bendary of Westminster, and preferred to the deanery of Norwich in August 1760 (when he resigned the Westminster stall; he died on 27 Jan. 1765, leaving issue by his wife Mary (m. 4 May 1747), daughter of Brigadier-general Price. The statesman's daughters by his second wife were (1) Dorothy, who married in 1743 Spencer Cowper [q. v.], dean of Durham, and died without issue on 19 May 1779 (Gent. Mag. 1779, p. 271); and (2) Mary, who married on 17 March 1753 Colonel (afterwards Lieutenant-general) Edward Cornwallis, governor of Nova Scotia, 1749–1752, and of Gibraltar, 1762–76, and died without issue on 29 Dec. 1776 (St. George's, Hanover Square, Marriage Reg. Harl. Soc. p. 49; Ann. Reg. 1776, pp. 222, 230).
[Information kindly supplied by Sir Ernest Clarke, F.S.A.; Macpherson's Orig. Papers, ii. 270, 475, 489, 596; Burnet's Own Time; Prior's Own Time; Boyer's Annals of Queen Anne, 1707 pp. 305, 373, 1709 pp. 4 et seq., 1710 pp. 39, 40, 1711 pp. 7–8, 348; Wentworth Papers, 1705–39, ed. Cartwright; Defoe's Hist. of the Union, p. 110; Miscellaneous State Papers, 1501–1726, ii. 556; Coxe's Horatio, Lord Walpole; Coxe's Memoirs of Marlborough, ed. Wade; Marlborough's Letters and Despatches, ed. Murray; Private Corresp. of the Duchess of Marlborough, 1838; Mémoires de Torcy, Petitot, 2me série, lxvii–lxviii; Mémoires de Villars et De Vogüé, 1892; Lord Cowper's Private Diary (Roxburghe Club); Lady Cowper's Diary; Letters of Humphrey Prideaux to John Ellis (Camden Soc.); Memoirs of Thomas, Earl of Ailesbury (Roxburghe Club); Marchmont Papers, ed. Rose; Baillon's Lord Walpole à la Cour de France; Luttrell's Relation of State Affairs; Report from the Committee appointed by order of the House of Commons to examine Christopher Layer and others, 1722; Parl. Hist. vi. et seq.; Rogers's Protests of the House of Lords; Atterbury's Memoirs, ed. Williams, i. 437 et seq.; Stair Annals and Corresp. ed. Graham, i. 242; Elliott's Life of Godolphin; Ballantyne's Life of Lord Carteret; Ernst's Life of Lord Chesterfield; Suffolk Corresp. i. 346; Sundon Memoirs, i. 255; Macky's Memoirs (Roxburghe Club); Noble's Continuation of Granger's Biogr. Hist. of England, iii. 15; Addit. MS. 28153, ff. 144, 195, 247, 297, 301; Stowe MSS. 224 f. 103, 226 ff. 413, 416, 242 ff. 212–13, 246 ff. 69–71, 248 f. 24, 256 ff. 18–67; Hist. MSS. Comm. 2nd Rep. App. pp. 64, 79, 188, 3rd Rep. App. pp. 218, 222, 248, 368, 382–3, 4th Rep. App. p. 513, 8th Rep. App. i. 16–21, 39–40, 10th Rep. App. i. 239–43, ii. 427–33, 11th Rep. App. iv. 48 et seq.; Der Congress von Soissons, ed. Höfler, Oesterreich. Gesch.-Quell. Abth. ii. Bde. xxxi. xxxviii.; De Garden, Hist. des Traités de Paix, ii–iii.; Dumont, Corps Dipl. viii., and Suppl. ii. pt. ii. pp. 169–82; Stanhope's Hist. of England; Lecky's Hist. of England in the Eighteenth Century; Ranke, Engl. Gesch.; Klopp, Fall des Hauses Stuart; Michael, Engl. Gesch. im achtzehnten Jahrhundert, 1896; Brosch, Engl. Gesch. im achtzehnten Jahrhundert, 1897; C[okayne]'s Complete Peerage; Doyle's Official Baronage; Collins's Peerage, ii. 464, vi. 319, viii. 551; Misc. Gen. et Herald. 2nd ser. ed. Howard, i. 373; Genealogist, ed. Murray, vi. 210; Gent. Mag. 1745 p. 52, 1760 p. 394, 1781 p. 94; Chamberlayne's Mag. Brit. Not. 1748, pt. ii. bk. iii., General List, p. 259; Members of Parl. (official lists); Haydn's Book of Dignities, ed. Ockerby; Grad. Cant.; Clutterbuck's Hertfordshire, ii. 316; Blomefield's Norfolk, v. 392, vii. 136; Le Neve's Fasti Eccl. Angl. ii. 477, iii. 366.]
TOWNSEND, CHARLES (1725–1767), chancellor of the exchequer, born on 29 Aug. 1725, was the second son of Charles, third viscount Townshend [see under Townshend, Charles second Viscount], by his wife Etheldreda or Audrey (d. 1788), daughter of Edward Harrison of Balls Park, Hertfordshire. His mother was ‘celebrated for her gallantries, eccentricities, and wit’ (Jesse, George Selwyn, i. 160–1). One of her witticisms, a reply to the question whether George Whitefield had recanted by the remark ‘he has only been canting,’ was considered by Gladstone to be Lord John Russell's most brilliant retort when repeated in another form. Charles Townshend's elder brother was George, fourth viscount and first marquis Townshend [q. v.]
Charles was educated with Wilkes and Dowdeswell at Leyden, where he was admitted on 27 Oct. 1745 (Peacock, Index of Leyden Students, p. 99). Alexander Carlyle [q. v.] met him there in that year, and gives an amusing account of Townshend's being challenged by an irate Scot, (Sir) James Johnstone of Westerhall, in revenge for Townshend's jokes at his expense. Carlyle attributes to Townshend wit, humour, a turn for mimicry, and above all ‘a talent of translating other men's thoughts … into the most charming language’ (Autobiogr. ed. Burton, p. 170). On his return from Leyden he is said to have been sent to Oxford (Fitzgerald, Charles Townshend), but his name does not occur in Foster's ‘Alumni.’ On 30 June 1747 he was returned to parliament for Great Yarmouth. He attached himself to George Montagu Dunk, second earl of Halifax [q. v.], and, when Halifax was placed at the head of the board of trade late in 1748, he gave Townshend a post in that office. Townshend soon ‘distinguished himself on affairs of trade and in drawing up plans and papers for that province. … His figure was tall and advantageous, his action
