Reverend Samuel Thomas Townsend (443)
| Date of Birth: | ca 1800 |
|---|---|
| Date of Death: | dsp 13 Dec 1874 |
| Generation: | 6th |
| Residence: | Chicheley, Bucks & Harley Place, London |
| Father: | Captain Samuel Irwin Townsend [409] |
| Mother: | Thomas, Katherine |
| Spouse: |
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| Issue: | None |
| See Also: | Table IV ; Scrapbook ; Lineage ; Ancestors' Tree ; Descendents' Tree |
Notes for Reverend Samuel Thomas Townsend (1)
Married 1st 18 February 1828 at St George's, Hanover Square, London, where his grandfather Lieut Gen Samuel Townsend [403] was a churchwarden for many years. Catherine Louisa St Leger (2) was the daughter of Anthony Butler St Leger of Park Hill, Yorkshire (3). Married 2nd Elise Cadogan who was the daughter of Lieutenant General Henry Cadogan by Miss Wardlaw, who was reputed to be a daughter of Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton. Samuel and Elise met in Paris where she was acting as a companion for Empress Eugenie.
It is not known when Samuel studied for the Church but he was Rector of St Michael's Church Farndish, Bedfordshire before being appointed Vicar of the Church of St Lawrence, Chicheley, Bucks in 1830; the 1841 England census shows him living in Chicheley. He moved to London sometime before 1862 - A notice in the London Gazette dated 10 March 1863 concerning the death of his father in law, Antony Francis Butler St. Leger, shows Samuel as an executor living at "Harley-place, Marylebone, in the county of Middlesex" in 1862.
Samuel was a member of the Windham Club, St James Square.
Samuel's will is dated 3 November 1874 and was proved on 23 January 1875. He is buried in Kensall Green Cemetery, London.
Edward Mansel Townshend [630] (4), records that Samuel was brought up from infancy by his aunt, Elizabeth Trelawney Townsend [410] (5) who paid for a tutor, then sent him to Harrow and finally covered his expenses training as a lawyer. Commenting on Samuel's second wife, Edward Mansel also records "Elise Townshend was a remarkable person, of considerable ability and character. She conducted an incessant correspondence with old Mrs. St. Laurence (6) of Castle Townshend, Sister to the Head of the family, and through her, and one or two others, had, I believe, quite a system of secret enquiry, into the lives and doings of others, which was as unhappy, as it was misleading and unprofitable."
Elise was living in Paris in 1882, at 147 Harley Street, London in July 1891 and died in 1896. Accounts of what happened to her considerable fortune are contradictory. In a letter dated 27 December 1897 to her son Edward Mansel Townshend, Marianne Townshend [5D16] wrote "But I do think when she had about £50,000 to leave (including value of house & jewels &c) that, as £30,000 of that was her husband's, she ought to have left all his money to his relations, not to her own friends and cousins". Marianne also goes on to say that Elise left all the Whitehall family portraits to Samuel Nugent Townsend [432]. However, according to other family correspondence, her connection with Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton would appear to be correct because when her possessions were put up for sale among them was a necklace that formerly belonged to Lady Hamilton. Furthermore in a Telegram dated 4 December 1898 to Edward Mansel Townsend, Samuel Nugent refers to Elise being illegitimate and to the sale of her possessions. Whatever the truth, Marianne and her children were beneficiaries of Elise's will and Samuel Nugent, then head of the Whitehall branch of the family received nothing.
Relationships between Samuel and his sister Elizabeth Townsend [444] appear to have been very strained. In a letter dated 1st January 1875 (18 days after Samuel's death) to Aubrey Townsend [621] Samuel's wife, Elise, wrote "I have received a letter from Mrs. Smith (ie. Elizabeth), which I hastened to answer. Sam's determination not to see her held out to the end. I lost no opportunity of pleading for peace and good-will and a souvenir of some sort which would gratify their feelings from 'entre tombe', and soften so much discord. But he invariably said 'Certainly not,' and abruptly changed the conversation." Nevertheless, after Elizabeth's death in 1888, Elizabeth’s daughter, Isa, finally inherited £10,000 left to her by Samuel.
(1) Incorrectly shown in Burke's Irish Family Records as the son of Samuel Townsend [403].
(2) Formerly known as Catherine Louisa King (as mentioned in the will of her father Anthony Butler St. Leger). Had she been married before or was she an illegitimate daughter later acknowledged? Louisa's father married Harriet Chester (formerly Bagot) on 31 Jan 1804; Harriet died on 29 October 1810 and thus if Louisa was a legitimate child she must have been no more than age 24 when she married Samuel.
(3) Samuel was a great friend of Louisa’s father and co-executor of his will along the Reverend Charles Walter Bagot of Castle Rising, Norfolk, and Colonel Thomas Edward Taylor MP of Ardgillan in Co. Dublin. Samuel was a beneficiary (land in Ireland) and appointed guardian to Louisa's brother, Anthony Francis St Leger.
(4) 'A Protestant Auto-Biography by the Rev E Mansel Townshend'.
(5) "Her only Brother (Samuel Irwin Townsend [409]) was a young Officer in the Guards, a gay young spark, to whom she was devotedly attached, and for whom she sacrificed almost everything. She brought up his only son from infancy, sent him to a Private Tutor’s, and to Harrow, at a Lawyer's office, and thus enabled him to save his Father’s fortune..."
(6) Elizabeth Anne Townsend [235].