The Honorable James Browne (1736/8 – 22 October 1790) was an Irish Member of Parliament and Law Officer. He sat in the House of Commons of Ireland from 1768 to 1790.[1]
He was born in County Mayo, fourth son of John Browne, 1st Earl of Altamont and Anne Gore, daughter of Sir Arthur Gore, 2nd Baronet and Elizabeth Annesley.[2]
He entered Middle Temple in 1755 and was called to the Bar in 1760.[3] He was advanced to the rank of Prime Serjeant-at-law (Ireland) in 1780.[3] He was dismissed following the change of Government in 1782, but was reappointed in 1784 when a promotion to the Bench left the office open. He was dismissed a second time in 1787.[3]He died unmarried in 1790.[4]
Hart suggests that he was a failure as Prime Serjeant, but adds that the office itself was by the 1780s an anachronism.[5] Although in theory, the Prime Serjeant was still the Government's most senior legal advisor, in practice the Attorney General of Ireland had for over a century had precedence over the Serjeants. The office of Prime Serjeant was abolished in 1805 following the death of Arthur Browne.[6]
He was an MP for Jamestown from 1768 to 1776, for Tuam from 1776 to 1783, and for Castlebar from 1783 to 1790.[1]
ulsterhist-james-browne was invoked but never defined (see the help page).