Reverend Horatio Townsend (5D02)

Date of Birth: 1803
Date of Death: 19 Dec 1837
Generation: 5th
Residence: Carrigaline, Cobh, Co Cork
Father: Reverend Horatio (Horace) Townsend [5D00]
Mother: Corker, Katherine
Spouse:
  1. Kenney, Anne
  2. MacCartie, Jane Florence
Issue:
    • Captain Horatio (Horace) [5D23]
See Also: Table VD ; Scrapbook ; Lineage ; Ancestors' Tree ; Descendents' Tree

Notes for Reverend Horatio Townsend

Married 1st.8 January 1829 at Kilmeen Church, by the Rev. Robert Kenney, to Anne, daughter to the late Rev. Henry Jones, of Lislee Glebe in the diocese of Kilmeen, Clonakilty, Co Cork. Married 2nd. 6 February 1836. Jane Florence MacCartie (3) who was the second daughter of Justin MacCartie (4 & 4a) JP of Carrignavar, (4b) Co Cork. See Burke's Irish Landed Gentry 1912 - MacCartie.

Alumni Trinity College Dublin from Co Cork and Kerry 1593-1860 in Dr Casey's Collection records that Horatio was taught by his father before he entered Trinity College, Dublin, on 1 November 1819 aged 16 as a pensioner who paid a fixed sum annually for his studies. The TCD Graduation List records that he qualified BA in Spring 1825 and MA in Winter 1832. Richard Townsend [517] and Horatio Townsend [623] were undergraduates at Trinity at the same time. Richard Uniacke Townsend [517], Thomas Townsend [6B03] and Horatio's brother, Chambre Corker Townsend [5D01], read for their MA in the same year as him.

For several years, Horatio was Curate to his father who was Rector of Carrigaline, Co Cork. When his father died on 26 March 1837 Horatio succeeded to the Parish as Rector in May 1837 and remained there until his death nine months later. See page 64 of Brady's Parochial and Clerical Records Volume 1 for a summary of Horatio's ministry.

In his will, dated 12 December 1828, Horatio's father devised to him "My houses in Castletownsend, now under Major John Townsend (5), and Rosscarbery held under Mrs Donovan" and some of his books. Stock, farming implements, linen and household furniture were to be divided equally between himself, his brother Richard and his sisters Katherine, Susannah, Harriet and Caroline.

The Tithe Applotment Books in the National Archives of Ireland were compiled between 1823 and 1837 in order to determine the amount which occupiers of agricultural holdings over one acre should pay in tithes to the Church of Ireland. The 1831 record for the Parish of Carrigaline shows that £1,080 a year was payable to the ‘Rev Horatio Townsend as Rector of said Parish

Aged only 34 Horatio died of fever and is buried at Douglas, Cork. There is a fine memorial to him and his two surviving brothers in St Fachtna's Cathedral, Ross . There is also a memorial over his grave in the churchyard at Douglas. His obituary was published in The Tipperary Constitution of 22 December 1837 (6) - "Died last night at eleven o'clock , the Reverend Horace Townsend, Rector of Carrigaline, universally and deservedly regretted. He had been but a few months past appointed to the incumbency of the Parish in which, while acting for several years as Curate, he had been the honoured, and efficient, and zealous instrument of the most effective good.....He was the advocate of the Church Missionary Society, of the Bible Society, of the Protestant Orphan Society, of the Anti-Slavery Society, of the Temperance Society - in fine every cause which had for its object the Glory of God found in Horace Townsend a talented advocate..."

Jane Florence married again in 1845 William Burton Leslie of 'Kincraigie', (7) Courtmacsherry, Co Cork, Agent to the 5th Earl of Shannon and an active and successful businessman.

When Jane's son Horatio Townsend [5D23] returned from China where he had been involved in the suppression of the Tai Ping rebellion and the sacking of the Summer Palace in Pekin he gave her a Pekinese which was reputedly one of the Royal Breed.

(1) Anne dsp 2 April 1830.

(2) Edward was born in 1768 and was the eldest son of Rev John Kenny, Prebendary of Kilbroggan and Vicar-General of Cork and Ross for 43 years. Rector of Kilmeen for 43 years, Edward married Frances daughter of Thomas Herbert of Muckross and died in April 1842.

(3) Jane died on 3 March 1895.

(4) U.H. Hussey de Burgh's ‘Landowners of Ireland 1878' records "McCartie, Justin. JP, Carrignavar. Cork - 3435 acres £1025." During the famine of 1846, Justin MacCarty was secretary of the Carrignavar Relief Committee and William Burton Leslie was secretary and treasurer of the Lislee Relief Committee. Jane established a cottage industry for the manufacture of 'frieze' cloth during the Great Famine.

(4a) The entry for McCartie in the National University of Ireland (NUI) Galway Connacht and Munster Landed Estates Database records "The head of this old Irish family in the early 18th century was Charles McCarty of Carrignavar, county Cork, who was succeeded in 1761 by his nephew Daniel. Daniel's grandson Justin McCarty married in 1810 Isabella daughter of Caleb Falkiner eldest son of Sir Riggs Falkiner 1st Baronet. In August 1851 parts of Justin McCarty and Robert McCarty's Carrignavar estate (8,493 acres) and their Cloghroe estate (3,080 acres) were advertised for sale and in March 1852 2,799 acres in the baronies of Barrymore and Cork were again advertised for sale. Carrignavar was held under a lease dated 25 March 1755 from Thomas Farren to Daniel McCartie for 999 years. At the time of Griffith's Valuation Justin McCarty held a large estate in the parish of Dunbulloge, barony of Barrymore. He also held land in the parishes of Moviddy, barony of East Muskerry and Whitechurch, barony of Barrymore. In the 1870s his son also named Justin McCartie owned 3,435 acres in county Cork."

(4b) The entry for Carrignavar in the National University of Ireland (NUI) Galway Connacht and Munster Landed Estates Database records "The castle of Carrignavar was from the mid 17th century the seat of this the senior branch of the McCarthy clan. Bence Jones writes that Carrignavar is a late 19th century castellated house incorporating the remains of the old castle. Lewis refers to Carrignavar as the seat of Justin McCarthy in 1837 and Justin McCarthy junior was resident at the time of Griffith's Valuation when the buildings were valued at £28. Bought by John Sheedy in the 20th century and sold by him in the 1950s to the Sacred Heart Fathers. The house is part of their college complex."

(5) Major, later Colonel, John Townsend [230].

(6) It was originally published in the Cork Standard on 20 December 1837. By coincidence a Chancery Notice about the lands of Rathduff, RathMcCarthy and Rathsallagh in Co Tipperary by John Sealy Townsend [507] appears alongside the obituary.

(7) The entry for Kincraigie in the National University of Ireland (NUI) Galway Connacht and Munster Landed Estates Database records "Willam Burton Leslie was leasing land and out-offices from the Ladies Boyle at the time of Griffith's Valuation. The property is labelled Woodview on the first edition Ordnance Survey map. The property later bacame Kincraigie where he lived with his wife, Jane Florence McCartie, the widow of Horace Townsend. Jane's son, also Horace, owned the house until the early twentieth century. Later the home of the Travers family and now a ruin."