Captain Horatio Townsend (6B01)
| Date of Birth: | 20 Aug 1783 |
|---|---|
| Date of Death: | 16 Jun 1864 |
| Generation: | 5th |
| Residence: | Firmount (1) & Woodside, (1a) Co Cork |
| Father: | Samuel Philip Townsend [6B00] |
| Mother: | Robinson, Helena |
| Spouse: |
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| Issue: | |
| See Also: | Table VIB ; Scrapbook ; Lineage ; Ancestors' Tree ; Descendents' Tree |
Notes for Captain Horatio Townsend DL JP
Alumni Trinity College Dublin from Co Cork and Kerry 1593-1860 in Dr Casey's Collection records that Horatio was taught by Mr Lee before he entered Trinity College, Dublin, on 7 July 1800 aged 17 as a pensioner who paid a fixed sum annually for his studies. Mr Lee also tutored Horatio's brother, William Townsend before he entered the University in 1804.
Page 192 of Walker's Hibernian Magazine 1809 records Horatio's first marriage - "Horatio Townsend of Firmount Esq in the S. Cork Militia to Mis Catharine A Morris eldest daughter of Abr Morris of Dundalk (sic) Esq." (2 & 2a). (See ‘A Guide to Irish Houses’ by M. Bence-Jones, London, 1988 – “GLANMIRE cor Dunkathel. Trant - Morris 1785+. Built by Abraham Morris M.P., a Cork merchant. The previous house was built by Dominick Trant.”) Katherine's grandmother was Mary Townsend and her aunt Mary Morris married John Townsend. Married 2nd 1822. Henrietta Margaret Chetwood (3) was the daughter of Reverend John Chetwood,(4) Rector of Rathcooney near Glanmire, Co Cork.
Page 53 of the Cork Historical and Archaeology Society Journal 1896 shows Horatio (Horace) was admitted as a member of the Duhallow Hunt on 29 September 1807. The hunt was established in September 1800 and met and dined at Cecilstown (near Mallow, Co Cork) on the first Monday in every month. The yearly subscription was three guineas.
In the pamphlet “The Leading Speeches Delivered at the City of Cork Election Held at the Tholsel Court on 19 October 1812 and subsequent days” reported by Michael Mathews and printed in Cork 1812, Thomas Townsend is recorded as casting his vote for the Hon CH Hutchinson, Richard Boyle Townsend and Horatio are both shown as casting their vote for Colonel Longfield and Sir Nicholas Colthurst. Colonel Longfield and Sir Nicholas Colthurst were duly elected. Nicholas Colthurst was a fellow contributor with Horatio’s brother, William Robinson Townsend to the cost of building a new church tower at Inniscarra in 1819, where William was Curate.
Page 70 of ‘The Report of the Select Committee on the Public Income & Expenditure of Ireland’, published in 1815, records that “Horace Townsend” was a regular subscriber to the ‘South Cork Infirmary’; his annual subscription of £9 – 2s – 0d was due on 5 January 1814. Other subscribers include Horatio’s brother, Rev William Robinson Townsend, Rev John Townsend and Mildred Townsend, wife of his uncle, Richard Townsend.
The Southern Reporter and Cork Commercial Courier contains an article about a meeting of the creditors of Leslies’ Bank, which collapsed in 1825, at the Mechanics’ Institute, Patrick Street, Cork on 14 March 1826. The meeting passed four resolutions, the last of which was – “That a Committee be appointed by this Meeting to watch over the interests of the Noteholders and Creditors of the Bank, and to take such measures as shall appear to them most for the advantage of the Creditors.” The Committee was to be chaired by Horatio and twenty other “Gentlemen”. A copy of the article is in Horatio's 'Scrapbook'.
There are two entries in the Registry of Deeds Index Project Ireland where Horatio is mentioned. Memorial 556085 dated 21 July 1827 records 'Horace Townsend of Belgrove (5), Cork' as a Trustee of the Marriage Settlement of William and Martha Connor. Memorial 559785 dated 18 February 1828 shows Horatio as Party 3.
The archives of the Royal Cork Yacht Club record that Horatio Townsend was proposed for membership on 13 September 1828. He was listed as a member in 1829, residing at Belgrove and owning the yacht 'Pearl' (14 tons). The Southern Reporter and Cork Commercial Courier carries an Abstract of the Treasurer's Account dated 1 December 1833 for the Royal Cork Yacht Club 'Cork Harbour Regatta of 1833' signed off by Horatio in his capacity as treasurer.
Memorial No: 556085 in the Registry of Deeds Index Project records in a deed dated 21 Jul 1827 that Horatio was one of trustees of the marriage settlement of William and Martha Connor. In the deed he is shown as being formerly of Glanmire but currently living at Belgrove.
As explained in the ‘Background History’ page, the Act of Union in 1801 and successive reforming measures in the early years of the century drove the Anglo-Irish Protestant community into a position of permanent political minority. Fearing that their ascendancy was being eroded, meetings were held during the early decades of the century seeking to affirm and uphold the integrity of the ‘Protestant Constitution and State’. Reports of these meetings in County Cork between December 1828 and October 1834 can be seen in the record for John Sealy Townsend and those members of the family who attended them are shown at Footnote (6). However, not all members of the family shared these views and press cuttings from the Southern Reporter & Cork Commercial Courier and Dublin Evening Packet & Correspondent show Horatio and his youngest brother, Edward Richard Townsend, were among the many Protestant Liberals who took a much more conciliatory approach to Roman Catholic emancipation. (The cuttings are reproduced in Horatio’s ‘Scrapbook’).
In his book 'A Scottish Whig in Ireland 1835-1838' Robert Graham of Redgorton describes his visit to Cobh where he stayed for a week in July 1835 with Horatio, who was then living at Belgrove on the north east corner of the Island. "One of my reasons for landing in Cove was the more easily to carry into effect a visit I had to pay on Mr and Mrs Townsend at Belgrove....Belgrove is a pretty place and so situated that their share of the river scenery is never affected by the rise and fall of the tide. We found Mr and Mrs T very agreeable and paid a long visit. Mr Townsend's house is a very comfortable one and is retired very beautifully....It was the mansion in the grounds of Mr Bagwell's estate but they have chosen to live in the cottage residence and let off the house." On the last day of his visit Horatio took Robert Graham to church following which they called on Dr Richard Townsend "who is a very clever and scientific man and in great practice at Cove."
Page 318 of Francis G Tuckey's "Tuckey's Cork Remembrancer" records that Horatio was High Sheriff of County Cork in 1840 - 'Joseph Cappi Fitzgerald, of Cloghroe, died in office and was succeeded by Horatio Townsend of Woodside.' The County of Cork and City Almanac 1843 page 73 shows that he was still High Sheriff in 1843 and was a member of the Governing Board for the Lunatic Asylum.
The 1843 Almanac also shows on page 107 that Horatio was a member of the Committee of the County Cork Agricultural Association and, like his father Samuel, he was a keen and competent agriculturalist. The Almanac contains a letter to Horatio, dated 20 November 1842, about farming from Mr Carnegie along with the editor's comment which reads "We feel great pleasure in giving a place to the following letter from Mr Carnegie...it is written to a gentleman equally eminent as Mr C for being a very good practical agriculturalist". Thom's Irish Almanac and Official Directory for the Year 1862 shows ‘Townsend, Horatio, Woodside, Blarney, Cork’ as a Deputy Lieutenant for the County of Cork, a Magistrate, County Assessment (Cess) Collector East Muskerry, Governor of the District Lunatic Asylum and former High Sheriff.
Lewis' Topographical Dictionary 1837' records Horace living at Firmount in the parish of Donoughmore in the barony of East Muskerry.
Page 136 of the County and City of Cork Post Office General Directory 1842-43 shows Horatio living at Woodside which he purchased in fee simple sometime after the previous owner, Rev EM Carleton, died in 1837; in the early 1850’s it was valued at £40.(7)
The records of the South Cork Light Infantry Militia show a ‘Horace Townsend’ commissioned as Ensign in 1807- this is most probably Horatio who would have been 24 at the time; as noted above he is shown as "Capt Horatio Townsend" in Walker's Hibernian Magazine. The Militia Act of 1793 sets forth that-"Every person who has been or shall hereafter be appointed an Officer of the Militia of any of the ranks following, shall be in possession of an estate for his own life or the life of another, or for some greater estate in land or heritage's in the United Kingdom of the yearly value hereinafter mentioned in connection with such respective rank, or be heir apparent of some person who shall be in possession of a life estate in property of the like yearly value. For an Ensign the sum was £20 a year, or heir to £200 personal property a year.”
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.
The Cork Examiner of 12 May 1845 reported the formation of a Committee of Management to oversee the construction of the Bandon to Bantry Railway with branches to Clonakilty and Skibbereen. The estimated cost was £100,000 to be raised in 20,000 shares of £25 each with a deposit of £1-7s-6d per share. There were some sixty-six members of the committee including Horatio, Henry Owen Becher Townsend, Richard Townsend and Lionel Fleming, husband of [5D05 |Eliza Townsend]. The railway was eventually built in the 1880s by William Martin Murphy.
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. An entry for 1833 shows Horatio (Horace) owning 676 acres in the townland of Ballygurrihy(?) with a rateable value of £44-18s-6d, 442 acres in the townland of Plucknanes with a rateable value of £40-4s-0d and 551 acres in the townland of Rathcoola with a rateable value of £30-16s-4d. The summary sheet for these tithes is signed by Horatio's brother, Rev William Robinson Townsend [6B02]. An 1834 entry for for the Parish of Kilquane shows Horatio as the Commissioner - Horatio Townsend of Firmount.
Robert H Laing’s Cork Mercantile Directory 1863 records on page 145 that Horace was President of the Cork Library in Pembroke Street. It also records on page 183 ‘Townsend, Horatio, Woodside, Cork’ as a Deputy Lieutenant and page 189 shows him as a Magistrate.
In a letter (8) dated 20 June 1864 to her husband, John Townsend, Marianne Oliver Townsend wrote "So Mr Townsend of Woodside is dead poor man! I fear that there is little comfort for his nearest relations, unless he had lately experienced some change of heart. But his utter aversion to all things connected to religion was most sad and terrible. I trust there may have been a change lately for the better, tho' I think it was said that his wife's death seemed to have made no difference in this". The death of Horatio was reported in The Cork Examiner on 18 June 1864.
Page 352 of The Calendar of Wills and Administration 1858-1922 in the National Archives of Ireland records that the will of "Horatio Townsend late of Woodside", who died on 16 June 1864, was proved at the Principal Registry on 31 August 1864, by "the oath of Horatio Hamilton Townsend of Woodside". This entry shows his effects as being under £2,000 but a later manuscript entry dated 9 July 1873 records that they were re-sworn as being under £13,000.
Along with his kinsman, Chambre Corker Townsend, Horatio subscribed to the book “An Inquiry Concerning the Primitive Inhabitants of Ireland” by Thomas Wood (MD), published by Edwards and Savage, Castle Street, Cork in 1821 and dedicated to members of the Royal Irish Academy.
Page XII of Volume 1 of ‘A Scriptural Commentary on the Book of Genesis and the Gospel according to St Matthew’ published in 1832 shows “Horatio Townsend Esq. Belgrove” as a subscriber. Five other members of the family are shown as subscribers Richard Townsend, Thomas Townsend, John Sealy Townsend, Rev Philip Townsend, Edward Townsend.
The list of subscribers to Lewis' Topographical Directory 1837 shows "Townsend, Rev. Horatio, Belgrove, Great Island, co. Cork". There is some muddle here for the Reverend Horatio Townsend was Rector of Carrigaline on the other side of Cork harbour!
The Rev. C. B. Gibson's book 'The History of the County and City of Cork' was published in two volumes in 1861. The first volume begins with an account of the rivalry of the MacCarthy and O'Brien Gaelic clans, the 12th century Norman conquest and the creation of the Earldom of Desmond, centuries of Gaelic rebellion and the defeat of the Gaelic Irish at the Battle of Kinsale. The second volume covers the 17th century Civil War, the Cromwellian invasion, the Williamite Wars and the 1798 rebellion. The remainder of the second volume describes the government of the county Cork, its baronies and parishes, their histories, notable family dynasties and residences. Horatio, and his cousin, Samuel Philip Townsend of Garrycloyne both subscribed to the book.
First marriage is not shown in 'An Officer of the Long Parliament'. 'Pooles of Mayfield' p 73 shows the 1st marriage as March 1809 and Horatio's death as 1865.
Thomasine and Dulcibella were by Horatio's first wife.
(1) The entry for Firmount in the University of Galway Landed Estates Database records "A Townsend family home, occupied by Horace Townsend in 1837 and by William Coghlan at the time of Griffith's Valuation. It was then valued at £14.10 shillings and was held from Horatio Townsend. The sale rental of 1877 records a fee farm grant of Firmount from John Crewe Chetwood Townsend to Arthur Chute dated 1871 and a fee farm grant from Arthur Chute to J.C.C. Townsend executed the following year."
(1a) The entry for Woodside in the University of Galway Landed Estates Database records "Occupied by John Carleton in 1814 and by the Reverend E.M. Carleton in 1837. By the early 1850s the house was occupied by Horace Townsend and held by him in fee. It was valued at £40.”
(2) Catharine died in 1816. The entry for Morris (Dunkettle) in the University of Galway Landed Estates Database records "A Welsh family descended from Captain William Morris who was granted lands in East and West Carbery, county Cork under the Acts of Settlement. Abraham Morris of Cork, merchant, bought lands in the baronies of Barrymore, Duhallow and Muskerry from the trustees of forfeited estates, 1703. Originally settled at Castle Salem, by the late 18th century Abraham Morris was established at Dunkettle near Cork city. In the 1790s he was elected Member of Parliament for county Cork in a controversial election. In 1851 his grandson Jonas Morris married Ellen only daughter of Silver Charles Oliver of Inchera. At the time of Griffith's Valuation the Morris estate was located in the parishes of Shandrum, barony of Orrery and Kilmore, Clondrohid and Drishane, barony of West Muskerry and Ballydeloher and Caherlag, barony of Barrymore. In the 1870s Richard Morris of Dunkettle owned 6,494 acres in county Cork."
(2a) 'The Post Chaise Companion or Traveller's Directory through Ireland 3rd Edition 1804' pages 487/488 records "Half a mile from Lota, on the opposite side of the creek, is Dunkittle, the seat of Abraham Morris Esq". The entry for Dunkettle in the University of Galway Landed Estates Database records "Seat of the Morris family from the late 18th century, occupied by Abraham Morris in 1814 and 1837. At the time of Griffith's Valuation Jonas Morris held the property from George Newenham. The buildings were valued at £60. Bence Jones writes that this house was built on or close to the site of a previous house belonging to the Trant family. The house was sold in the late 19th century to the Gubbins family."
(3) Henrietta died in early 1864 after a painful illness and her death was reported in The Corker Examiner on 10 February 1864. In a letter (4) dated 19 February 1864 Edward Hume Townsend also wrote to John Townsend - "Poor Sam T of Garrycloyne has lost his son Horace, a fine lad of ten and Mrs Horace T of Woodside has died after a painful illness".
(4) The entry for Chetwood in the University of Galway Landed Estates Database records "The Chetwodes were settled at Woodbrook, Portarlington, Queen's County (county Laois) in the 18th century. Elizabeth Hester Chetwood, granddaugher of Crewe Chetwood, a younger brother of Valentine Knightley Chetwood of Woodbrook, married Robert Rogers Wilmot and had a son Edward Wilmot who took the name Chetwood in 1839. Edward W. Chetwood inherited the Woodbrook estate. In 1830 he married Lady Jean Janet Erskine, daughter of the Earl of Mar and they had 5 children. At the time of Griffith's Valuation Edward W. Chetwood held land in the parishes of Inch St Lawrence and Ludden, barony of Clanwilliam, county Limerick. Jonathon Chetwood owned land in these parishes in the 1810s and 1820s. In the 1870s Edward Wilmot Chetwood's estate in county Limerick amounted to 464 acres. In 1878 Knightley Jonathan Wilmot-Chetwode owned 683 acres in county Cork and 1,389 acres in Queen's County. The Chetwodes continued to live at Woodbrook until 1963. Woodbrook was for sale in 2009."
(5) The entry for Belgrove in the University of Galway Landed Estates Database records "A house possibly inherited by the Bagwells through marriage with the Harpers. The residence of J. Travers in 1814 and of the Reverend G. Gumbleton in 1837 and in the early 1850s. The Reverend Gumbleton held the property from John Bagwell and it was valued at £36. Bence Jones writes that William Gumbleton, son of the Reverend, lived in this house under 1911. The house was demolished in the mid 20th century and a new building erected."
(6) John Sealy Townsend and Samuel Townsend can be positively identified. The other contenders are Samuel Townsend or Samuel Townsend, Thomas Townsend or Thomas Townsend, Richard Boyle Townsend, Horatio Townsend, Chambre Corker Townsend, Thomas Somerville (probably the husband of Henrietta Augusta Townsend) and George Digby Daunt (husband of Helena Herbert Townsend.
(7) The Rev Carleton (1772-1837) was a close relative of Webber Carleton who married Horatio’s first cousin, Mildred Townsend. His daughter, Penelope Carleton, married Edward Warren of Belleville (1790-1858), the son of Anna Townsend and Thomas Warren MP, on 9 November 1824 and had issue. See 'The Connaught Journal' dated Thursday 18 November 1824.
(8) Llanvapley Papers.