Browne, Denis (1763–1828), politician, was born in Westport House, Co. Mayo, second son among two sons and four daughters of Peter Browne (1741–80), 2nd earl of Altamont and MP for Co. Mayo (1761–8), and his wife Elizabeth, the only daughter and heiress of Denis Kelly of Lisduffe, Co. Galway, and Spring Gardens, Co. Mayo, formerly chief justice of Jamaica. Browne served as an officer in the 5th Royal Irish Dragoons (1779–84), and to the end of his life maintained a brusque military bearing.
Through the influence of his brother, Lord Altamont, and supported by the catholic interest, he was elected MP for Co. Mayo (1782–1800) (and was also returned for Castlebar in 1797). He followed the lead of his brother in going into opposition when his uncle James Browne (d. 1790) was dismissed as prime sergeant (1782), but his family later came round to supporting the administration of the duke of Rutland (qv), after his uncle received a pension. Although he supported Flood's reform bill (1783), his enthusiasm for reform declined afterwards when his county opponents took it up. He spoke frequently in parliament, and was a forceful if not particularly articulate debater. High sheriff of Co. Mayo (1786–7) and later county governor, he was appointed to the privy council 20 January 1794. He fought several duels: one with the notorious duellist George Robert Fitzgerald (qv), while Browne was county sheriff; another during the general election of 1790 with his opponent John Bingham, after Bingham had called him as ‘a Castle hack’; and in 1801 when he eliminated a parliamentary opponent and was returned unopposed for Co. Mayo. Given his reliance on catholic support in Mayo, he advocated catholic emancipation in the early 1790s, but would not cooperate with the Catholic Committee's efforts to organise elections in November 1792. His actions frustrated the committee's agent, Wolfe Tone (qv), who believed he was unwilling to risk ceding any of his influence with Mayo catholics; Tone denounced him as ‘a blockhead without parts or principles’ (Moody, McDowell, & Woods, 301).
Browne kept Dublin Castle well informed of events in Mayo, particularly in the troubled years of the late 1790s. In 1795 he and his brother assisted about 500 families who had fled anti-catholic pogroms in Ulster, although the refugees were thoroughly questioned to root out the disaffected. He was captain of the Murrisk yeomanry cavalry (1796–9), and during the French invasion of August 1798 his home in Claremorris, Co. Mayo, was destroyed. He took revenge by arbitrarily hanging many of the local people who had joined the French, and earned the nickname ‘Denis the Rope’ for his zeal in stringing up suspected rebels.
A strong supporter of the government and of the act of union, he was rewarded when his brother was made first marquess of Sligo in 1800. In the UK parliament Denis represented Co. Mayo (1801–18) and Kilkenny city (1820–26), and strongly supported continued military coercion in the early 1800s, claiming that the tranquillity of the country was deceptive. He continued to vote in favour of catholic emancipation, with the permission of the government. In return for a near monopoly of patronage in Mayo he generally supported government, though he was rather lukewarm towards the Grenville ministry (1806–7). With an insatiable appetite for patronage, he often complained of government neglect, particularly during Sir Robert Peel's (qv) chief secretaryship (1812–18). He was described as ‘an able man but . . . jealous of his elder brother, and even more jealous of his nephew, when he became the second marquess’ (Browne, 32). In 1820, through the influence of his nephew John Otway (1788–1820), 2nd earl of Desart (Browne's sister Anne (d. 1814) had married the 1st earl in 1785), he was elected MP for Kilkenny city and joined his sons James Browne (1793–1854), MP for Co. Mayo (1818–31), and Peter Browne (1794–1872), MP for Rye (1818–26), in the commons. He was the central figure in the Brownes' political network, and helped secure the election of his cousin, Dominick Browne (1787–1860), 1st Baron Oranmore, MP for Co. Mayo (1814–26, 1830–36), whose radical political opinions and support for the opposition often prejudiced his position as a government supporter. He died at Claremorris 14 August 1828. His portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds is held in Westport House. In 1790 he married his cousin Anne Mahon (d. 1833) of Castlegar, Co. Galway; they had five sons and four daughters.
His elder brother John Denis Browne (1756–1809), 3rd earl of Altamont (1780–1809), was born 11 June 1756, and educated at Eton (1768–71). He bought his seat to become MP for Jamestown, Co. Leitrim (1776–80) and was high sheriff (1779), governor (1781), and joint governor of Co. Mayo (1797–1800). A major in the Mayo Legion Volunteers, in parliament he voted for catholic emancipation (1778) but against Patriot attempts to establish legislative independence (1780). He first took his seat in the lords on 22 November 1781. After his uncle James's dismissal in 1782 he cooperated with the parliamentary opposition, but from 1784 he and his family supported the government, and afterwards often attracted abuse from the opposition press. In 1782 he was described by a pro-government observer as ‘a weak, vain, stingy young man’ (Sayles, 279). Appointed to the privy council (28 November 1785), he was created KP (5 August 1800), marquess of Sligo (29 December 1800) for his family's strong support of the act of union, and Baron Mounteagle (UK) (20 February 1806). Thomas De Quincey (a friend of his son Peter) spoke of him in 1800 as ‘a very fat man’ and so lame after a paralytic stroke ‘that he is obliged to have two servants to support him whenever he stirs’ (G.E.C., xii, pt 1, 24). Besides Westport House, he owned a house at 18 Sackville St., Dublin; his annual rental income was £11,239 in 1796. On 21 May 1787 he married Louisa Catherine (d. 1817) youngest daughter and co-heir of Adm. Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe; they had a son and a daughter. He died in London 2 January 1809 and was succeeded by his only son, Peter Howe Browne (1788–1845), a well known whig and governor general of Jamaica (1833–6), where he owned estates of 20,000 acres.