Sir Thomas Browne (1402 – 20 July 1460) was a Member of Parliament and Chancellor of the Exchequer. Browne's tenure as Chancellor occurred during the Great Bullion Famine and the Great Slump in England. He was executed for treason on 20 July 1460.
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Career
Thomas Browne was the son and heir of Robert Browne and a nephew of Stephen Browne MP. In 1434 he was sworn to the peace in Kent, and made a Justice of Peace there from 1436 to 24 December 1450. He was High Sheriff of Kent in 1443.
He was Member of Parliament for Dover in the 1439-40 Parliament, for Kent in 1445–6, and for Wallingford in 1449–50. He attended the Parliaments of 1447 and February 1449, though this appears to have been as Under-Treasurer rather than as an elected MP.
He served as Treasurer of the Household to Henry VI. He was knighted 1449/1451. During the reign of King Henry VI, his highest post was that of Under Treasurer to Marmaduke Lumley, Bishop of Carlisle at the Exchequer, which he held between February 1447 and July 1449. He was later Justice of Peace for Surrey from 20 July 1454 until his death.
Browne remained loyal to Henry VI and Lancastrian forces as England became increasingly politically unstable, especially from 1453 after Henry's mental breakdowns, as tensions mounted between Queen Margaret and Richard, Duke of York over control of the incapacitated King's government resulted with civil war in 1455. Browne was pardoned by the Yorkist's in 1455, and 1458. He was the Duke of Exeter's right-hand man in 1460, unwavering to the Lancastrian cause when Yorkist Earls (Warwick, Salisbury, and Edward) arrived in England. Browne assisted the effort by collecting men and broke the blockade during the siege of the Tower of London (1460).