Fonds BL/BR - Bradfer-Lawrence Collection: Browne of King's Lynn Papers

Born in King's Lynn in 1887. He became a land agent and worked in Norfolk until 1935 when he was appointed managing director of Hammond's brewery in Yorkshire. He was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1924 and published a number of works connected with the history and archaeology of Norfolk. From his youth, he was an avid collector of books and manuscripts. His successful career as a businessman enabled him to make substantial purchases from the leading London dealers, and to build up a massive and important collection by the time of his death in 1965. According to his wishes, his executors deposited those manuscripts relating to Norfolk in the Norfolk Record Office in 1967, a similar gift of his Yorkshire manuscripts being made to the Yorkshire Archaeological Society at the same time. Died 1965.

Samuel Browne was one of the most successful Lynn merchants of his day, trading in coal, corn and fish, as Everard Browne, and in wine as Browne & Hickman. He owned shares in several ships, and made investments in stock, mortgages, and other securities. The family originated in Lincolnshire. At the time of Browne's death he had property in Lynn, South Lynn, North Runcton, Hardwick, and Grimston, Norfolk, in Long Sutton, Bicker and Frampton, Lincolnshire, and in Eye in Suffolk. Consequently his affairs took several years to wind up. His brother Scarlet Browne died in 1786 and was succeeded as executor by his son-in-law, Henry Bell.
Both of Samuel Browne's daughters married into the Norfolk gentry: Pleasance married Edward Roger Pratt of Ryston, and Hester married Jacob Henry Astley.