1634-1660 Member of States Council
Col. Henry Browne, of Four Mile Tree, was a member of the council from 1634 to 1660. He was born in England and died in Virgina. He was a great friend of Sir John Harvey; and Kempe, the Secretary of State, says that there were only two other members of the council who supported Harvey-Purefoy and another (Browne), "who was an honest, plain man, but of small capacity and less power.: He married Anne, probably a daughter of Francis Fowler, of Virginia (aged 23 in 1625), as in 1639 he patented 2250 acres in Surry County at Jouring Point Creen (adjoining the plantation seated by Mr. Fowler) which was originally granted to Mr. Francis Fowler, and was left by Mrs., Antonia Folwer to the said Henry Browne. On March 1, 1657, Col. Henry Browne and Anne, his wife, sold land comprehended in a patent of a greater quantity situated in Surry County on James River, beginning at the westermost end of Pipsico Plantation , and so upward to the line of Col. John Flood. He was a vestryman of Sowthwark Parish, May 24, 166, and died soon after. There is on record in Surry a bond from Co. Thomas Swann to Berkeley Browne, son of Col. Henry Browne, Esq. deceased, dated October 20, 1662, the condition being that as Col. Thomas Swann shall shortly Mrs. Ann Brown, relict of Co. Henry Browne, if he gives Berkeley Browne several articles of personalty, bond to be void. (William and Mary Quarterly)
Governor Argall in 1619 defined the Four Mile Tree (four miles from Jamestown upriver) as the farthest limits of Kamestown. Henry Browne patented his plantation there on the southside of the Kames River purchasing portions of it from heirs of John Smith. (Southside Virginia Families, Vol 1. by John Bennet Boddie.