Puritan Congregationalist church leader, one of the original proponents of the Separatist, or Free Church, movement among Nonconformists that demanded separation from the Church of England and freedom from state control. His Separatist followers became known as Brownists.

Educated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and ordained, he, with Robert Harrison, gathered a Separatist Church at Norwich in 1580. As a consequence of this and other similar activities, he was imprisoned 32 times and in 1582 was exiled. He subsequently returned to England, however, and conformed to the established church. He was the author of a number of books, including A Treatise of Reformation Without Tarying for Anie (1582).