Peter Browne

Peter Browne (or Brown, as he spelt his name at entrance) was born in County Dublin and entered Trinity College as a pensioner in June 1682 after attending the free school attached to St Patrick’s Cathedral.¹ He graduated in 1686 and was elected to Fellowship in 1692.  Seven years later he was appointed Provost, in succession to George Browne (to whom he appears not to have been related).  While still a Fellow he wrote one of the numerous replies to John Toland's controversial deistical work Christianity not Mysterious. Archbishop Marsh (former Provost Narcissus Marsh) is said to have recommended Browne for the provostship on the basis of this rebuttal.² This came to the notice of Queen Anne, who was also favourably impressed by his preaching, and she rewarded him in 1710 by appointing him Bishop of Cork.³  Browne was a moderate Tory and irritated by the virtual deification of William III by the Whigs after his death, he published several pamphlets attacking the practice of drinking to the memory of the dead, ostensibly on religious but also, on political grounds. 

Painting Details

By Hugh Howard
Oil on canvas

1. Anne Crookshank and David Webb, Paintings and Sculptures in Trinity College Dublin (Dublin, 1990), p. 27.
2. J.V. Luce, Trinity College Dublin, The First 400 Years (Dublin, 1992), pp 37-39.
3. Anne Crookshank and David Webb, Paintings and Sculptures in Trinity College Dublin (Dublin, 1990), p. 27.