William Westcoat Browning was born on November 21, 1808, in South Carolina to Gideon Browning and Priscilla Westcoat. His mother died around 1814, and his father passed away around 1822. Browning married Carolina Norris on November 29, 1829, and their daughter Mary Ann was born around 1832. Carolina died soon afterward, and Browning moved the family to Alabama and then Mississippi. He married Elizabeth Gilmer Lewis in Lowndes County, Mississippi, on September 27, 1836, and they had five children who survived to adulthood: Sarah, born around 1837, Eliza, born around 1837; Daniel, born around 1841; Frances, born around 1846; and Martha, born around 1848. Browning owned $5,600 of real estate in 1850.

 

The family moved to Texas in the 1850s, eventually settling near Chappell Hill, Texas. Browning became a prominent member of the community, serving as president of the Chappell Hill Female College Board of Trustees and president of the Chappell Hill Methodist Church board. By 1860, he owned $138,590 of real estate and $78,200 of personal property, including at least 62 enslaved laborers. His son Daniel served in the Confederate army and died during the war. Browning remained in Chappell Hill for the rest of his life, dying there on June 28, 1871.

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