Sylvester John Browne

Sylvester John Browne (1841 – 4 August 1915), occasionally referred to as Sylvester John Browne jnr, was a mining magnate, adventurer and sportsman, whose activities spanned practically the whole of Australia. He was a brother of the well-known author Thomas Alexander Browne ("Rolf Boldrewood"). History Browne was born in New South Wales in 1841 to Captain Sylvester John Browne (c1790-1864) and Eliza Angell Browne, née Alexander (c. 1813 – 8 November 1899). In 1830 Captain Sylvester John Browne, at one time a ship master of the East India Company, and his wife emigrated to New South Wales with their first son Thomas aboard the barque Proteus, of which he was owner and commander, first delivering his cargo of convicts to Tasmania. He built a home on the outskirts of Sydney which he named "Newtown House" hence, it has been asserted, the suburb of Newtown. In 1835 he built the "Enmore" mansion, for which that suburb was named. In 1840, following the severe drought of 1837–1839, Captain Browne and family moved to "Hartlands", Heidelberg, Victoria. In 1847, after threatening his son Thomas with a gun, he was declared a dangerous lunatic and committed to an institution. No later information has been found about Captain Browne; it may be that he died in the asylum. Browne was born in Heidelberg, Victoria and presumably educated in Victoria but real information has been hard to find. He spent his early years as a grazier in Queensland, holding Sandringham and other properties. He was appointed magistrate in Gympie 1876. He was a commission agent at Hillston, New South Wales in 1884. Horse racing The Morphettville Racecourse had been resumed by the mortgagee in 1883 after its operator, the South Australian Jockey Club failed financially following the prohibition of the totalizator. Five years later restrictions on the totalizator were eased and Browne (with some input from T. F. Wigley) purchased the property and leased it, with option to purchase, to the reconstituted Club.