f the Boston Port bill, he was waited on
by a committee of the Essex delegates, to inform him, that "it was with
grief that the country had viewed his exertions for carrying into
execution certain acts of parliament calculated to enslave and ruin his
native land; that while the country would continue the respect for
several years paid him, it resolved to detach, from every future
connection, all such as shall persist in supporting or in any way
countenancing the late arbitrary acts of Parliament; that the delegates
in the name of the country requested him to excuse them from the painful
necessity of considering and treating him as an enemy to his country,
unless he resigned his office as Counsellor and Judge." Colonel Browne
replied as follows:

"As a judge and in every other capacity, I intend to act with honor and
integrity and to exert my best abilities; and be assured that neither
persuasion can allure me, nor menaces compel me, to do anything
derogatory to the character of a Counselor of his Majesty's province of
Massachusetts."--William Browne.

Colonel Browne was esteemed among the most opulent and benevolent
individuals of that province prior to the Revolution; and so great was
his popularity that the gubernatorial chair of Massachusetts was offered
him by the "committee of safety," as an inducement for him to remain and
join the "sons of liberty." But he felt it a duty to adhere to
government; even at the expense of his great landed estate, both in
Massachusetts and Connecticut, the latter comprising fourteen valuable
farms, all of which were afterwards confiscated.

By preferring to remain on the side representing law and authority, and
unwilling to adopt the course of the revolutionists, this courtly
representative of an ancient and honorable family, this sincere lover of
his country, this skilled man of affairs, this upright and merciful
judge, once so beloved by his fellow townsmen, drew upon himself their
wrath, and he fled from his native country never to return again. First
he sought refuge in Boston in 1774, then in Halifax, and from there he
went to England in 1776, where he remained till 1781, when he was
appointed Governor of Bermuda, as a slight return for his great
sacrifices and important services in behalf of the Crown. Colonel Browne
married his cousin, the daughter of Governor Wanton, of Rhode Island,
and was doubly connected with the Winthrop family; the wives of the
elder Browne and Govern