JOHN BROWNE 
1793—1877. 
Artist and the Historian of York Minster. 
By GEORGE BENSON, 
Hon. Curator of Archceology, Yorkshire Philosophical Society. 
^N BROWNE was born on May 2nd, 1793, in the Gatehouse 
known as Walmgate Bar, and was baptised three days later 
at St. Margaret’s Church. Four generations of the Browne family 
have lived in the Bar. John Browne was the first of a large 
family. His father, named William, was a joiner, and his mother, 
called Anne, was a daughter of William Gill. John was named 
after his grandfather, who was also a joiner and lived in the Bar, 
which was in St. Peter-the-Willows, a parish that had been 
united to that of St. Margaret’s. 
Whilst a boy of fifteen years John Browne attended a course of 
28 lessons in drawing—principally of heads and figures—from 
Henry Cave, artist, at the cost of one guinea. Two years later he 
returned for further instruction, but the lessons were given so 
irregularly that the pupil could only conclude that Cave had no 
wish to continue, and so the proposed lessons were abandoned.'" 
On leaving school John Browne followed the occupation of a 
painter. He took up his freedom in 1814. He subsequently 
married—his wife’s name was Isabella—and dwelt in Walmgate. 
His eldest son was named after his maternal grandfather, William 
Gill, and was baptised at St. Margaret’s Church. 
John Browne had a strong inclination for sketching, and eventu¬ 
ally he set up as a teacher of perspective and drawing. For this 
congenial emplo3mient he was well qualified. He found plenty of 
subjects in York and district, and whilst sketching churches 
became interested in archaeology. In the vicinity of his home 
were the Norman doorwa3^s of St. Lawrence’s, St. Denis’s, and 
James Tate, MS. 
