Home Page
This website hosts the genealogical records of the Townsends/Townshends of Castletownshend in County Cork, Ireland. The family traces its roots back to Colonel Richard Townesend (sic) who was an officer in Cromwell's Irish Army. Much research has been undertaken to trace Colonel Richard's origins but nothing is known about him before 1643 when he was appointed to command a company in Colonel Ceely's Regiment.
Colonel Richard retired from the army sometime before 1654 and finally settled at Castletown, which later became Castletownshend, in about 1665. He died on 25th September 1692 and was buried in the churchyard at Castlehaven; his tomb lies in the chancel of the old church and is marked by a slab bearing the words "This is the burial place of the Townesends". He had a large family of which there were seven surviving sons. Of these it is only through his son Colonel Bryan Townsend that survivors in the male line exist today.
From time to time different members of the Townsend/Townshend family have drawn up some account of their ancestors but all of them remained unfinished or incomplete in their scope. In an attempt to correct this Richard Baxter Townshend and his wife Dorothea collected these accounts and records, both public and private, and published in 1892 a book entitled 'An Officer of the Long Parliament — Being an Account of the Life & Times of Colonel Richard Townesend of Castletown (Castletownshend) & a Chronicle of his Family'. It contains much fascinating and interesting material and forms a comprehensive basis upon which to continue the account of the Townsend/Townshend family. Furthermore, few families have the luxury of a book covering their family history which is now available on-line for all to read.
Since 'An Officer of the Long Parliament' was published five generations of Townsends have entered the world and much valuable information has been lost over the intervening years, particularly in the first half of the 20th century. Using this unique record of the Townsend family, the 1976 Edition of Burke's Irish Family Records and an illustrated Townsend pedigree drawn up by Judge John Fitzhenry Townsend in 1869 as my starting point, I have sought, over the last 30 years, to emulate the good work of Richard and Dorothea Townshend and bring matters up to date by producing a record for every member of the family from Colonel Richard to the present day. I have used many sources other than those I show above and these are shown in the Sources page. In each record I have sought to encapsulate the life and achievements of the individual concerned and, where material is available, I have included a 'Personal Scrapbook' containing items such as photographs, letters and material of interest. Records that include a specific reference to 'An Officer of the Long Parliament' benefit from the added dimension of being able to follow up the reference on-line. With every record I also show the relevant genealogical table which can be printed off for easy reference.
Colonel Richard spelled his name 'Townesend' and this subsequently became 'Townsend'. In 1870 the then head of the family, the Reverend Maurice Fitzgerald Townsend, following consultation with George Villiers, Marquis Townshend of Raynham, Norfolk, requested that the whole family incorporate the 'h' into their name. Not all did so and this continues to be the case today — some branches spell their name 'Townshend' and others 'Townsend' but there are also variations within branches! Throughout the records I have used the spelling 'Townsend' for convenience.
I published the results of my research in the form of a database in Microsoft Access format. Based on this database, my son Dr Richard Townsend created these web-pages using the open-source MySQL database engine and PHP scripting language. We hope you enjoy learning about the rich and varied history of the Townsends of Castletownshend. The website is dynamic and there will be changes as it is developed further and new material is added. If you have any questions or comments, or you would like to pass on information that helps to extend the family tree, please do not hesitate to get in touch via the Contact page.
On a final note, If you are interested in comparative values for the money sums quoted in the records, visit MeasuringWorth.com. In rough terms, £1,000 in 1850 was worth £76,553 in 2005.
November 2008