Horatio (Horace) Townsend (607)
| Date of Birth: | 11 Dec 1768 |
|---|---|
| Date of Death: | 17 Jan 1824 |
| Generation: | 5th |
| Residence: | London, Bridgemount (1) & Kinsale |
| Father: | Reverend Edward Synge (The Apostle) Townsend [601] |
| Mother: | Elizabeth Townsend [144] |
| Spouse: |
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| Issue: | |
| See Also: | Table VI ; Scrapbook ; Lineage ; Ancestors' Tree ; Descendents' Tree |
Notes for Horatio Townsend
Married Thursday 5 December 1799 at St Marylebone Church, London. His cousin, Elizabeth Trelawney Townsend [410] (2) who was the only daughter of Lieutenant General Samuel Townsend [403]. Elizabeth would have been living with her parents in Wimpole Street before they got married. All the children were born in London (3) except Henrietta Townsend [688].
Alumni Trinity College Dublin from Co Cork and Kerry 1593-1860 in Dr Casey's Collection records that Horatio was taught by Rev James Reid before he entered Trinity College, Dublin, on 9 May 1786 aged 17 as a pensioner who paid a fixed sum annually for his studies. The Rev Reid also tutored Horatio's brother, Philip Townsend [613], before he entered the University in 1798. The TCD Graduation List records that he qualified BA in Spring 1790. John Sealy Townsend [507] read for his LLD whilst Horatio was an undergraduate.
In his journal covering the first 25 years of his life, written in 1869, Edward Hume Townsend [626] recorded that.....'My grandfather’s eldest son, Horace Townsend, was a barrister at the English bar and lived in London. In about 1814 or 1815 his wife (who I henceforth knew as Aunt Townsend) arrived in Kinsale with five children viz, Horace, Elizabeth, Charlotte, Aubrey and John. Of these the two eldest are about my age. Aubrey was a delicate little boy and John just a baby. Edward the eldest son remained a little after the rest of the family in England; he shortly afterwards took a commission in the army. My uncle whose health was impaired remained in England. My aunt (aunt T) was a very infirm person in every respect and I soon acquired a profound respect and admiration of her and over the years a sincere affection. For some years she lived in Kinsale; afterwards in Dublin and then in Clifton and Bath.'
According to Edward Mansel Townshend [630] (4), Horatio's grandson, Elizabeth took the entire family from London to Kinsale, Co Cork in March 1816 where they joined their aged parents. They had been retired for some years living in Bath before they moved to Dennis's Quay in Kinsale. Also living there at the same time was Horatio's aunt Helena Townsend [619] and her husband, George Digby Daunt, who presented Elizabeth with an oak table made from wood reclaimed from Kinsale Parish Church.
As the eldest son, Horatio would have inherited Bridgemount when his father died in 1819. It is not known if he ever lived there, but at the trial of the Clondrohid Whiteboys (Scroll down to 'The Whiteboys in Muskerry') in Cork, February 1822, a 'Bridgemount Townsend' testified in support of Thomas Goggin; this must have been Horatio. '’Townsend, a member of the Bridgemount family, stated that he had known ‘Goggin’s family these thirty years’. They were, he added,’tenants to his father and brother for many years, they held grounds from them at a very high rate and paid with the utmost punctuality to the very farthing they had contracted for. The man at the bar was a most correct and proper man – industrious and honest.’ However, these words on his behalf, were to prove fruitless, as along with nine others he was found guilty and sentenced to death.”
Horatio and his family might have lived in Dublin for a time for in a letter (5) to his father, dated Dublin 18 August 1821, Chambre Corker Townsend [5D01] wrote about meeting Mrs Horace Townsend and her daughter Bessy - "a very nice little girl".
Horatio died (7) intestate in Cork but according to his grandson, Edward Mansel Townshend, is buried in Dublin. Elizabeth spent the next eight years sorting out his estate and paying off his debts. The estate totalled some £16,000, of which £10,000 appears to have been Elizabeth's marriage settlement, the interest on which was deemed hers for life with the principal passing to her son Edward Townsend [620] on her death. Edward also inherited all the freehold properties in Ireland.
An entry in West's Cork Directory 1809-1810 under the heading 'Gentry, Merchants, Traders etc' on page 23 records "Townshend. Horace Esq. South Parade Terrace". Is this Horatio?
Horatio was a Freeman of the City of Cork. Between 1710 and 1841, when the power of admitting Freemen only by birth or right ceased, a total of thirty three members of the Townsend family were admitted as Freemen.
Elizabeth returned to England sometime after Horatio's death and from 1845 until she died in 1855 was living at 1 SW Buildings, Weston Lane, Bath.
Among the large volume of extant correspondence (8) in this branch of the family there is a letter dated 19 November 1855, written from 13 Morrison's Quay, Cork by Dr Edward Richard Townsend [6C00] concerning the sanity of Horatio. The letter, written ten years after Horatio died, is addressed to Dr Symonds, and reads "Lieutenant John Townsend's [622] father (ie Horatio) was never insane. There existed no hereditary predisposition to any mental disease in his family. I am acquainted with the history of every branch of it for nearly two hundred years and no case of lunacy has ever occurred in that time. Mr Horace Townsend … was the eldest son of a man of fortune and, although well educated, his temper naturally bad was never restrained and he became proud, morose and unkind to his friends. I attribute the increase of those feelings to mis-management in domestic arrangements. His brother placed him in a lunatic asylum here, but the late Dr Hallaran the medical inspector did not think him insane and discharged him in a very short time from that establishment". (9)
Horatio was a child of the first Townsend/Townsend cousin marriage in this branch of the family (10). Apart from his questionable mental stability it is interesting to note that instances of mental instability occur in three subsequent generations.
(1) Note (2) in the record for Cornelius Townsend [139] explains how Bridgemount came into this branch of the family. The estate, including properties at Mullenroe, Ballymacorcoran and Mount Cross, eventually passed to Horatio's son, John Townsend [622]. The Llanvapley Papers contain considerable correspondence about it in the first six months of 1884 between Marianne Townsend [5D16], her brother-in-law Rev Aubrey Townsend [621] and 'J Hamilton Bryan', their agent in Dunmanway, in respect of two years outstanding rent.
(2) Elizabeth died on 2 February 1855.
(3) Of Horatio's twelve children six died within their first year. The place where the children were born show Horatio moved frequently. 1800 - Upper Wimpole Street. 1802 - Curzon Street. 1804 - Nottingham Place. 1806 - Upper Bedford Place. 1810 - Worthing. 1811 - Tenterden Street , Hanover Square. 1812 - Upper Berkley Street. 1813-1815 Quebec Street.
(4) Extract from 'A Protestant Auto-Biography by the Rev E Mansel Townshend'
(5) RBT Papers.
(6) Spare.
(7) It was reported in the Connaught Journal of 29 January 1824 - "On the 17th inst., in the 55th year of his age, Horace Townshend, Esq. eldest son of the late Rev. Edward Synge Townshend."
(8) Llanvapley Papers.
(9) Under the first entry for 'Blackrock', Cork, 'Samuel Lewis' Topographical Directory 1837' records that "Here is a dispensary, and near Ballintemple are two private lunatic asylums. Cittadella, belonging to Joshua Bull, Esq., was established by the late Dr. Hallaran, in 1798, and has secluded pleasure grounds for the use of the patients."
(10) There were three other Townsend/Townsend cousin marriages in this branch of the family. Horatio himself and Elizabeth Trelawney Townsend. His eldest son Edward Townsend [620] and Isabella Townsend [5D08] and his son John Townsend [622] and Marianne Townsend [5D16].