The Browne family descends from Colonel John Browne, younger son of Sir John Browne, 1st Baronet, of
The Neale,
County Mayo, whose eldest son, the second Baronet, was the ancestor of the
Barons Kilmaine. The baronetcy was created in 1636. Colonel John Browne's grandson John Browne represented
Castlebar in the
Irish House of Commons. He was created
Baron Mount Eagle in 1760,
Viscount Westport in 1768 and
Earl of Altamont in 1771, the titles of Mount Eagle and Altamont deriving from
Croagh Patrick near Westport. Both his son, the second Earl, and grandson, the third Earl, represented
County Mayo in the Irish Parliament. In 1800 the latter was elected as one of the 28 original
Irish representative peers and later that year he was created
Marquess of Sligo. In 1806, he was made
Baron Monteagle in the
Peerage of the United Kingdom, which gave the Marquesses an automatic seat in the
House of Lords. He was succeeded by his son, the second Marquess. He was
Lord Lieutenant of County Mayo from 1842 to 1845. Lord Sligo married Lady Hester Catherine de Burgh, eldest daughter of
John Thomas de Burgh, 13th Earl of Clanricarde. In 1800, Lord Clanricarde was given a new Earldom of Clanricarde, with remainder, failing heirs male of his own, to the heirs male of his two daughters. Westport House was sold by Lord Sligo's daughters in October 2017, breaking the formal link between Westport House and the family which had been ongoing for 380 years. The house was sold to the Hughes family, a local family of entrepreneurs with
Portwest clothing manufacturing operations and a hotel in Westport. ==Earls of Altamont (1771)==