A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



but had left with the permission of the authorities. •• 

 On the Civil War breaking out Charles Townclcy at 

 once took the king's side," and fell in the battle of 

 Marston Moor in 1 644.^ His estates were sequestered 

 and in 1651 declared forfeit and put up for sale." 

 As in other cases portions of the inheritance were 

 secured for the children, and Charles's son Richard 

 succeeded to Towneley. He recorded a pedigree in 

 1664/°° He lived quietly and devoted his leisure 

 to study.'" In 1678, at the time of the Gates Plot, 

 he and other members of his family were indicted for 

 recusancy/" and remaining faithful to James II he 

 was made prisoner in 1689 and was accused of 

 participation in the fictitious plot of 1694.'" He 

 died at York in 1707.'" 



His son Charles dying in 171 1 was followed by 

 his son Richard, who married a daughter of Lord 

 Widdrington,'"* and being zealous for the Stuarts 

 joined the Jacobites at Preston in 1715.'°* He was 

 tried for high treason, but acquitted for want of 

 evidence.*" In I 7 1 7 he registered his entailed estates 

 as worth ^^921 a year; others of his family also 

 registered annuities charged on Towneley.'*^* His 

 brother John entered the service of France and was 

 made a knight of St. Louis ; he translated Hudlbras 

 into French.*" Another brother, Francis, took an 

 active part in the Jacobite rising of 1745, and was 

 made colonel of the Manchester Regiment ; being 

 captured at Carlisle, he was tried for high treason 

 and executed in 1 746."° At home the family had 

 little chance of distinction, the laws shutting them 

 out of public life for their religion ; but Charles 

 Towneley, grandson of Richard, who held the 

 Towneley estates from I 742 till i 805, had a European 

 reputation as a connoisseur. Educated at Douay, he 



afterwards visited Italy and made a famous collection 

 of marble and other objects of art, purchased by the 

 British Museum after his death.'" He was un- 

 married, and Towneley went to his brother Edward 

 Standish"* (d. 1807) and then to his uncle John 

 Towneley (d. 1813)."* The last-named was suc- 

 ceeded by his son Peregrine Edward Towneley, who 

 after the passing of the Catholic Emancipation Act 

 was able to take part in public life and served as 

 high sheriff in 1831. Dying 

 in I 846 he was succeeded by 

 his son Charles, high sheriff 

 in 1857. At his death in 

 1 861 he left three daughters, 

 ultimately co-heirs of the 

 family estates "* : Caroline 

 Louisa (d. 1873), who married 

 Viscount Norreys, now Earl 

 of Abingdon, and had several 

 children ; Emily Frances (d. 

 1 89 2), who married Lord 

 A. F. Gordon Lennox, and 

 left a son ; and Alice Mary, 

 who married a distinguished 

 lawyer, Thomas O'Hagan, 

 twice Lord Chancellor of Ire- 

 land, created a baron of the 

 United Kingdom in i S70. 

 Lord O'Hagan died in 1885 ; 

 his eldest son and successor 

 died during the South African 

 War 1900, being a lieutenant 



in the Grenadier Guards, and was succeeded in the 

 title by his brother. The estates were divided. 

 Lady O'Hagan, who seceded from communion with 



O'Hagan, Lord 

 O'Hagan. Quarterly 

 argent and a-zurc, in the 

 first quarter a ihoe profer 

 and on a canton per 

 che'veron gulei and ermine 

 three coi'tred cups or^ in 

 the second quarter a Jlag 

 of the first charged -nith 

 a dexter hand of the 

 fourth^ in the third quar- 

 ter a lion rampant gold 

 and in the fourth quarter 

 a fish stuimming proper. 



« Foley, Rec. S. J. v, 295. He 

 entered the English College at Rome in 

 1 62 1, aged about twenty-one, and left in 

 1624. His replies to the questions on 

 admission arc of interest : *I was born 

 at my father's house, Towneley, in 

 Lancashire, where I was brought up for 

 thirteen or fourteen years, and then sent 

 to St. Omers, and remained there for 

 nearly two years. I then returned to 

 England, and for about three years lived 

 at a house of my father's in Lincolnshire, 

 when I again returned to Belgium and 

 spent nearly a year at Louvain, and am 

 now come from thence to Rome. . . My 

 parents are Catholics. Their income is 

 about j^i,700 a year in rents. I have 

 three brothers and one sister. My three 

 uncles on my father's side arc Ciitholics, 

 except one ; on my mother's side five, all 

 heretics. Of the rest of my relatives 

 many are heretics, and but a few Catholics. 

 I was always a Catholic ' ; ibid, i, 669. 



"' He was one of the six leading recu- 

 sants who in 164.2 petitioned the king to 

 be allowed to provide themselves with 

 weapons ; Civil War Tracts (Chet. Soc), 

 38. He took part in the siege of 

 Manchester (ibid. 51), and in the de- 

 fence of Preston early in 1643, narrowly 

 escaping capture, but leaving his wife in, 

 the enemy's hands ; ibid, 75. 



^^ The visitation record and Beamont 

 (quoting Bhck Tribunal, ^69). 



*^ Index of Royalists (Index Soc), 2 ; 

 CaL Co'T.. for Camp, iii, 2222-5 J ^) 

 3:97. Charles Towneley was a 'de- 

 linquent ' in 1643 and 1644, and recu- 

 sancy was a further reason for sequestra- 

 tion. As by the settlement Charles had 



no more than a lite interest in most of his 

 estates, Richard Towneley, hi« son, had to 

 be a party to sales. The Lincolnshire 

 estate was at length disposed of to clear 

 the rest ; Whitakcr, op. ciL ii» 546. 



itw Dugdale, Hsit. (Chet. Soc), 307. 

 He was then thirty-seven years of a^c, 

 and by his wife Mary daughter of Clement 

 Paston had three sons and five daughters 

 living. The wife is called Margaret on 

 the epitaph. One of the sons, Thomas, 

 bom later, became a priest, and died on 

 the Lancashire mission in 1737; Misc. 

 (Cath. Rec. Soc), iv, 376. Two other 

 sons became monks and two daughters 

 nuns. 



^^^ Whitakcr, op. cit ii, 545-6. 



103 Hist. MSS. Com, Rep. xiv, App. iv, 

 no. ^'^ Ibid. 357-9, 369. 



104 There are references to him in 

 Leigh's Lancashire^ and Thorcsby calls 

 him *that ingenious virtuoso'^ Ducatus 

 Leod. (1715), p. 624. 



'*** Sister of the Lord Widdrington who 

 took part in the 171 5 rising, but was 

 pardoned. 



1'^' A witness deposed that at Preston 

 he saw * Richard Towneley of Towneley, 

 esq., with a cockade in his hat . . . with 

 twelve or fourteen men with him, all 

 with cockades, swords, pistols, and guns, 

 on Sunday morning, marching amongst 

 the said rebels to oppose the king's 

 forces' ; Payne, Rec. of Engl. Cath., 97. 



I'^Ibid. 87. Patten writes: *This 

 gentleman's servants were found guilty 

 of high treason for being in the rebellion 

 with their master, and some of them 

 afterwards executed in Lancashire ; but 

 he was acquitted by the jury at the 



Marshalsea. After which, endeavouring 

 to go beyond sea, he was retaken into 

 custody but soon discharged ' ; Rebellion 



of ^7^^^ ?• "5- 



'** Estcourt and Payne, Engl. Cath, 

 Non-jurors, 99 ; also 92, 98, lOO. 

 Richard Towneley died in 1735 and was 

 succeeded by his son William, who died 

 in 1742. 



The pedigree is set out in a deed of 

 1737, enrolled at Preston, in which it is 

 stated that Thomas Towneley, sometime 

 of York, and afterwards of Euxton, and 

 late of Sutton in Cheshire, deceased, was 

 a nephew and executor of Charles 

 Towneley ; Piccope MSS. (Chet. Lib.), 

 iii, 262, from 12th R. of Geo. II. 



^^ Diet. Nat. Biog. ; Pal. Note Bk. i, 

 26, &c, ; iii, 144, &c.; iv, 94. He was a 

 Jacobite also, and assisted the Young 

 Pretender in Scotland in 1745. His 

 Hudibras was published In 1757. He 

 died in London in 1782. 



"0 Diet. Nat, Biog. 



"' Whitakcr, a personal friend, writes 

 that * in his later years he grew more 

 attached to his native place, and displayed 

 in adorning the grounds about it a taste 

 not inferior to that which distinguished 

 his other pursuits' 5 op. cit. 540-4 ; see 

 also Diet. Nat, Biog. 



"* He took the surname of Standish 

 on succeeding his brother Ralph in that 

 family's estates, their mother being 

 Cecily Standish of Standish. 



"^ He was a younger son of Richard 

 Towneley, who died in 1735. 



*'* Col. Charles Towneley was suc- 

 ceeded by his brother John as male heir, 

 and he by his only son Richard Henry, 



460 



