Biographical Summary
Peter Browne's English origins were
just recently discovered. I published the results of my research
and discoveries into his origins in The American Genealogist,
79(July 2004, came out in October):161-178. Peter Browne was
baptized in Dorking, co. Surrey, England on 26 January 1594/5, the son
of William Browne. The Browne family appears to have had several
associations with the Mullins family of Dorking, who also came on the
Mayflower. Peter Browne's brother John Browne came to America
about 1632, and settled in Duxbury, just to the north of Plymouth.
John Browne was baptized in Dorking on 29 June 1600.
On 12 January 1621, Peter Browne
and John Goodman had been cutting thatch for house roofing all morning.
They ate some meat and went for a short walk to refresh themselves, when
their two dogs (an English mastiff and a English spaniel) spied a great
deer and gave chance. Peter and John followed and quickly got
lost. They wandered around the entire afternoon in the rain, and
spent the night in a tree (and pacing back and forth under it) fearing
that they had heard lions roaring in the woods. The next day they
made their way up a hill, spotted the Bay, reoriented themselves, and
made it back home to an extremely worried Colony that had already sent
out two exploring parties in an attempt to find them.
In a partial list of the house
locations of the Pilgrims made out in 1620, John Goodman and Peter
Browne appear to have been neighbors on the south side of the Street and
the ocean side of the Highway. Peter Browne was apparently still
living there during the 1623 Division of Land. By about 1626, he
married Martha Ford, who arrived as one of the only female passengers on
the ship Fortune in 1621. She gave birth almost immediately
after arriving, but husband Ford apparently died during the voyage or
shortly after arrival. In the 1627 Division of Cattle he, his wife
Martha (Ford), his daughter Mary Browne, and his stepchildren John and
Martha Ford were included with the Samuel Fuller and Anthony Anable
families. About a year later, Peter and Martha would have daughter
Priscilla (perhaps named after Mayflower passenger Priscilla
Mullins who was also from Dorking), but wife Martha would die shortly thereafter. Peter
remarried to a woman named Mary, whose maiden name has not been
discovered. With her, he had a daughter Rebecca born about 1631,
and another child who was born about 1633 and died before reaching
adulthood (the name of this child has not been discovered).
Peter Browne died in 1633, probably
during the general sickness that occurred that autumn and also killed
neighbor Samuel Fuller, Mayflower passenger Francis Eaton, and several others in Plymouth. His estate
inventory taken 10 October 1633 shows that he owned 130 bushels of corn,
six melch goats, one cow, eight sheep, and a number of pigs, among other
things.
|
