Joseph C Sweeney, The Life and Times of Arthur Browne in Ireland and America 1756–1805
| Author | |
| Date | 01 January 2019 |
| Published date | 01 January 2019 |
| Pages | 141-142 |
| DOI | 10.3366/elr.2019.0538 |
Arthur Browne was a remarkable eighteenth century Irish lawyer of American origin. Not only was he an academic lawyer (according to Professor O'Higgins one of the most distinguished holders of the Regius Chair of Law at Trinity College, Dublin) but he also practised successfully and was a significant politician in the Irish Parliament. Browne was born in Newport, Rhode Island in about 1756 and was the son of the rector of Trinity Church. His father, grandfather and great grandfather were Anglican priests as was his own son. They were also graduates of Trinity College, Dublin. His father and grandfather had gone to America under the auspices of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel to promote the Anglican religion amongst the colonists. Browne later recalled with considerable warmth his boyhood in Rhode Island but it was his father's plan that he should follow the family tradition and enrol in Trinity. It was shortly after a journey to Ireland in 1771 with his son to arrange his admission to Trinity that he died leaving Arthur an orphan, as his mother had died four years earlier. After a year at Harvard, Arthur travelled to Ireland in 1772 and embarked on a successful academic career gaining the degrees of BA, MA and LLD and, in 1779, becoming a junior fellow of Trinity. He also read for the Irish Bar, which entailed entering an English Inn of Court, and commenced a successful career at the Irish bar where he practised before both the courts applying the common law and those dealing with admiralty and ecclesiastical matters. He became a K.C. in 1795 and a Bencher of the King's Inn, shortly before his death, in 1805.
His career at the bar was combined from 1785 with the Regius Professorship of Law at Trinity where he had a reputation as a fine teacher and was by then a senior fellow. He combined this post with the Regius Chair of Greek on three occasions (1792–95, 1797–99 and 1801–1805). His major publication was
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