Biography of Richard Browne Clerk 1539-1604

Around 1539 Richard Browne Clerk was born to John Browne of St Peter's in Colchester.

Around 1575 [his son] Christopher Browne of Sayes Court was born to Richard Browne Clerk (age 36).

In 1584 Richard Browne Clerk (age 45) was elected MP Lichfield.

In 1585 Richard Browne Clerk (age 46) accompanied Robert Dudley 1st Earl of Leicester (age 52) to the Netherlands as Victualler.

In 1588 Richard Browne Clerk (age 49) appointed Clerk of the Green Cloth.

In 1593 Richard Browne Clerk (age 54) was elected MP Newton.

In 1601 Richard Browne Clerk (age 62) was elected MP Cirencester.

Coronation of James I

On 23 Jul 1603 King James I of England and Ireland and VI of Scotland (age 37) created a number Knights at the Royal Gardens Whitehall Palace:

Henry Savile 1st Baronet (age 24), William Morgan (age 43), George Carew, Baptist Hicks 1st Viscount Campden (age 46), Richard Musgrave 1st Baronet (age 18), James Calthorpe (age 44), Thomas Gresham (age 56), George Fane of Burston (age 22), Francis Fane 1st Earl of Westmoreland (age 23), Robert Chichester (age 25), William Pope 1st Earl Downe (age 29), Gervase Clifton 1st Baronet (age 15), Thomas Berkeley (age 28), Edward Montagu 1st Baron Montagu (age 40), William Herbert 1st Baron Powis (age 30), Anthony Irby (age 26), Drue Drury of Eccles and Rollesby in Norfolk and Arnold Lygon (age 45).

24 Jul 1603 Richard Browne Clerk (age 64).

In 1604 Richard Browne Clerk (age 65) was elected MP Harwich.

On 13 May 1604 Richard Browne Clerk (age 65) died.

Evelyn's Diary. 12 Feb 1683. He gave to the Trinity Corporation that land in Deptford [Map] on which are built those almshouses for twenty-four widows of emerited seamen. He was born the famous year of the Gunpowder Treason, in 1605, and being the last [male] of his family, left my wife (age 48), his only daughter, heir. His grandfather, Sir Richard Browne, was the great instrument under the great Earl of Leicester (favorite to Queen Elizabeth) in his government of the Netherland. He was Master of the Household to King James, and Cofferer; I think was the first who regulated the compositions through England for the King's (age 52) household, provisions, progresses,49 etc., which was so high a service, and so grateful to the whole nation, that he had acknowledgments and public thanks sent him from all the counties; he died by the rupture of a vein in a vehement speech he made about the compositions in a Parliament of King James. By his mother's side he was a Gunson, Treasurer of the Navy in the reigns of Henry VIII., Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth, and, as by his large pedigree appears, related to divers of the English nobility. Thus ended this honorable person, after so many changes and tossings to and fro, in the same house where he was born. "Lord teach us so to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom!".