Valentine Browne, 3rd Viscount Kenmare

For other people named Valentine Browne, see Valentine Browne (disambiguation).

Sir Valentine Browne, 5th Baronet and 3rd Viscount Kenmare in the Jacobite Peerage (1695–1736)

Valentine Browne
Viscount Kenmare
Tenure	1720–1736
Predecessor	Valentine, 2nd Viscount
Successor	Thomas, 4th Viscount
Born	March 1695
Died	30 June 1736
Spouse(s)	Honora Butler
Issue Detail	Thomas & others
Father	Valentine, 2nd Viscount
Mother	Helen Browne

Birth and origins

Valentine was the son of Nicholas Browne and his wife, Helen Browne. His father was the 2nd Viscount Kenmare. His mother was his father's cousin, being the eldest daughter of Thomas Browne of Hospital, County Limerick.

Family tree
Valentine Browne with his two wives, his parents, and other selected relatives. Valentine 1st Viscount 1638–1694 Jane Plunkett Nicholas 2nd Viscount d. 1720 Helen Browne Honora Butler Valentine 3rd Viscount 1695–1736 Mary FitzGerald Thomas 4th Viscount 1726–1795 Anne Cooke Valentine 1st Earl 1754–1812 Charlotte Dillon 1755-1782 Legend XXX Subject of the article XXX Viscounts & Earls of Kenmare

Early life

After the death of his father in 1720, he succeeded to the family estates which had been under the management of John Asgill because his grandfather Sir Valentine Browne was a supporter of the Jacobite cause who took part in the Battle of Aughrim. For this he was attainted and the family estates forfeited.

The inheritance to which he succeeded was deep in debt due to mismanagement by Asgill. The difficulty experienced in meeting the heavy encumbrances on the impoverished estate fostered disputes in the family and drove close relatives into law with each other, much of which was both protracted and costly.

The exact status of Browne as either a Baronet or Viscount is disputable. He was unambiguously a baronet. The Viscountcy of Kenmare was created by James II in the Peerage of Ireland after his deposition as King of England, but before his deposition from the Irish throne. The peerage may be regarded as legitimate beyond Jacobites, but the Protestant establishment of the day did not recognise it.

First marriage and children

Valentine Browne married, firstly, Honora Butler, daughter of Colonel Thomas Butler and his wife Margaret Bourke, in November 1720. Egan O'Rahilly wrote an Irish poem, called the epithalamium, for the wedding.

Valentine and Honora had a son:

• Thomas

Honora Butler died of smallpox in 1730.

Second marriage and children

He married, secondly, Mary FitzGerald, daughter of Sir Maurice FitzGerald, in October 1735.

Valentine and Mary had a daughter.

Late life and death

It is possible that his financial difficulties caused him to refuse the requests of the poet Egan O'Rahilly to restore his land to him. This refusal caused O'Rahilly to compose a bitter and mournful poem called "Valentin Brown" in which he launches a vitriolic attack on the viscount.

In later years, however, the estate gained a sound financial position after portions of it were sold. Sir Valentine died on 30 June 1736, aged 41.

Poem

Egan O'Rahilly's poem "Valentin Brown", translated by Frank O'Connor, reads:

That my old bitter heart was pierced in this black doom,
That foreign devils have made our land a tomb,
That the sun that was Munster's glory has gone down
Has made me a beggar before you, Valentine Brown

That royal Cashel is bare of house and guest,
That Brian's turreted home is the otter's nest,
That the kings of the land have neither land nor crown
Has made me a beggar before you, Valentine Brown.

Garnish away in the west with its master banned,
Hamburg the refuge of him who has lost his land,
An old grey eye, weeping for lost renown,
Have made me a beggar before you, Valentine Brown.

Notes and references

Sources

• Cokayne, George Edward (1887). Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct, or Dormant. Vol. I (1st ed.). London: George Bell and Sons. – A to Bo
• Cokayne, George Edward (1900). Complete Baronetage, 1611 to 1800. Vol. I (1st ed.). Exeter: William Pollard & Co. OCLC 866278985. – 1611 to 1625
• Dinneen, Patrick S. (1909). The Poems of Egan O'Rahilly. Vol. III (2nd ed.). London: David Nutt. OCLC 1157129500.
• Lodge, John (1789). Archdall, Mervyn (ed.). The Peerage of Ireland or, A Genealogical History of the Present Nobility of that Kingdom. Vol. VII. Dublin: James Moore. OCLC 264906028. – Barons
• Ruvigny, Melville Henry, Marquis de (1904). Jacobite Peerage Baronetage Knightage and Grants of Honour. Edinburgh: T C & E C Jack. OCLC 655825906.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

External links

• Public Record office of Northern Ireland, Kenmare papers