manor, and for thirty years to the close of his life administered its affairs with remarkable practical sagacity, and with great advantage both to the supreme government and to the varied interests of the inhabitants. He died 18 February 1792 in Riga.

Browne's son Johann Georg von Browne, also an officer in the Russian army, was a patron of Ludwig van Beethoven.

He was born in 1837 to John Joseph Browne and Maria Eakins, of Brownstown, Ballinrobe, County Mayo. The family estate amounted to some 2,809 acres during Griffith's Valuation in the 1840s.

He was elected in 1870 as a Member of Parliament for Mayo, and was re-elected at the 1874 general election. The election was declared void on 7 May 1874, but Browne was re-elected at the resulting by-election, and held the seat until the 1880 general election, when he was defeated by Charles Stewart Parnell.

During the Parnell Commission, he was referred to as "one of the three good landlords in Ireland".

He later moved to County Dublin and was, for a time, a member of Killiney Urban District Council. On his death, he lived at 14 Shanganagh Terrace, Killiney.

The Irish Times wrote that he was the last of the generation of Issac Butt's Home Rule Party: "At the time of his death, he was the last survivor of that group of public men, which included William Archer Redmond, father of the late John Redmond, and Joseph Biggar."

Browne was married three times: In 1858, he married Julia Blake (d. 1876), daughter of Maurice Blake of Ballinafad, Drum, County Mayo. After her death, he married, in 1879, Julia Mary Lynch, daughter of James Lynch, and in 1883, Honoria Ellen Murphy, daughter of Francis Murphy JP of Kilcairne, Killucan, County Meath.

He had four daughters and a son, Major Llewellyn Montague Browne of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers.

He was born in Belfast and was said to be the son of an Irish architect who was also named George Browne. Browne designed houses in Quebec City and Montreal during the 1830s. He designed buildings in Kingston after it became the capital of the Canadas in 1841 and then moved to Montreal after the capital was moved there.

He was married twice, first to Anna Maria Jameson and then to Helen Kissock. He served on Montreal city council and as a commissioner of the peace.

Browne died in Montreal at the age of 74 and was buried in Mount Royal Cemetery under a monument which he had designed for his first wife.

His son George was a prominent architect active in Winnipeg and his son John James was also an architect active in Montreal.

Buildings designed by Browne which are still in use include Kingston City Hall, the Bank of Montreal building in Kingston (now the Frontenac Apartments and the Molsons Bank at Montreal (now the Bank of Montreal).