User:Rich Farmbrough/DNB/C/h/Christopher Towneley

Christopher Towneley|1604|1674| Christopher Towneley (born 1604 died 1674), antiquary, called 'the Transscriber', son of Richard Towneley of Towneley Hall, Lancashire, was born there on 9 January 1603–1604. He was an attorney, but probably did not long follow his profession (he was indeed disabled by being a recusant), the greater part of his long and leisured life being occupied in scientific and antiquarian pursuits. Among his friends and correspondents were Jeremiah Horrox, William Crabtree, William Gascoyne, Sir Jonas Moore, Jeremiah Shakerley, and Flamsteed, astronomers and mathematicians; Roger Dodsworth, Sir William Dugdale, and Hopkinson, antiquaries, and Sir Edward Sherburne, poet. In conjunction with Dr. Richard Kuerden he projected, but never finished, a history of Lancashire. Many years were spent by him in transcribing in a fair but singular hand public records, chartularies, and other evidences relating chiefly to Lancashire and Yorkshire. These transcripts were drawn upon by friends during his lifetime, and have since proved a valuable storehouse of materials for county historians and genealogists. The best description of them is given in the fourth report of the historical manuscripts commission (1874, pages 406, 613). The collections, after remaining at Towneley for over two centuries, were dispersed by auction at Sotheby's on 18–28 June 1883. Towneley married, in 1640, Alice, daughter of John Braddyll of Portfield, near Whalley, and widow of Richard Towneley of Carr Hall, near Burnley. He had previously lived at Hapton Tower, near Burnley, now destroyed. On his marriage he moved to Carr, and on his wife's death in 1657 he changed his home to Moorhiles in Pendle Forest, near Colne. He died in August 1674, and was buried at Burnley. In the inventory of his goods, taken after his death, his manuscripts, the labour of a life, were valued at 11s. Towneley Hall contains a good portrait of Towneley. Of this portrait a small woodcut appears in the 'Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society' (x. 86).

DNB references
These references are found in the DNB article referred to above.