George John Browne | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Marquess of Sligo | |
| In office 1845–1896 | |
| Preceded by | Howe Browne |
| Succeeded by | John Browne, 4th Marquess of Sligo |
George John[1] Browne, 3rd Marquess of Sligo (31 January 1820 – 30 August 1896), styled Earl of Altamont until 1845, was an Irish peer.
The son of Howe Browne, 2nd Marquess of Sligo, George Browne was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge.[2] He married three times but died without male issue. He married,
- firstly, Ellen Smythe, daughter of the 6th Viscount Strangford,
- secondly, Julia Nugent, daughter of the 9th Earl of Westmeath and
- thirdly, Isabelle de Peyronnet, daughter of the Vicomte de Peyronnet.
Like his predecessors, Browne prided himself on being an enlightened landlord. In the second year of the Great Irish Famine, Browne's tenants gathered at Westport House, the ancestral residence of the Marquesses of Sligo. Browne assured his tenants of his support for them, and proceeded to hand them guns (without regard for his own safety), enabling them to hunt for game. He also went into considerable debt in order to acquire cornmeal from the Americas, and converted most of Westport House into a soup kitchen for the starving peasants.[1]
He is buried at Kensal Green Cemetery, London.[3]
- ^ a b The Irish in America - Long Journey Home: The Great Hunger (Documentary). Public Broadcasting Service
- ^ "Browne, George (BRWN838GJ)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ Paths of Glory. Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery. 1997. p. 90.