Sir Matthew Browne (1563 – 1 August 1603) of Betchworth Castle, Surrey, MP, was an English aristocrat and lawyer, the only son of Sir Thomas Browne and Mabel Fitzwilliam. He was involved in legal and financial transactions concerning the Globe Theatre in 1601. He was killed in a duel with his kinsman, Sir John Townshend, on 1 August 1603.
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Early life and education
Matthew Browne was the only son of Sir Thomas Browne (d. 9 February 1597) and his first wife, Mabel Fitzwilliam, the eldest daughter and coheiress of the courtier Sir William Fitzwilliam, Gentleman of the Privy Chamber and Lieutenant of Windsor Castle, by Jane Roberts, daughter and coheiress of John Roberts of Cranbrook, Kent, and Mayfield, Sussex. He had two sisters, Jane Browne, who married Sir Oliph Lee, and Elizabeth Browne, who married Robert Honeywood.
After the death of his first wife, Mabel, Sir Thomas Browne married Helen or Ellen Harding, widow of Richard Knyvet, and daughter and heiress of William Harding, by whom he had a son, Richard Browne.
Browne was at Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1576. By a parliament held 11 February 1582 he was granted special admission to the Inner Temple together with Nicholas Brend (d. 12 October 1601), son and heir of Thomas Brend (d. 1597), and John Bodley of Streatham, stepson of Thomas Brend, with whom he was later to be associated in connection with the Globe Theatre and other properties.