[1] Browne was born in Drummondtown (renamed Accomac shortly after his death) in Accomack County on Virginia's Eastern Shore.

His father was Dr. Peter Fielding Browne (1813-1880), and his mother, Sally Cropper Bayly (1813-1857), was likewise from an established planter family.

During the Civil War Browne dropped out of school to enlist as a private in Company F of 39th Virginia Infantry, where his widowed father served as surgeon (and would by 1864 run a division of Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond).

[2] Accomack County voters elected Browne as Commonwealth attorney (prosecutor) in 1873, and re-elected him as well.

In 1886, voters in the surrounding 1st Congressional district narrowly elected Browne as a Republican to represent them in the 50th United States Congress.