John Browne brought his family to America about 1634. He was led to settle in Plymouth Colony by a pleasant acquaintance formed years before with John Robinson's congregation at Leyden (Nathaniel Morton, New-England's Memoriall, 1669). Browne was a man of gentle birth, as "Mr. " prefixed to his name in the colony records indicates.
Chosen one of the Governor's Assistants in January 1635/36, John Browne was reelected annually (with the exception of the year 1646) for nineteen years, was a member of the Council of War in 1642, 1646, and 1653, and a Commissioner of the United Colonies of New England from 1644 to 1656.
Removing from Plymouth to Cohannet, he was a proprietor when that settlement was incorporated as the town of Taunton in 1639. He had the respect and confidence of the Indians and was frequently the Colony's agent in dealings with them.
In 1641 he and Edward Winslow were appointed to purchase from Massasoit the land comprising the present towns of Seekonk, Rehoboth, East Providence, and Pawtucket. Two years later he was an incorporator of Rehoboth. Going to Providence in 1645, on behalf of Plymouth Colony he opposed putting into effect Roger Williams's charter. He then proceeded to Shawomet where the outcast Samuel Gorton and his followers had settled, and forbade some twenty families from Massachusetts Bay to interfere with Gorton, claiming that the land belonged to Plymouth.
Again in 1651 by setting Plymouth Colony's claim to jurisdiction in opposition to that of Massachusetts Bay he created a deadlock, the result of which was that Gorton retained his land. In October 1645, pursuant to a vote of a Rehoboth town meeting, Browne advanced money to purchase from the Wampanoags a tract known as Wannamoiset, lying between the Pawtucket River and Narragansett Bay. Here he settled permanently. One of the well-to-do among the colonists, he was characterized by a sturdy liberalism already exhibited in his championing of Gorton.
In 1656 he went to England to take charge of the estate of his friend Sir Henry Vane, returning some four years later to his Wannamoiset home, where he died in 1662.
John Browne became a proprietor of Cohannet when that settlement was incorporated as the town of Taunton in 1639. He was engaged in interactions with Native-Americans, since he gained their respect, so on frequent basis he acted as the Colony's agent in dealings with them. John Browne was also a very wealthy man, evidenced by the fact that he left one grandson alone over 700 acres of land.
He opposed the persecution of the Quakers and favored religious toleration, in 1655 pledging his estate to cover possible deficiencies in voluntary contributions so that Rehoboth need not be subjected to taxation for church support.
Browne's wife, Dorothy, died in 1674/75, aged about ninety. Browne had descendants through two sons and a daughter, the latter married to Thomas Willett, first English mayor of New York City.
