BROWNE, THOMAS WOGAN

Amateur architect. Thomas Wogan Browne, son of Michael Browne, of Castle Browne, Co. Kildare,(1) inherited Castle Browne from his father, and from 1788 onwards began to enlarge and embellish it in the castle style.(2)   Alistair Rowan has suggested that he may have designed these additions himself and possibly also similar additions at Ballinlough, Co. Westmeath, and Malahide Court, Co. Dublin.(3)   Browne was asked by Arthur James, eighth Earl of Fingall to comment on FRANCIS JOHNSTON' FRANCIS JOHNSTON' s designs of January 1802 for enlarging Killeen Castle, Co. Meath, and produced a plan based on Johnston's with suggested improvements;  these suggestions were incorporated into an alternative scheme by Johnston the following year.(4)   He died, apparently by his own hand, in 1812.(5)  He had no children, and after his death his younger brother Lieut. Gen. Michael Wogan Browne sold Castle Browne to the Jesuits,(6) who restored the earlier name of the property, Clongowes Wood.

References

For a fuller account of Browne's life, see the entry by C.J. Woods in Dictionary of Irish Biography, ed. by James McGuire and James Quinn, 9 vols. (Cambridge University Press, 2009), I, 932-3.

(1) According to Woods, loc. cit., above, he was the elder son, but B. Burke, Landed Gentry of Ireland (1904), 66, records him as being the second of three sons.
(2) Funds for these works may have derived from his marriage to Sarah Pearson , 'a lady of considrable property in Westmorland' (Burke, loc. cit., above);  he is also said to have been a merchant (see BIGS 7, no. 1 (Jan-Mar 1964), 21).
(3) A. Rowan, 'Georgian Castles in Ireland', BIGS 7, no. 1 (Jan-Mar 1964), 21.
(4) Johnston's schemes & Browne's plan are in IAA, Murray Collection, nos. 896-897, 901-929. These are discussed by Bernadette Goslin, 'A History and descriptive catalogue of the Murray Collection of Architectural drawings', UCD MA thesis, 1990, 275-7. 5) See note 3, above.
(6)   http://www.clongowes.com/frpeterkenneysj.html  (2008).

4 work entries listed in chronological order for BROWNE, THOMAS WOGAN

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Building:	CO. KILDARE, CASTLE BROWNE (ALIAS CLONGOWES WOOD)
Date:	1788
Nature:	Castle style additions attributed to TWB by Rowan & Bence-Jones.
Refs:	A. Rowan, 'Georgian Castles in Ireland', BIGS 7, no. 1 (Jan-Mar 1964), 21; Mark Bence-Jones, Burke’s Guide to Country Houses. Volume I, Ireland. (London, 1978), 63-64.

Building:	CO. MEATH, KILLEEN CASTLE
Date:	1802
Nature:	Improvements to F. Johnston's design suggested by TWB. for 8th Earl of Fingall
Refs:	Drawings in IAA, Murray Collection, nos. 896-897, 901-929 (see Murray Collection catalogue, pp. 275-7); A. Rowan, 'Georgian Castles in Ireland', BIGS 7, no. 1 (Jan-Mar 1964), 21.

Building:	CO. WESTMEATH, BALLINLOUGH CASTLE
Date:	?
Nature:	Castle style additions attributed to TWB by Rowan.
Refs:	A. Rowan, 'Georgian Castles in Ireland', BIGS 7, no. 1 (Jan-Mar 1964), 21; Christine Casey & Alistair Rowan, The Buildings of Ireland: North Leinster (1993), 139.

Building:	CO. DUBLIN, MALAHIDE, MALAHIDE CASTLE
Date:	?
Nature:	Castle style additions attributed to TWB by Rowan.
Refs:	A. Rowan, 'Georgian Castles in Ireland', BIGS 7, no. 1 (Jan-Mar 1964), 21.