Brownlow North was born on 17 July 1741 in Chelsea, Middlesex, Great Britain, the only son of Francis North, 1st Earl of Guilford and his second wife Elizabeth, only child and sole heir of Sir Arthur Kaye Bt MP, and widow of her first husband George Legge, Viscount Lewisham (son of William Legge, 1st Earl of Dartmouth), therefore styled as the dowager Viscountess Lewisham until her second marriage.

He became a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford in 1763, gaining his Master of Arts (Oxon) on 4 July 1766 and Doctor of Civil Law in 1770.

[5] Supremely well-connected — his father was an influential courtier and his half-brother Frederick was to become Prime Minister of Great Britain — North enjoyed substantial, rapid and early career advances.

[6] He remained a canon of Oxford until he was installed as Dean of Canterbury on 6 October 1770;[7] while there he obtained the lucrative livings of Lydd and Bexley, both of which he retained while at Lichfield.

His eldest son Francis North, 6th Earl of Guilford and his youngest Charles Augustus North both became Anglican priests; of his four daughters, one (Henrietta) married a priest and another (Elizabeth) married Thomas de Grey, 4th Baron Walsingham.