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 his advice in council rejected without a division. But the process told on his temper. He waxed, as Walpole predicted, angry and sullen; the popularity for which he thirsted, and to promote which he always wore Irish cloth, was denied him, and he sought relief for his disappointment in the lowest haunts of dissipation (, George III, ix. 231). At last, when public indignation had reached fever heat, he was recalled in September 1772, having done more to corrupt and lower the tone of political life in Ireland than any previous governor. ‘Lord Townshend,’ says Mr. Lecky (Hist. of England, iv. 401), ‘is one of the very small number of Irish viceroys who have been personally disliked … his abilities were superior to those of many of his predecessors and successors; but he was utterly destitute of tact and judgment. … He sought for popularity by sacrificing the dignity and decorum of his position, and he brought both his person and his office into contempt.’

Returning to his post as master-general of the ordnance, he was on 15 July 1773 appointed colonel of the 2nd (queen's) regiment of dragoons, promoted general in the army on 20 Nov. 1782, and on 31 Oct. 1786 created Marquis Townshend of Rainham. In addition to other offices held by him, he was made lord-lieutenant and custos rotulorum for the county of Norfolk on 15 Feb. 1792, vice-admiral of that county on 16 June the same year, general on the staff (eastern district) from 1793 to 1796, governor of Hull on 19 July 1794, governor of Chelsea Hospital on 16 July 1795, governor of Jersey on 22 July 1796, field-marshal on 30 July 1796, and high steward of Tamworth on 20 Jan. 1797. But his life after quitting Ireland was uneventful. He died at Rainham on 14 Sept. 1807, and was buried in the family vault there on the 28th.

By his first wife, Lady Charlotte, only surviving issue of James Compton, earl of Northampton, in her own right Baroness de Ferrars, whom he married in December 1751, and who died at Leixlip Castle in Ireland on 14 Sept. 1770, he had four sons and four daughters, of whom the eldest, George, second marquis Townshend [q. v.], succeeded him. He married, secondly, on 19 May 1773, Anne, daughter of Sir William Montgomery, M.P. for Ballynekill, who died on 29 March 1819, and by her had also issue six children. A full-length portrait, painted by Reynolds, was engraved in mezzotint by C. Turner and by R. Jose. Another portrait, by Thomas Hudson, was engraved by J. McArdell. He is said to have been a very handsome man.

[Collins's Peerage, ii. 478–80; Doyle's Official Baronage, iii. 543; Gent. Mag. 1807, ii. 894, 974; Pitt Corresp. i. 222, 345, 452, ii. 412, iii. 279, 435, iv. 340; Grenville Papers, ii. 277, iii. 207, 209, iv. 92, 130, 169, 171, 232; Walpole's Letters, ed. Cunningham, Last Ten Years of George II, Journal of the Reign of George III, ed. Doran, and Memoirs of George III, ed. Barker; An Essay on the Character and Conduct of His Excellency Lord Viscount Townshend, 1771; Flood's Memoirs of H. Flood, pp. 75–81; Grattan's Life of Grattan, i. 95, 98, 101, 102, 172, 173, 174; Observations on a Speech delivered the 26th Day of December 1769 (attributed to Robert Hellen); Almon's Biographical Anecdotes, i. 101–9; Fitzmaurice's Life of Shelburne; Baratariana; Plowden's Hist. Review; Lecky's England in the Eighteenth Century, vol. iv.; Froude's English in Ireland, vol. ii.; Hist. MSS. Comm. 5th Rep. p. 234, 6th Rep. p. 236, 8th Rep. pp. 193, 195–6, 9th Rep. iii. 28–9; Townshend MSS.; Dartmouth MSS. vol. ii.; Charlemont MSS. vols. i. and ii.; Addit. MSS. (Brit. Mus.) 20733 f. 25, 21709, 23635 f. 245, 23654 f. 62, 23669 f. 63, 23670 f. 261, 24137 (containing interesting personal details, cf. Lecky, iv. 372–3), 30873 f. 77 (to J. Wilkes); Corresp. with the Duke of Newcastle, 1751–67, 32725 et seq. and 33118 ff. 1–24 (despatch on the defence of Ireland); Egerton MS. 2136, f. 119.]  TOWNSHEND, GEORGE, second, , and of Chartley (1755–1811), born on 18 April 1755, was the eldest son of George Townshend, first marquis [q. v.], by his first wife, Lady Charlotte Compton, baroness de Ferrars. He was educated at Eton and St. John's College, Cambridge, and was created M.A. on 6 July 1773. On his mother's death in 1774 he succeeded to the barony of De Ferrars. He served in the army for a few years, being gazetted cornet in the 9th dragoons on 29 Sept. 1770, lieutenant in the 4th regiment of horse on 1 Oct. 1771, and captain in the 18th light dragoons on 23 Jan. 1773, and in the 15th (king's) light dragoons on 31 Dec. of the same year. In speaking in the debate on the address on 26 Oct. 1775 De Ferrars declared he should oppose all the measures of the court, though, out of respect to his father, he would not begin that day (, Last Journals, i. 512). He did not, however, take any prominent part in politics. On the return of the whigs to office he was made a privy councillor (24 April 1782), and was nominated captain of the band of gentlemen pensioners. To that post he was reappointed by Pitt on 31 Dec. 1783, and on 5 March 1784 was named a member of the committee of the privy council which managed colonial commerce until the constitution of the board of trade. On 18 May