Katherine Corker (Katie) Townshend (5D17)

Date of Birth: 1 Jan 1834
Date of Death: 7 July 1921
Generation: 6th
Residence: Eastbourne and Cambridge
Father: Reverend Chambre Corker Townsend [5D01]
Mother: Oliver, Eliza Wilmot
Spouse: Unmarried
Issue: None
See Also: Table VD ; Scrapbook ; Lineage ; Ancestors' Tree ; Descendents' Tree

Notes for Katherine Corker Townsend (Katie)

Very little is known about Katherine except what can be deduced from the Derry Papers, the unpublished autobiography of Edward Mansel Townshend [630] (1) and research undertaken by Claire Martinsen, a member of the Mill Road Cemetery History Society in Cambridge.

When her father died in 1852, Katherine was 18 and her mother, maternal grandparents and aunt, Katherine Townshend [5D06], acted as guardians to her and her siblings until they came of age. Under the terms of her father’s will (2) dated 2 September 1846 she became entitled to an equal share of £2,000 devised to all the children, except her half-brother Horace Payne-Townshend [5D12] who inherited the entire Derry estate.

Katherine, her brother Richard Baxter Townshend [5D15] and sisters Anne Townshend [5D20] and Susan Townshend [5D21] took out a 99 year lease (3) on 12 Ridgway Place, Wimbledon for £1,900 from Sir Edward Creasy on 11 November 1867. It was in the house at Ridgway Place that Susan met her future husband, Brian Houghton Hodgson, when she stayed with their mother, Eliza, who was living there in 1869. Family correspondence shows that Henrietta Townsend [5D10] also visited Eliza in October 1869.

Katherine’s grandfather, Major General Oliver died on 11 January 1854. In his will, dated 25 February 1853 (4), he devised his personal estate to his trustees who were to invest the same and pay the interest to his wife, Marianne, during her lifetime and after her death to his daughter Eliza Townshend (Katherine’s mother). After her death the residue was to be divided equally amongst her surviving children share and share alike.

Likewise he devised his real estate in Suffolk and Kerry to his trustees who were to pay the yearly rents to his wife during her lifetime and after her death to Eliza. After her death when the children came of age, or if the daughters married before then, they were to receive their share of the real estate or the rents thereof, or if the real estate was sold they were to receive their share of the principal or the interest of the proceeds.

When Katherine’s mother died on 17 August 1906 and her inheritance of the Oliver estate amounted to £3,3557.

In the census of 1891 Katherine was recorded as a visitor to Crediton Grammar School where she was staying with the Headmaster and his wife. In 1911 she was living alone at 21 Hurst Road in Eastbourne, and was recorded as being of ‘private means’. When she died in 1921 she was living at Sunnybrae, 61 Cherry Hinton Road, Cambridge, but what brought her there is not known.

(1) 'A Protestant Auto-Biography by the Rev E Mansel Townshend'

(2) Derry Papers 5D01/6. Will of Chambre Corker Townsend dated 2 September 1846 with codicil dated 5 April 1851. Probate 9 Sep 1852.

(3) Derry Papers 5D15/1. Agreement for the lease of 12 Ridgway Place, Wimbledon, dated 11 November 1867. Sir Edward Shepherd Creasy was Chief Justice of Ceylon. Richard and his sisters were living with their mother at 6 Rodney Place, Clifton, Bristol at the time.

(4) Derry Papers OL/8, 8A, 8B, 9, 9A. The wills of Major General Oliver and his wife, Marianne, and the disposal of their estates.