Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/12

 NOTES AND QUERIES.

[11 S. V. JAX. 6, 1912.

in. the neighbourhood of Tottenham, he and a friend disguised themselves and appre- hended the culprit. The man was naturally much surprised to find that his captors were gentlemen of recognized position. One of his peculiarities was that he would travel from " one end of the kingdom to the other without a servant and with a small change of linen in a leathern trunk behind the saddle " <(Beloe, ' Sexagenarian,' ii. 20-24).

Still acting with Lord Shelburne, he sup- ported Pitt against Fox. He was spokes- man for the City (28 February, 1784) on the presentation to Pitt of the resolutions of the Court of Common Council against his rival. But his active days were past. A cold brought on fever, and he died at Bruce Castle, Tottenham (a property which he had acquired through his wife), on 1 July, 1787. He was buried in the Coleraine burying-place adjoining the parish church of Tottenham, a passage being broken through the wall of his garden, and only his servants attending. This is said to have been the ancient custom on the death of the .owner of that estate.

Townsend married at St. George's, Han- .over Square, on 3 May, 1763, Henrietta Rosa Peregrina du Plessis, only child of Henry Hare, third and last Lord Coleraine, by Rose ,du Plessis (d. 30 March, 1790). She was born at Crema in Italy, 12 September, 1745, .and baptized at St. Mary's Church, Colchester, on 13 December, 1748, a long entry being inserted in the parish register in explana- tion of the desertion of Lord Coleraine by his lawful wife, and of his union in 1740 with Mile, du Plessis. At his death at Bath on 4 August, 1749, the peer left his estates to this child. " She, being an alien, could not take them; the will, being legally made, barred his heirs at law ; so that the estates escheated to the Crown" (Nichols's 'Lit. Anecdotes,' v. 349-51 ; Gent. Mag., 1787, part ii. 640-41, 738). Through the influence of Henry Fox, Lord Holland, and the senior Townsend, a grant of them was made by the Crown to Mr. and Mrs. James Townsend, and confirmed by Act of Parliament .(3 George III., 1763, iv. 1764). Horace Wai- pole met the Townsends at dinner at Lord Shelburne's in October, 1773, when he de- scribed the wife as " a bouncing dame with a coal-black wig, and a face coal-red" ('Letters,' ed. Toynbee, viii. 347). She died on 8 November, 1785, leaving issue one daughter and one son, Henry Hare Towns- end, who was at the University of Cam- bridge in 1787. She too was buried privately .at Tottenham Old Church.

The unwitnessed will of Townsend, then described as of Conduit Street, Middlesex, was dated 18 December, 1764. He left his personal estate whatsoever to his wife, except 100Z. to his friend Samuel Phipps of Lincoln's Inn, and he appointed Phipps and his wife executors and guardians of his daughter Henrietta Jamina. He also left an annuity of 401. to his friend Thomas Law. On 11 September, 1787, John and Henry Smith of Drapers' Hall swore to their know- ledge of Townsend and his handwriting for twenty years, and proved the will. Next day administration was granted to Henry Hare Townsend, the son, Mrs. Townsend being dead and Samuel Phipps renouncing.

Townsend during his lifetime divided the Manor of Walpole in Norfolk, 3,000 acres in all, into small holdings, and built houses for his tenants. After his death the greater part of the property at Tottenham was sold on 24 and 25 September, 1789, to pay his debts ; but Bruce Castle, to which he had added a new east wing (Home Counties Mag., xi. 139-40), the gardens, and sixty acres of rich meadow land which adjoined them, were bought in. An etching of the castle was made by Townsend (Robinson, ' Tottenham,' i. 171, and App. II., p. 41, &c., vol. ii. p. 64; Dyson, 'Tottenham,' 2nd ed., 1792, pp. 37-8, 93). Mrs. Townsend is said to have been an etcher and to have made an etching of St. Eloy's Well, Tottenham.

The son, Henry Hare Townsend, sold the Manor of Tottenham in 1792, and Busbridge Hall, near Godalming, about 1824. He died in April, 1827, and was also buried at Tottenham. A memoir of Chauncy Hare Townsend (1798-1868), his son and James Townsend's grandson, is in the ' D.N.B.'

For the dates relating to the Mercers' Company I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. G. H. Blakesley.

W. P. COURTNEY.

SIGNS OF OLD LONDON.

(See 11 S. i. 402, 465 ; ii. 323 ; iii. 64, 426 ; iv. 226.)

THE list of signs presented hereunder is compiled from the printed (but altogether unindexed) ' Calendar of the Chancery Pro- ceedings,' -Second Series, vol. iii., extending from 1621 to 1660:

Sword and Buckler, St. George's-in-the-Fields. Chequers, Holborn.

Boar's Head, King Street, Westminster. Mitre, Bread Street. Rose, West Smithfield.