Richard Brownlow (1553 – 1638), aged 70
British (English) School
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1624
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1630 x 920 mm
Order this imageCollection
Belton House, Lincolnshire
NT 436124
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Richard Brownlow (1553-1658), aged 70, British (English) School, inscribed, upper left and right:ANNO DOMINI 1624 AE.SUAE. 70 and, bottom right: RICHARD BROWNLOWE/CHIEF PROTHONOTARY / OF THE COURT OF/ COMMON PLEAS. A three-quarter-length portrait of a man seated, in black robes white ruff and cuffs. He was the son of John Brownlow of High Holborn, by a daughter of Sir John Zouch of Stoughton Grange, Leicestershire. Born 2 April 1553. In 1583 he was entered at the Inner Temple, and was treasurer of that society in 1606. On 9 Oct. 1591 he was made chief prothonotary of the court of common pleas, which office he continued to hold until his death, deriving from it an annual profit of £6,000, with which he purchased the reversion of the estate of Belton, near Grantham, and other properties in Lincolnshire. He married Katherine Page, daughter of John Page of Wembly, Middlesex, one of the first governors of Harrow School, and by her had three sons and three daughters: 'Old' Sir John Brownlow,1st Bt of Belton (1594-1679), Sir William Brownlow, 1st Bt of Great Humby (1595-1666), Audrey, Mary and Elizabeth Brownlow (c.1592-1658), who married Jon Sherard (d.1660) of Lobthorpe. He died at Enfield on 21 July 1638 in his eighty-sixth year; his bowels were buried in Enfield church, but his body was carried to Belton, and buried 1 Aug. in the church there, where there is a figure of him in his prothonotary's gown surmounting his monument by Joshua Marshall (1628-1678). The Prothonotary is the chief custodian of the Civil Records of the Court of Common Pleas with the administrative responsibility for their safekeeping and preservation.
Provenance
Purchased with a grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) from Edward John Peregrine Cust, 7th Baron Brownlow, C. St J. (b.1936) in 1984
Credit line
Belton House, The Brownlow Collection (acquired with the help of the National Heritage Memorial Fund by the National Trust in 1984)
Makers and roles
British (English) School, artist