1807.] 
[ 359°] 
MEMOIRS AND REMAINS OF EMINENT PERSONS. 
MemMorrS of the lute GEORGE TOWNS- 
HEND, MARQUIS TOWNSHEND, Of RAIN- 
HAM, VISCOUNT TOWNSHEND, BARON 
TOWNSHEND Of LYNNE-REGIS, BARON 
TOWNSHEND of LYNNE, and a Ba- 
RONET; LORD-LIEUTENANT and VICE- 
ADMIRAL Of NORFOLK, @ FIELD-MAR- 
SHAL, dnd GOVERNOR of JERSEY, &c. 
&e. 
*¢ Hc Generi Incrernenta Fides.’’ 
HE present epoch, confessedly preg- 
nant with the future destiny of Eu- 
rope, affords ample materials both for 
history and biography. Amidst the re- 
volutions of kingdoms, and the changes 
of empires, we naturally fix our attention 
on the chief personages in the grand dra- 
ma; and while great events are traced up 
to their first causes, the political, legisla- 
tive and military characters, who have 
figured by turns on the scene, attract the 
applause, the Ronse or the commise- 
ration Of mankind. But althoueh the day 
in which we now live seems to teem with 
wonders, yet we ought not to forget the 
antecedent age and the men who then ac- 
quired celebrity. The naval battles of 
the 1st of June, St. Vincent, and Trafal- 
gar; the land engagements of Jena, 
Maida, and of Friedland, are, perhaps, 
unparalleled: in our annals. Yet those 
wars during which England. contended 
with France in America, for sovenelgaty, 
are not wholly unwoi thy of notice; and 
one of the heroes who, on the plains of 
Abraham, fixed for awhile the attention of 
Europe, ought not to be permitted to 
sink into the silent tomb, as if he had 
been a common man, unconnected with 
our annals, and unworthy of the pen of 
a biographer, 
The family of mormshens is of great 
antiquity in the county of Norfolk, and 
a. a noble Norman, has been ge- 
nerally considered as the patriarch of this 
race. Le did not, however, accompany 
the Conqueror here: for it was not until 
the reign of Henry I. that he came into 
England. It was he who first assumed 
the surname of Townshend, and effected 
as much by marriage as the earlier set- 
tlers had done with the sword; for by 
an hymeneal alliance with the daughter 
af Sir ‘Thomas de Haville,* he became 
* The family of Havile, ot Hauteville (de 
Alta Villa, in old deeds), was also of Norman 
extraction, as the name, indeed, bears eyi- 
sence, 
possessed of the manor of Havile, in 
Rainham, where his posterity has now 
resided auring the space of some hun- 
dreds of years. 
Sir Roger Townshend, a lawyer* of 
some eminence in the reign of Edward 
TV. encreased his patrimony by similar 
means, having married Aine, daughter 
ancvaceiei at. Sir William de Bren of 
Wenham-hall, in the county of Suftolk, 
kmight, about the year 1489. 
Sir Roger Yownshend, one of his de- 
scendants, distinguished himselfunder the 
Lord High Admiral Howard, during that 
memorable period when the Spanish ar- 
mada became the terror of England and 
the world. John, his son, was the first 
of the family who served as a knight of 
the shire for the county of Norfolk; he 
also appears, in the modern acceptation 
of the word, to have been the first pa- 
triot, for he was one of the members ap- 
pomted to state ‘* the grievances of the 
nation,” in the first parhament convoked 
by James I. He died in consequence of 
a memorable duel, fought with Sir Mat- 
thew Brown, on horseback, on Houns- 
Jow-heath, in which both were mortally 
wounded; this occurred in 1603. 
Roger, the first baronet of the fa- 
mily, was created by James I. April 16, 
1607 : it was he who built the mansion- 
house at Rainham. Sir Horatio, his suc- 
cessor, was not of age during the civil 
war, but contributed much to the resto- 
ration, and his character has accordingly 
been much extolled by Lord Clarendon: 
he was soon. after (hood 20, 1661) cre— 
ated Baron Townshend of Lynne- Regis, 
and in 1682 was further advanced to the 
dignity of Viscount Townshend, of Rain- 
ham. ‘ 
Charles, the second viscount, was one 
of the commissioners who treated of the 
Union between the two kingdoms; he 
also acted for some time as ambassador 
at the Hague, but was recalled, and de- 
prived of his post of captain of the yeo- 
men Gf her majesty’s guard, in conse- 
quence of a sudden change ‘of the mix 
nistry. On the accession of George the 
First, this nobleman once more came into 
favour, having been nominated one of 
the lords justices, and im 1714, sworn 
one of his majesty’s secretaries of state. 
ee I 
* He appears to Have held the place now 
occupied by Mr. Serjeant Hill: that of king’s 
ancient serjeant. : 
Tn 
