Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 57.djvu/139

  695; Stanhope's Hist. of England, and Life of Pitt; Lecky's History of England, 1892, v. 169, 240, 303.] 

TOWNSON, TOUNSON, or TOULSON, ROBERT (1575–1621), bishop of Salisbury, son of 'Renold Toulnesonn,' and uncle of Thomas Fuller (1608-1661) [q. v.], was baptised on 8 Jan. 1575-6 in the parish of St. Botolph, Cambridge. He was admitted a sizar of Queens' College, Cambridge, on 28 Dec. 1587. He graduated M.A. in 1595, was elected a fellow on 2 Sept. 1597, and was incorporated at Oxford on 10 July 1599, proceeding B.D. in 1602, and D.D. in 1613. On 13 April 1604 he was presented to the vicarage of Wellingborough in Northamptonshire, and on 16 Feb. 1606-7 by William Tate to the rectory of Old in the same county, which he retained till 1620. He was also appointed a royal chaplain, and on 16 Dec. 1617 was installed dean of Westminster. In this capacity he attended Sir Walter Ralegh both in prison and on the scaffold, and described his 'last behaviour' in a letter to Sir John Isham (Walteri Hemingford Historia de rebus gestis Edwardi, &c., ed. Hearne, 1731, vol. i. p. clxxxiv). On 9 July 1620 he was consecrated bishop of Salisbury, died 'in a mean condition' on 15 May 1621, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. On 17 June 1604 he married Margaret, daughter of John Davenant, citizen and merchant of London, sister of John Davenant [q. v.], who succeeded him as bishop of Salisbury, and widow of William Townley. By her, who died on 29 Oct. 1634 and was buried in Salisbury Cathedral, he had a large family. Two sons, Robert and John, afterwards received preferment in their uncle Davenant's diocese. His daughter Gertrude married James Harris (1605-1679) of Salisbury, ancestor of the earls of Malmesbury.

[Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500-1714; Wood's Athena Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 247, 860; Wood's Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 283; Le Neve's Fasti; Welch's Alumni Westmonast. p. 17; Chester's Registers of Westminster Abbey, pp. 64, 117; Bridges's Hist. of Northamptonshire, ed.Whalley, 1791, ii. 151; Fuller's Worthies of England, ed. Nichols, 1811, i. 159; Cassan's Bishops of Salisbury, ii. 107-11.] 

TOWNSON, ROBERT (fl. 1792–1799), traveller and mineralogist, was probably a native of Yorkshire. In 1793 he made a journey through Hungary, an account of which he published in 1797 under the title ‘Travels in Hungary’ (London, 8vo). In 1795 he graduated M.D. at Göttingen University. He was a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Besides the work mentioned, he wrote: 1. ‘Observationes physiologicæ de Amphibiis,’ Göttingen, 1794, 4to. 2. ‘The Philosophy of Mineralogy,’ London, 1798, 8vo. 3. ‘Tracts and Observations in Natural History and Physiology,’ London, 1799, 8vo. He also contributed a paper on the ‘Perceptivity of Plants’ to the ‘Transactions’ of the Linnean Society (ii. 267).

[Townson's Works; Britten and Boulger's British and Irish Botanists; Lit. Memoirs of Living Authors of Great Britain, 1798.] 

TOWNSON, THOMAS (1715–1792), divine, born at Much Lees, Essex, in 1715, was the eldest son of John Townson, rector of that parish, by his wife Lucretia, daughter of Edward Wiltshire, rector of Kirk Andrews, Cumberland. He was educated first under the care of Henry Nott, vicar of Terling, and next in the grammar school at Felsted. He matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford, on 13 March 1732–3, and was elected a demy of Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1733, and probationary fellow in 1737. He graduated B.A. on 20 Oct. 1736, M.A. on 20 June 1739, B.D. on 13 June 1750, and D.D., by diploma, on 23 Feb. 1779. He was ordained priest in 1742, and, after making a tour on the continent, resumed tutorial work at Oxford.

In 1746 he was instituted to the vicarage of Hatfield Peverel, Essex, and in 1749 he was senior proctor of the university. Resigning Hatfield in the latter year, he was presented to the rectory of Blithfield, Staffordshire, and on 2 Jan. 1751–2 he was instituted to the lower mediety of Malpas, Cheshire, where he thenceforth resided. In 1758, when he received a bequest of 8,000l. from William Barcroft, rector of Fairstead and vicar of Kelvedon in Essex, he resigned Blithfield and applied himself more especially to literary pursuits. On 30 Oct. 1781 he was collated to the archdeaconry of Richmond, and in 1783 was offered by Lord North the regius professorship of divinity at Oxford, which he declined on account of his advanced age. He died at Malpas on 15 April 1792.

His works are: 1. ‘Doubts concerning the Authenticity of the last Publication of “The Confessional”’ … [by Francis Blackburne, q. v.], London, 1767, 8vo; and also a ‘Defence’ of these ‘Doubts,’ London, 1768, 8vo. 2. ‘A Dialogue between Isaac Walton and Homologistes, concerning Bishop Sanderson,’ London, 1768. 3. ‘Discourses on the Four Gospels,’ Oxford, 1778, 4to; 2nd edit. 1788, 8vo; two parts of a German translation by D. J. S. Semler were published at Leipzig, 1783–4, 8vo. 4. ‘A Discourse on the