Browne, Sir Valentine (1638–94), 3rd baronet, 1st Viscount Kenmare , politician, and soldier, was son and heir of Sir Valentine Browne, 2nd baronet, and his wife Mary, daughter of Charles MacCarthy, 1st Viscount Muskerry. He succeeded his father in the baronetcy at the age of two. He married (date unknown) Jane, daughter and heiress of Sir Nicholas Plunkett (qv) of Dublin and Balrath, Co. Meath, chairman (during the 1640s) of the general assembly of the catholic confederation at Kilkenny. She died before 1690 and was buried at Killarney, Co. Kerry.
He received a grant of land under the acts of settlement on 16 December 1670 and had a remittance of the quit rents imposed by the acts on 16 February 1687. He was made a commissioner of oyer and terminer and a privy counsellor by James II (qv) on 16 February 1687. He later served as colonel of a regiment of foot on the outbreak of the war. He was present in James's Irish parliament as MP for Cork until 20 May 1689, when he was made Viscount Kenmare (after Kenmare Castle, Co. Limerick, part of the Hospital estate of the Brownes), one of the eight titles created by James after he had been deprived of his English throne. He appears among those taken prisoner at Aughrim on 12 July 1691 and was probably attainted accordingly. Although he lost his estates he had a reputation for kindness to English and Irish protestants, and James II recommended them to his care after the battle of the Boyne.
On the marriage of his eldest son Nicholas he settled his estate on him, his wife, and their issue male, and the remainder to Valentine Plunkett alias Browne, his second son (or on the failure of this, and of any issue his father might have afterwards, to the use of John Browne of Ardagh, Co. Kerry, his father's brother). His will of 7 June 1690 (proved 22 June 1694) gives a vivid insight into the turbulent times of its composition, in which the author has made provision for every eventuality, including exile. In it he also left marriage portions of £3,000 to his daughter Ellis (second wife to Nicholas Purcell, Baron Loughmoe, Co. Tipperary), and £2,000 each to Catherine (wife of Don Luis da Cunha, Portuguese ambassador to Britain) and Thomazine (wife of N. Burke, esq., of Cahirmoil, Co. Limerick). These jointures would later become the focus of litigation for his grandson Valentine (qv), 3rd viscount. He died in 1694.