Isaac Hawkins Browne (coal owner)

Isaac Hawkins Browne FRS, (7 December 1745 – 30 May 1818) was a British Tory politician, industrialist, essayist, and a lord of the manor of Badger, Shropshire.

He was the only son of the poet Isaac Hawkins Browne (1705–1760) and his wife, Jane, née Trimnell. He was educated at Westminster School and Hertford College, Oxford, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in July 1770.

In 1774, Browne bought the manor of Badger from its absentee owner, Clement Kynnersley of Loxley, near Uttoxeter: the house was at that time rented to an ironmaster, William Ferriday. He also owned property at Malinslee in Dawley, Shropshire, now part of the town of Telford, which included Old Park. In 1790, he opened coal mines on his estate and leased enough land in Old Park to enable Thomas Botfield to build the Old Park ironworks there. Ferriday and Botfield had long been business partners in the Dawley and Madeley areas, for example in the Lightmoor Coalworks. Browne mixed and made money in the world of Industrial Revolution business men, while seeking access to the world of politics dominated by the landed gentry. Badger gave him the opportunity to create the rural lifestyle to which he aspired.

After making a grand tour in 1775–1776, he settled on his estates at Badger. Between 1779 and 1783, Browne had Badger Hall greatly extended, to a design by James Wyatt, and commissioned paintings for it from Robert Smirke. He also had Badger Dingle reshaped into a picturesque landscape devised by William Emes.

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