Browne was born at
Tolethorpe Hall in
Little Casterton,
Rutland, England, about 1550, and was the third of seven children of Anthony Browne and his wife Dorothy, a daughter of Sir Philip Boteler. In 1572 he graduated from
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. It was probably while Browne was at Corpus Christi that he first met
Robert Harrison from Norwich. During 1578 he returned to Cambridge and came under the influence of
Richard Greenham, Puritan rector of
Dry Drayton, near Cambridge. Browne may have been encouraged to complete his
ordination and serve at a parish church. He was offered a lecturer position at
St Bene't's Church, Cambridge possibly through Greenham, but his tenure there was short lived. He may have come to reject the Puritan view of reform from within the Church, and started to look outside the
established Church. Browne was the first seceder from the Church of England and the first to found a church of his own on
Congregational principles. By 1581 he had attempted to set up a separate church in
Norwich; he was arrested but released on the advice of
William Cecil, his kinsman. Browne and companions left England and moved to
Middelburg in the Netherlands later in 1581. There they organised a church on what they conceived to be the New Testament model, but the community broke up within two years owing to internal dissensions. His most important works,
A Treatise of Reformation without Tarying for Anie, in which he asserted the right of the church to effect necessary reforms without the authorisation of the civil magistrate; and
A Booke which sheweth the life and manners of all True Christians which set out the theory of congregational independency, were published at Middelburg in 1582. The following year two men were hanged at
Bury St Edmunds for circulating them. Browne was only an active Separatist from 1579 to 1585 and returned to the Church of England. He served as Headmaster of
St Olave's Grammar School, Southwark 1586–89 and was also Headmaster of
Stamford School between 1589 and 1591. He was much engaged in controversy with some of those who held his earlier separatist position and who now looked upon him as a renegade. In particular he several times replied to
John Greenwood and
Henry Barrowe; one of his replies, entitled
A Reproofe of certaine schismatical persons and their doctrine touching the hearing and preaching of the word of God (1587–1588) sheds light upon the development of Browne's later views. He was ordained deacon and priest by
Richard Howland,
Bishop of Peterborough in September 1591. He held the benefice of
Little Casterton Browne is buried in
St Giles's churchyard, Northampton. ==Legacy==