Isaac Hawkins Browne, FRS (7 December 1745 – 30 May 1818) was a British Tory politician, industrialist, essayist, and a lord of the manor of Badger, Shropshire.
Family and education
He was the only son of the poet Isaac Hawkins Browne (1705–1760) and his wife, Jane, née Trimnell. He was educated at Westminster School and Hertford College, Oxford, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in July 1770.
Employer and squire
In 1774, Browne bought the manor of Badger from its absentee owner, Clement Kynnersley of Loxley, near Uttoxeter: the house was at that time rented to an ironmaster, William Ferriday. He also owned property at Malinslee in Dawley, Shropshire, now part of the town of Telford, which included Old Park. In 1790, he opened coal mines on his estate and leased enough land in Old Park to enable Thomas Botfield to build the Old Park ironworks there. Ferriday and Botfield had long been business partners in the Dawley and Madeley areas, for example in the Lightmoor Coalworks. Browne mixed and made money in the world of Industrial Revolution business men, while seeking access to the world of politics dominated by the landed gentry. Badger gave him the opportunity to create the rural lifestyle to which he aspired.
After making a grand tour in 1775–1776, he settled on his estates at Badger. Between 1779 and 1783, Browne had Badger Hall greatly extended, to a design by James Wyatt, and commissioned paintings for it from Robert Smirke. He also had Badger Dingle reshaped into a picturesque landscape devised by William Emes.
In 1784 he served as treasurer of the Salop Infirmary in Shrewsbury. Browne supported a Sunday School at Malinslee from 1799, and organised the building of a church there, St. Leonard, consecrated in 1805 and designed by Thomas Telford. This was intended to replace the parish church, but that was opened in 1818. It was probably he who initiated and financed one of the village schools at Badger: certainly it was said to be funded by the lord of the manor after his death, when his wife was in control. He also instituted coal allowances for the villagers.
Browne took great interest in the affairs of the parish of Badger, as he was bound to do, since he had the right to nominate the incumbent: he did not present, as the advowson strictly belonged to the Crown. Thomas Hartshorn had been rector from 1753, succeeding his father in the post. For most of that time he held two prebends of St. Peter's Collegiate Church, Wolverhampton: rural Hatherton, near Cannock, and Monmore, which included the growing town of Bilston. At Badger, communion was celebrated only five times a year. In 1780, after the death of Hartshorn, Browne had James Chelsum, a minor scholar, installed. Two years later, Chelsum added to his benefice at Badger the rectory of Droxford in Hampshire, and a chaplaincy at Lathbury in Buckinghamshire. He also took on numerous preaching posts, publishing his sermons. Although Browne must initially have trusted Chelsum, he clearly became disenchanted and arranged for his departure in 1795. Chelsum retained his other benefices until he died insane in 1801. Browne nominated in his place William Smith, who turned out to be an exemplary pastor, devoted solely to the parish and never absent for more than two weeks. Browne rewarded him with the valuable right to nominate his own successor.
Political career
Browne was appointed High Sheriff of Shropshire for 1783–1784.
From 1784, Browne was one of the members of Parliament for Bridgnorth, a pocket borough controlled by the Whitmores of Apley Hall. He served for six successive parliaments, until 1812, and supported the Tory ministries of William Pitt the younger, Henry Addington, the Duke of Portland, and Spencer Perceval. In 1803 he was named as one of the Commissioners of Highland Roads and Bridges.
Hansard records 11 contributions by Browne to parliamentary debate, most of them fairly short, between 1805 and 1809, when his speeches cease. (Reporting of debates was patchy before this time, so it is not certain how active he was earlier in his career.) He was clearly not a striking speaker. When he made one of his longer speeches in 1806, supporting funeral honours for Pitt, he was met by loud coughing.