Author: Townshend, Thomas
Biography:
TOWNSHEND, Thomas (c. 1764-1856: J. L. Leslie)
Thomas Townshend "of Cheshire" (q.v.) is sometimes erroneously credited with Poems. However, it is certain that Bolesworth Castle was not written by the man who wrote Poems. The latter was admitted to Gray’s Inn on 4 July 1794 and named in the register as the fifth son of John Townshend of Thornhill, County Cork. An older brother, James, was admitted to the Middle Temple in 1777. John Townshend was a landowner in Cork and his wife was Elizabeth Reddish. Thomas Townshend wrote several works in the 1790s but seems to have published nothing after 1801. He likely returned to Ireland after being called to the bar and he married Susannah Carré Williams. They had at least two sons. One, Somerset Lowry Corry Townshend, was named after the Irish politician to whom Poems (1796) is dedicated; he became a clergyman. The other, Thomas Stewart Townshend, became the Bishop of Meath. Thomas Townshend’s date of death is on S. L. C. Townshend’s tombstone in Louth as 28 Mar. 1856 when he was ninety-two. It gives “LL.D.” after his name but no records of his academic studies have been located. Other publications include Considerations on the Theoretical Spirit of the Times (1793), Summary Defence of the Rt. Hon. Edmund Burke, in Two Letters (1796), Part of a Letter to a Noble Lord (1801), and General Opinions on the Conduct of Ministers (1801). His surname is sometimes spelled Townsend. (J. L. Leslie, Armagh Clergy and Parishes [1911]; ancestry.co.uk 22 Jan. 2022; Register of Admissions to Gray’s Inn 1521-1889 [1889]; Register of Admissions to the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple [1949]) SR
Other Names:
- T. Townshend