THROUGH MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of Union County, Georgia
Their Descendants...Their
Stories...Their
Achievements
Lifting the Mists of History on
Their Way
of Life
By:
Ethelene Dyer Jones
Origin and
history of the
name Townsend
James Savage wrote: “By an
instinct of our
nature, we all learn to love the places of our birth, and the chief
circumstances in the lives of our progenitors.”
There it is—our reasons for
getting hooked
on genealogy. The writer states unequivocally that the love for it is
“an instinct
of our nature.”
The ancestral name Townsend is
spelled in
various ways: The most common is Townsend; you might see it as
Townshend,
Townson, Townsil and, much older, atte-Towns-End, which means, of
course,
living at the place where the town ends. This later was from the Norman
“de
Alta Ville” and meant at Towns-end.
Lodovic, a noble Norman, settled
in England
during the reign of King Henry I. He married Elizabeth, daughter and
heiress of
Sir Thomas de Hoville who was Knight of the Manor of Raynham in
Norfolkshire.
Lodovic assumed the name Townshend (or Townsend) meaning living at the
edge of
town. Since his wife, Elizabeth, inherited the estate at Raynham,
Townshend
himself was also the owner. Hence the beginning of a long line of
English
Viscounts and Marquesses descending from Lodovic and Elizabeth
Townshend.
Townsend is an English place
name and
literally means living at the edge of the town. In England, those
bearing the
name Townsend lived at Raynham in Norfolkshire, were landowners there,
and
because of their service to various royal heads of England, were
knighted for
their service. In 1483 the landowner at Townsend became a Baron and was
named
by King Richard III as a Judge in the Court of Common Pleas. Likewise,
King
Henry VII reappointed Baron Townsend to the same post, a position the
Baron
held until 1498.
Townsends were numbered among
sailors.
Under the banner of Queen Elizabeth I, Roger Townsend of the Raynham
Estates
brought his ships into her service and helped to quell the Spanish
Armada.
Roger Townsend received knighthood for his service to the Queen. John,
a
younger brother of Roger, went in the British Expedition to Cadiz,
Spain in
1599 and was likewise knighted for his bravery there.
Under the Cromwell rule in
England, Richard
Townsend held the rank of Colonel and fought with Cromwell in Ireland,
winning
a sizeable estate for his service in the County Cork where descendants
of Roger
Townsend reside to the present day. After the death of Cromwell, Sir
Horatio
Townsend, then proprietor of Raynham Hall, helped to secure the
restoration of
Charles II to the British throne. As a result, in 1617, Horatio
Townsend was
named a baronet, in 1661 with the title of Baron Townshend of Lynn
Regis. In
1682 he earned the title Viscount Townshend of Raynham. Then came the
addition
of the “h” to the name, perhaps to indicate its higher significance.
The roots of the Union County
Townsends can
be traced to one Repentance Townsend who was born about 1725 and died
after
1790. The unlikely name of “Repentance” as a given name makes him stand
out as
unusual. It would be interesting to know the circumstances behind his
given
name. Repentance and his wife Mary Townsend lived in Augusta County,
Virginia
as early as 1746. There he was witness to a land deed. They moved out
of
Virginia sometime prior to 1755, as they were listed in November of
that year
as delinquent on paying taxes and having “removed” from the county.
They moved to old Anson County,
North
Carolina where several land deeds are recorded in the name of
Temperance
Townsend and his wife Mary as early as 1756. His land there bordered on
both
North and South Carolina while state lines were still in dispute. On
the main
fork of Fishing Creek in Camden District of South Carolina, later York
County,
Temperance Townsend owned 300 acres.
The North Georgia Townsends
desended
through the son of Repentance named Thomas (1753-1836), grandson Edward
(1789-1860) and great grandson Eli ( ca. 1810-ca. 1849). The four older
sons of
Repentance Townsend; Thomas, Samuel, Andrew and John— all served in the
Revolutionary War.
The motto on the Townsend coat
of arms is
translated “Fidelity earned these honors for our race.” Through the
mists of
time from the Norman Conquest of England to the American Revolution and
many
wars for freedom since, Townsends have shown fidelity, faithfulness in
the line
of duty to their country.
(I gleaned information
for this
article from “Some Townsends of North Georgia” by E. E. Townsend,
Cleveland,
TN, undated.)
[Ethelene Dyer
Jones is a retired educator,
freelance writer, poet, and historian. She may be reached at
e-mail [email protected];
phone 478-453-8751; or mail 1708 Cedarwood Road, Milledgeville, GA
31061-2411.]
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