BROUGHAM, John, actor, born in Dublin, Ireland, 9 May, 1810; died in New York, 7 June, 1880. His father, an Irishman of good family, was an amateur painter, a person of exceptional talent and gay disposition, and died young. His mother was the daughter of a Huguenot, whom political adversity had forced into exile, and who took refuge in the Irish capital. John was the eldest of three children. The other two died in youth, and, the father being dead and the widowed mother left penniless, the surviving boy was reared in the family and home of an eccentric uncle. He was preant-governor, he succeeded Robert Johnson in the governorship in May, 1735, and died while still in office. Hewitt describes him as "a plain, honest man, but little distinguished either for his knowledge or valor." He was easily accessible to designing men, and was persuaded to sign land-war-rants by planters, who saw their opportunity to gain great possessions. Some of the largest estates in South Carolina were acquired through his obliging way of signing official papers.