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John Browne, 1st Earl of Altamont

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The Earl of Altamont
Portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds
Member of the Parliament of Ireland
In office
1744–1760

John Browne, 1st Earl of Altamont (c. 1709 – 4 July 1776), styled Lord Mount Eagle between 1760 and 1768 and Viscount Westport between 1768 and 1771, was an Irish peer and politician. He began the building of Westport House and the town of Westport.

Background and education

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Browne was the only son of Peter Browne, a prosperous Catholic landowner in County Mayo, and Mary Daly. He was a grandson of Colonel John Browne, a signatory of the Treaty of Limerick, and of Denis Daly, judge of the Court of Common Pleas (Ireland). His sisters were Roman Catholics but he himself was a member of the Church of Ireland. He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, in July 1725.

Career

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Browne was High Sheriff of Mayo in 1731, and was elected Member of Parliament for Castlebar in 1744, an office he held until 1760, although he rarely attended Parliament. He was raised to the Peerage of Ireland as Baron Mount Eagle, of Westport in the County of Mayo, and in 1768 he was created Viscount Westport, of Westport in the County of Mayo. In 1771 he was even further honoured when he was made Earl of Altamont, in the County of Mayo.

He was an active and improving landlord, with a particular interest in the breeding of livestock and the improvement of crop strains. He also did much to improve the linen trade in the town of Westport, County Mayo. He also extensively rebuilt Westport House, which remained the family home until 2017.

Westport House 2008

Family and issue

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Anne Gore, 1st Countess of Altamont
CSA Colonel William Montague Browne

Lord Altamont married Anne Gore, daughter of Sir Arthur Gore, 2nd Baronet and Elizabeth Annesley, in December 1729. Their children – six sons and four daughters – included:[1]

References

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  1. ^ "Browne family tree". Thesilverbowl.com. Retrieved 6 November 2014.

Bibliography

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  • Westport House and the Brownes, Denis Browne, Westport, 1981
  • Dictionary of Irish Biography, p. 917, Cambridge, 2010
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Parliament of Ireland
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Castlebar
1744–1760
With: John Wynne to 1747
Henry Mitchell 1747–1761
Succeeded by
Peerage of Ireland
New creation Earl of Altamont
1771–1776
Succeeded by
New creation Viscount Westport
1768–1776
New creation Baron Mount Eagle
1760–1776