A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Browne, Edward Walpole
BROWNE. (Rear-Admiral of the Red, 1840. f-p., 25; h-p., 45.)
Edward Walpole Browne was born in 1767, and died 15 Oct. 1846, at Spittal, Berwick-upon-Tweed. He was of a family of high respectability, long seated at Godmenstone, co. Dorset, being a descendant, lineally and collaterally we presume, of Sir John Browne, Kt., who died a Rear-Admiral in 1627, at the age of 69, and of Sir Robt. Browne, Kt., who died a Vice-Admiral in 1634, at the age of 70; and a near relative of Rear-Admiral Philip Browne.
This officer entered the Navy, 4 June, 1777, on board the Scorpion, Capt. Philip Browne, and successively served, until the close of the first American war, in the Rose 20, commanded by the same Captain, Fowey 20, Capt. John Henry, Perseus frigate, and Warwick 50, both commanded by Capt. Geo. Keith Elphinstone, and L’Aigle 36, Capts. Peacock and Wm. Fooks. During that period, in the Rose and Fowey, he assisted, in Sept. and Oct. 1779, at the defence of Savannah, where Capt. Browne, who afterwards died from excessive fatigue, sank his ship on the bar at the entrance of the river to prevent the approach of the enemy’s fleet. He served also, in the Perseus, at the reduction of Charlestown, in May, 1780; and contributed, in the Warwick, to the capture, in Jan. 1781, of the Rotterdam Dutch ship, of 50 guns and 300 men, after a smart action, and, on 11 Sept. 1782, of L’Aigle French frigate, of 40 guns and 600 men. In 1785 Mr. Browne joined the Standard 64, Capt. Wm. Dickson, at Portsmouth. He passed his examination in the course of the same year; and, after a further attachment of four years to the Jupiter 50, bearing the broad pendants of Commodores Rich. Hussey Bickerton and Wm. Parker in the Leeward Islands, and Marlborough 74, flag-ship off Madeira of Rear-Admiral Sam. Cornish, was made Lieutenant into the Culloden 74, Capts. Hen. Collins and Thos. MacKenzie, on the West India station, 9 Nov. 1790. His next appointments were – 24 Jan. 1793, to the Brilliant frigate, Capts. Mark Robinson and Wm. Pierrepont, employed in the North Sea and Downs – 11 March, 1795, to the Leopard 50, flag-ship on the same stations of Vice-Admiral Joseph Peyton – and, 5 July, 1796, as First-Lieutenant, to the Overyssel 64, bearing the flag of the latter officer, and, afterwards, of Vice- Admirals Skeffington Lutwidge, John Bazely, and Geo. Vandeput, in the Downs. He obtained a Commander’s commission 25 June, 1799; was advanced to Post-rank 29 April, 1802; held a command in the Lincolnshire and Sussex districts of Sea Fencibles, from Sept. 1803, until that corps was disbanded in Feb. 1810; and, with the exception of a short period in 1815, during which he discharged the duties of Regulating-Captain at Waterford, was not further employed. Capt. Browne became a Rear-Admiral 17 Aug. 1840.
He married, 6 March, 1845, Hannah, eldest daughter of the late Robt. Ogle, Esq., of Eglingham, Northumberland.