Reverend John Townsend (318)

Date of Birth: 1782
Date of Death: ante 1820
Generation: 6th
Residence: Kilmichael, Macroom, Co Cork
Father: Reverend Richard Townsend [310]
Mother: Robinson, Dorothea
Spouse:
  1. Warren, Alicia
Issue:
  1. Richard [335]
  2. Elizabeth [336]
See Also: Table III ; Scrapbook ; Lineage ; Ancestors' Tree ; Descendents' Tree

Notes for Reverend John Townsend

Married 25 February 1808. Alicia Warren was the youngest daughter of Sir Robert Warren 1723-1811,(1) 1st Bt of Warren's Court,(2) Crookstown, Co Cork. See Burke's Peerage - Warren.

Alumni Trinity College Dublin from Co Cork and Kerry 1593-1860 in Dr Casey's Collection records that John was taught by Mr Coghlan before he entered Trinity College, Dublin, on 6 April 1801 aged 19 as a pensioner who paid a fixed sum annually for his studies. Mr Coghlan also tutored John's cousin, John Townsend [250], before he entered the University in 1825. The TCD Graduation List records that he qualified BA in Spring 1805. William Robinson Townsend [6B02] was an undergraduate at Trinity at the same time.

John was ordained Deacon on 6 July 1806 and Priest on 12 July 1807. See page 258 of Brady's Parochial and Clerical Records Volume 3. Whilst Brady's gives no details of John's ministry it can be deduced from Memorial 410618 dated 17 November 1807 in the Registry of Deeds Index Project Ireland. In the deed, a marriage settlement between Elizabeth McCarthy and John Wolfe, John is shown as being "Rev - Curate of Kilmichael Parish, Co Cork."

Until the mid-eighteenth century there was little incentive for tenants to plant trees on the land they leased, for the trees were legally the property of the landlord. However, by 1765, the tenant’s position had changed in that he was entitled to all the trees he had planted, or their value, on the expiry of his lease. To prove ownership tenants had to register the trees they planted and this was eventually published in a register for the particular county in which they lived. Details of the ‘Register of Trees, Co Cork, 1780 - 1860’ are contained in Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society 1976 Vol. 81, Nos 233-234, pages 39-60 and seven members of the family are shown as part of the scheme. Between them they planted 63,500 trees of which 'John Townsend' planted 200 in Maulnaskehy in 1810 and 1,900 in Skirtagh in 1815. Previously Skirtagh belonged to John's grandfather, John Townsend [303], but this entry more likely refers to John Townsend [316] who lived in Clonakilty or possibly John Townsend [214]. Other members of the family include Richard Boyle Townsend [219], Rev Richard Boyle Townsend [332], Samuel Townsend [412], Samuel Philip Townsend [6A03], Samuel Philip Townsend [6B00] and William Townsend [6B02].

Alicia married 2nd, 3 February 1820 in Cork, Major Robert Benjamin Wolseley (3), 25th Brigade and 4th son of Captain William Wolseley, 8th Hussars. She died in 1870 leaving further issue.

(1) The entry for Warren (Warren's Court) in the University of Galway Landed Estates Database records "Robert Warren, an army officer, established himself in the East Carberry area of county Cork in the mid 17th century. In May 1703 his son Wallis Warren bought Kilbarry now known as Warren's Court. It was part of the confiscated estate of the Earl of Clancarty. In 1699 Wallis Warren also bought East and West Curryclogh from Henry Eal of Romney [enrolled 1703]. His grandson Robert Warren of Warren's Court and Crookstown House, county Cork, was created a baronet in 1784. The Warrens of Codrum and Crookstown are descended from younger sons of the first marriage of the 1st Baronet. John Borlase Warren, later 4th Baronet, held 1700 acres in the townland of Sillahertane, barony of Iveragh, from the Orpen family in the early part of the nineteenth century. Over 10,000 acres of the estate of Adrian Taylor, in which members of the Orpen and Warren families had an interest, were offered for sale in the Encumbered Estates Court in May 1855. Sir Augustus Warren's estate in county Kerry in the 1870s amounted to over 8700 acres. His estate in county Cork amounted to 7,787 acres at the same time and was located in the barony of West Muskerry parishes of Kilmichael, Ballinadee, Clondrohid, Inchigeelagh, Kilmurry and Macroom, the parishes of Cannaway and Moviddy, barony of East Muskerry and the parish of Murragh, barony of Kinalmeaky. His brothers Captain Warren of Passage, Cork and Robert Warren of Ashgrove owned a further 1,477 and 530 acres respectively and other family members had smaller amounts. Henry E. Warren, a grandson of the 1st Baronet, was one of the principal lessors in the parish of Kilmoe, West Carbery at the time of Griffith's Valuation. Over 700 acres in the barony of Barretts, the property of Massy Hutchinson Warren, was offered for sale in the Encumbered Estates Court, in April 1854. Lands at Cloonvickavrick, barony of Muskerry, leased to the Webb family in 1717, were advertised for sale in April 1877, the estate of the Reverend John Webb."

(4) The entry for Warren's Court in the University of Galway Landed Estates Database records "Kilbarry was bought by the Warrens in the late 17th century. The house Warren's Court was built in the 18th century and was the main seat of this family in the 18th and 19th centuries. In 1750 Smith refers to Kilbarry the "handsome house" of Robert Warren. In 1906 it was valued at £66 and occupied by Sir Augustus Riversdale Warren."

(3) Robert Wolseley was born in 1790 and died in 1870.

For other Warren connections see also daughter of Richard Townsend [221], Henrietta Anna Townsend [242], Elizabeth Hildegardis Townsend [244], Anna Townsend [408], Edward Henry Townsend [411] and Augusta Amelia Townsend [424].