George Browne, 8th Viscount Montagu

George Samuel Browne, 8th Viscount Montagu (* June 26, 1769, † 1793 in early October Running castle ) was an English Lord and tourist who arrived on the Grand Tour in a daring boat passage killed.

Life

George Samuel Browne was the 8th Viscount Montagu. At 24, he undertook in 1793 with his friend Sir Charles Sedley Burdett a journey across the continent. In front then Austrian town of Laufen Castle decided the two friends from the sporting spirit running above rapids to traverse a demolished in 1908 and flooded cataract of the Rhine with a Weidling. Prior to this a local boatman was already succeeded once involuntarily at low tide. Despite the ban by the magistrate Montague and Burdett led their projects through in the first days of October. The specially with nailed planks covered by Montague and Burdett against Weidling breakers crashed against the rocks of the running. Lord Montague was drowned while Burdett probably could have saved with difficulty. According to other sources, he also drowned.

The week before, Lord Montague's headquarters Cowdray House in Sussex burned down as a result of the carelessness of a craftsman. The end of the Montagues in the direct line led in England to local legends, extinguished after the Montagues by the fulfillment of a family curse because of the appropriation of church property, of Battle Abbey by water and fire. The title of Lord of Montague passed to a cousin George Samuels, an Anglican priest, who died childless a few years. Official documents relating to the accident have not been preserved in Laufen castle as a result of the turmoil of the subsequent years. Likewise, the exact date of the accident is not known. In England is often erroneously cited as the accident the better-known Rhine Falls.

Family

He was the son of Anthony Joseph Browne, 7th Viscount Montagu ( 1728-1787 ) and Frances Falconer ( 1731-1814 ), widow of Alexander Falconer, 5th Lord Falconer of Halkertoun; and daughter of Herbert Mackworth ( of the Gnoll, co. Glamorgan ) and (?) of Lady Jane Noel, daughter of Edward Noel, 1st Earl of Gainsborough. His sister was Mary Elizabeth Browne (1767-1787), she married William Stephen Poyntz 1794 MP, of Midgham, co. Berkshire. They had the son of Mark Anthony Browne, Viscount Montagu 9 ( 1744-1797 ), he was married but had no children.