Charles Uniacke Townshend (5C00)
| Date of Birth: | 1829 |
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| Date of Death: | 21 Jun 1907 |
| Generation: | 6th |
| Residence: | Burlingtgon Road, Dublin |
| Father: | Thomas Townsend [509] |
| Mother: | Uniacke, Martha |
| Spouse: |
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| Issue: |
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| See Also: | Table VC ; Scrapbook ; Lineage ; Ancestors' Tree ; Descendents' Tree |
Notes for Charles Uniacke Townshend JP
Married 1st 17 October 1854. Anna Maria Sarah Tottenham (1) was the eldest daughter of Rev Robert Loftus Ponsonby Tottenham (2 & 2a), one time chaplain to HM Legation in Florence, second son of the Rt Rev Lord Robert Ponsonby Tottenham Bishop of Clogher, second son of Charles Loftus, First Marquis of Ely, by Hon Alicia Maude daughter of the 1st Lord Hawarden. Married 2nd 7 July 1875 in St Stephen's Church, Mount Street, Dublin. Anna Maria Roberts (3) was the eldest daughter of Samuel Ussher Roberts of Burlington Road, Dublin. Doubtless there is a connection here with Richard Ussher Roberts who was a Land Agent like Charles.
Charles was a very successful business man and established a most reputable Land Agency (4) at 15 Molesworth Street, Dublin, close to the Dail Eireann. In the Report of Her Majesty's Commissioners of Inquiry into the Working of the Landlord and Tenant (Ireland) Act, 1870, published in 1881, Charles gave evidence to the Commission in Dublin in November 1880 in which he explained that he had been a Land Agent for "about 30 years" - thus since about 1851 when he would have been aged 22. He told the Commission that he managed estates in Antrim, Down, Tyrone, Monaghan, Cavam, Meath, Dublin, Kildare, Wexford, Kilkenny, Tipperary, and Waterford but had interests "outside of these counties also". Charles’ brother, William Uniacke Townshend [5B01], who was agent to the Mount Coote estate, and his nephew Robert Uniacke FitzGerald Townsend [531], who was a partner in the firm of estate agents in Cork 'Hussey & Townsend', also gave evidence at the enquiry. The Commission report lists Charles and Robert as members of the ‘Land Committee’. Documentary and anecdotal evidence shows that Charles, his son, Charles Loftus Uniacke Townshend [5C01] and Robert worked closely together and might even have been in partnership. (5)
Papers relating to the management of the estates in county Waterford left to the College in trust by Sir Patrick Dun show that both Charles and his brother William Uniacke Townshend were appointed Land Agents to the trust in 1871.
In addition to his land agency Charles was much involved in philanthropic work throughout the Dublin and established a hospital for the poor in the city.
Charles was elected a member of the Kilkenny Archæological Society on 2 November 1853.
The Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland elected Charles as a member on Tuesday 6 May 1879. The Society met at the Leinster Lecture Hall, 35 Molesworth Street and Professor Ingram LLD of Trinity College was the President. Charles was also a member of the Royal Dublin Society - he was Secretary 1887-93 and Vice-President from 1893 until his death in 1907. A portrait (6) of Charles by Sir William Orpen hangs in the Society's Council Chamber at Ballsbridge.
Griffith's Valuation of Ireland 1848-64 shows for the parish of Rathgoggan, Co Cork "Townsend Charles, Esq. Charleville Main Street". Later he lived at Hatley House, Burlington Rd, Dublin. His will is dated 17 October 1906.
'Land Owners in Ireland, 1876 - Tipperary' records "Townsend C.U." owning land in the county.
The report of proceedings, lists of committees, delegates, etc in June 1892 of the Munster & Connaught Unionist Convention for Provinces of Leinster shows ‘C. U. Townsend Esq. JP Hatley, Burlington Road, Dublin’ as a member of the General Committee and a representative for the County of Dublin. Several of his kinsmen were also listed as members – Richard Harvey Townsend [534], Thomas Courtenay Townsend [5B02], Charles Eyre Townshend [5B14], Charles Loftus Townsend [5C01], Horace Webb Townsend [634] and Horatio Hamilton Townsend [6B05].
‘Slater’s Royal National Directory of Ireland, 1894’ records under the heading ‘Dublin Commercial Directory’ - “Townshend C. U. & C. L. land agents, 15 Molesworth Rd” and under the heading ‘Dublin. Royal College of Physicians of Ireland’ - “Agent to Sir P. Dun's Estate—C. U. Townshend.” The Directory does not show a residential address for Charles but Burke's Irish Family Records show him living in Burlington Road, Dublin and there could be some confusion here with his son, Charles Loftus Uniacke Townsend [5C01].
The April 1901 Irish Census records Charles, aged 72 and a Justice of the Peace and Land Agent, living in Burlington Road, Pembroke West, Dublin, with his wife, two sons, six daughters and five domestic staff. The house consisted of 15 rooms, a coach house and stable. Charles' second wife, Anna, is not shown in the April 1911 Census but is shown in the Dublin Telephone Directory 1913 - "Townshend, Anna, Mrs. Ballsbridge 321". The Directory also shows "Townshend & Dickinson, Land Agents Dublin 2181".
Of the two sons and six daughters shown in the 1901 Census as living at home only Maude Alicia [5C07] is shown in the 1911 Census. She was living at 32 Hollybank Avenue, Dublin.
With his nephew Robert Uniacke Fitzgerald Townsendd [531] Charles was executor of the will of his brother Thomas Uniacke Townsend [5A00]. Page 702 of the Calendar of Wills and Administration 1858-1922 in the National Archives of Ireland records that the will of "the Reverend Thomas Uniacke Townsend late of Queenstown County Cork Clerk", who died on 12 July 1889, was proved at Cork on 17 October 1889 by "Charles Uniacke Townshend of Hatley Burlington Road Dublin Esquire and Robert Uniacke Fitzgerald Townsend of Stone View Blarney County Cork the Executors". Effects £1,175 14s 6d.
Page 516 of The Calendar of Wills and Administration 1858-1922 in the National Archives of Ireland records that Probate of the will of "Charles Uniacke Townshend late of Hatley Burlington Road County Dublin Land Agent”, who died on 21 June 1907, was granted at Dublin on 24 July 1907 to "Anna M Townshend the Widow". Effects £30,932 5s 7d.
The children from George onwards are by the second marriage.
[1] Anna Maria Tottenham died on 8 April 1873.
(2) On 22nd December 1866 the Very Reverend Robert Loftus Tottenham, Chaplain of Holy Trinity Church Florence, officially registered Fanny Waugh’s death and conducted the funeral service on the same day. She was buried in the English Cemetery Florence. Fanny was the wife of the Pre-Raphaelite artist William Holman Hunt.
(2a) The entry for Tottenham in the University of Galway Landed Estates Database records "The Tottenham family's main properties were based in Leinster, especially in the Counties of Wicklow and Wexford. However, they also held property in Leitrim, Roscommon, Sligo and Waterford. In 1802 McParlan recorded Mr. Tottenham as a non-resident proprietor in county Leitrim. The main house was at Glenfarne but the family also held property at Glenade. Members of the family served as High Sheriffs of Leitrim on six occasions in the nineteenth century between 1820-1898. The estate in county Leitrim amounted to over 14,500 acres in the 1870s. Almost 6000 acres was offered for sale in the Land Judges' Court in 1878 and 1883. In 1766 Charles Tottenham of New Ross, county Wexford, brother of Nicholas Loftus Tottenham of Glenfarne, married Frances Boswell, daughter and heiress of Robert Boswell of Ballycurry, county Wicklow. Frances Boswell owned land in the parish of Kilronan, barony of Boyle, county Roscommon and in the parishes of Ahamlish and Drumrat, county Sligo, in the 18th century. In 1814 Charles Tottenham of Glenfarne married Dorothea daughter and heiress of George Crowe of Nutfield, county Clare. Dorothea Tottenham held land in the parishes of Templemaley, barony of Bunratty Upper and Tulla, barony of Tulla Upper, county Clare, at the time of Griffith's Valuation. In May 1855, Arthur Loftus Tottenham, a minor, offered for sale his lands in the barony of Gaultiere, county Waterford, amounting to 140 acres."
(3) Anna Maria Roberts was born in 1849 in Co Galway. The Calendar of Wills and Administration 1858-1922 in the National Archives of Ireland records that Probate of the will of "Townsend Anna Maria” widow of Co Wicklow was granted 15 May 1919 to "Charles Loftus Uniacke Townsend and Hildegarde Townsend".
(4) Charles took on George Bernard Shaw as a junior ledger clerk in his estate agency on a salary of £18 per annum on 26 October 1871. He resigned on 29 February 1876, by which time he was head cashier on an annual salary of £84. Shaw's lifelong friend and famous playwright, Edward McNulty, who worked at Charles' office with Shaw, recorded that Shaw disliked Townshend 'chiefly because he put an 'H" in his name, evidence in Shaw's opinion of middle class snobbery' He also described Townshend as 'a pillar of the Church, the Royal Dublin Society, and of everything else pillarable in Dublin'. (GBS married Charlotte Townsend [5D27] in 1898 - see her entry.)
(5) During the latter half of the 19th century twelve members of the Townsend family were land/estate agents – Robert Uniacke FitzGerald Townsend [531], William Tower Townshend [535], Thomas Courtenay Townshend [5B02], William Charles Townshend [5B05], James Richard Townshend [5B06], William Uniacke Townsend [5B01], Charles Eyre Coote Townshend [5B14], Charles Uniacke Townshend [5C00], Charles Loftus Uniacke Townshend [5C01], Thomas Loftus Uniacke Townshend [5C02], Horatio Hamilton Townsend [6B05], George Hugh Chetwood Townsend [6B36].
(6) A copy of this picture by the artist himself is in the possession of Mr Stephen Powell, son of Dorothy Uniacke Townsend [5C14].