The Childhood of Sir Thomas Browne: Evidence from the Court of Orphans

Abstract

In the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century, a small area of London Cheapside and nearby-was the birthplace of several literary figures: John Donne, Robert Herrick, Sir Thomas Browne, andJohn Milton~ All, save Milton, whose father was a scrivener, were sons of freemen belonging to livery companies of the City of London. Donne's father was an ironfounder, Herrick's a goldsmith, and Browne was the son of a mercer. These great companies were stable forces not only for commercial prosperity but for education, arts, and science. Their concern extended also to the family of a freeman. Donne and Browne shared an additional experience the early death of a father which misfortune brought them before the Court of Orphans. 1 Biographers of Browne (1605-82) are reticent about his childhood, pleading a lack of documentary evidence, but scattered records exist, and attendances at the Court of Orphans of the City of London created an abundance of data. Many hundreds of orphans appear in these records, but the information either may be known from other sources or is not of significance. The evidence relating to Browne is invaluable, reversing convictions long held on doubtful evidence. The central questions about Browne's childhood, answered in these records, are his relation to his mother and stepfather, and how, during his minority, they administered his patrimony. The fate of his four sisters is also pertinent. Browne was educated for eight years at Winchester College, for three years at Oxford University, and for three years successively at Montpellier, Padua, and Leiden. This advantageous education has been attributed to his mother and stepfather, but eighteenthcentury biographers were unconvinced. A footnote to the Life in the 1712 Works states 'He was likewise very much defrauded by one of his Guardians,.2 This suspicion recurs in early biographies, and was repeated by Samuel Johnson as: