Reverend Richard Boyle Townsend (332)
| Date of Birth: | 25 Jan 1795 |
|---|---|
| Date of Death: | dsp 7 May 1850 |
| Generation: | 6th |
| Residence: | Carrigfada Glebe, Skibbereen &Point House, Castletownshend |
| Father: | Commander John Townsend [316] |
| Mother: | Eleanor Townsend [510] |
| Spouse: |
|
| Issue: | None |
| See Also: | Table III ; Scrapbook ; Lineage ; Ancestors' Tree ; Descendents' Tree |
Notes for Reverend Richard Boyle Townsend
Under the entry for 'Townsend' Burke's Irish Family Records show Richard marrying 'Elizabeth Hungerford of Glandore' but omit her parentage and there is no matching entry in the 'Hungerford' section of the Records. According to John FitzHenry Townshend [250] and 'An Officer of the Long Parliament' Richard married Elizabeth Hungerford daughter of Richard Hungerford (1 & !a) of Glandore, Co Cork but it is not possible to identify him in Burke's - there are three 'Richard Hungerford' who married between 1793 and about 1800, any one of whom could be the father of Elizabeth. Of these the most likely option is Richard Hungerford who was born in 1776 and married Isabella Masters in 1794.
Richard studied at Trinity College, Dublin, and the TCD Graduation List records that he qualified BA in Spring 1817. Richard Townsend [236], Richard Townsend [513] and Chambre Corker Townsend [5D01] were undergraduates at Trinity at the same time.
Ordained Deacon on 1 February 1818 and Priest on 28 February 1819, both at Cork, Richard was Vicar of Abbeystrewry, Skibbereen, from 1819 until his death.(2) In the entry for the parish of Abbeystrewry 'Lewis' Topographical Dictionary 1837' records that "The male and female parochial schools are situated near the church, and were built in 1825, at the expense of the vicar." Lewis also records that "The living is a vicarage, in the diocese of Ross, and in the patronage of J. S. Townsend, Esq., (John Sealy Townsend [507]) the impropriator of the rectory: the tithes amount to £647, of which £200 is payable to the impropriator, £20 to the vicar (under an appropriation grant of the late Earl of Shannon), and the remainder to the lessees of Col. Townsend." (Colonel John Townsend [230]). Page 261 of Reverend John Harding Cole's Church and Parish Records of the United Diocese of Cork, Cloyne and Ross 1863-1903 records that Richard built a new Glebe House in 1847 - "Abbeystrewry Glebe House was built in 1847, by Revd. R. Boyle Townsend. It stands in about fifteen acres of glebe land , subject to a rent of £14 a year. It has been enlarged by Revd. H. W. Townsend,(2) at a cost of £200 borrowed from R. C. B."
Richard was a saintly man devoted to the care of the poor, particularly during the potato famine of 1846 - 51. During the famine he was "examined before Parliament on the causes of the distress" and toured England collecting money for those suffering. He founded a temporary hospital in Skibbereen and spent much of his time personally caring for those with typhus. He also wrote journals highlighting the plight of those affected by the famine and this attracted a number of visitors to Skibbereen. Amongst these were Lord Dufferin (2a) and the Hon Mr Boyle who were students at Oxford and had collected £50 as a donation to help relieve the suffering of the poor. Richard acted as their guide during the visit and took them to a typical burial scene where the bodies were "emptied into a pit in the ground from a shell coffin which was to be used again....The visitors admitted that they were 'completely sickened' by what they saw and left the following day, although they left an additional donation of £10" (3). Richard also wrote to Lord George Bentick explaining that in one month from the 1st of December to the 1st of January, there were one hundred and forty deaths in the Skibbereen workhouse; the people having entered "that they might be able to die decently under a roof and be sure of a coffin." He also mentioned that in the churchyard of his parish there were, at one time, fourteen funerals waiting, whilst the burial of a fifteenth corpse was being completed. In the next parish to his, there were nine funerals at once in the churchyard, and in two other adjoining ones, there were six together in each.
Richard himself died of typhus and his death was recorded in the diary of Agnes Townsend [334] - 'May 7 1850 RB Townsend died of a fever'.
In a letter, dated December 5th 1854, to his friend Sir Donald McLean in New Zealand Richard's cousin John Henry Townsend [238] describes the horrors of the famine when he returned to Ireland in 1847 - "...a population of eight and a half millions lost their chief supply of food in one week for the potato was the only food that four fifths of the people had to rely on.” He continues by saying that so many died in the famine or emigrated that the survivors can “find employment at double their former wages. In the country pauperism has mainly disappeared and as an illustration of what I tell you we have at present in the Skib workhouse (of which I am the Vice Chairman) 128 inmates and in November 1850 we had 1470.” An article dated November 1 1847 entitled 'State of the Country' in The Cork Examiner further describes the terrible conditions in the Skibbereen Workhouse.
The entries for Richard in the various directories of the period are confusing and contradictory though they do all refer to places in the immediate vicinity of Skibbereen.
The entry for residents of Skibbereen in 'Pigot's Provincial Directory 1824' records "Townsend Rev, Glebe House."
Page 143 of Aldwell's General Directory 1844-45 records - "ABBEYSTROWRY VICARAGE.—Incumbent, Richard B. Townsend. Post Town, Skibbereen.; Number of statute acres, 15,165, population, 5,570. One church, capable of accommodating 360 persons; Patron, John S. Townsend, Esq.(4) The Rectorial Tithes of this parish compounded for £699 are impropriate to the Patron."
The entry for Carrigfada Glebe in the National University of Ireland (NUI) Galway Connacht and Munster Landed Estates Database records “At the time of Griffith's Valuation, Rev. Horace Townsend was leasing this property from The O'Donovan's estate when it was valued at £12 15s. In 1837 Lewis had noted it as the seat of R.B. Townsend. It is still extant and occupied.”
The list of subscribers to 'Lewis' Topographical Directory 1837' records "Townsend, Rev RB Point House, Castletownshend co. Cork". Whereas in the entry for the parish of Castlehaven in the Dictionary records "The principal seats are Castle Townsend, the residence of Col. Townsend; Point House, of R. B. Townsend, Esq."
The entry for Skibbereen in 'Slater's Commercial Directory 1846’ records “Townsend Rev Richard Boyle. New Road, Castle Townsend.”
Eliza must have moved into Zion Cottage shortly after Richard died as the entry for it in the National University of Ireland (NUI) Galway Connacht and Munster Landed Estates Database records "At the time of Griffith's Valuation, John Levis was leasing this property to Eliza Townsend when it was valued at £8 5s. This may be Eliza Hungerford, who was married to Rev. Richard Boyle Townsend. A building still exists at the site." The entry for Skibbereen in 'Slater's Commercial Directory 1856' - that is six years after Richard died - records "Townsend, Mrs. Elizabeth (Sion Cottage, New Road)." She died on 19 April 1870 and her death was recorded by Agnes Townsend [334] in her diary - "April 19 Eliza A Townsend Sion Cottage died suddenly."
Page 554 of the Calendar of Wills and Administration 1858-1922 in the National Archives of Ireland records that the will of "Eliza Anne Townsend late of Sion Cottage", who died on 19 April 1870, was proved at the Principal Registry on 1 July 1870, by "the oath of Robert Hungerford of Union Hall Leap". Effects under £600.
'Griffith's Valuation of Ireland 1848 - 1864' records "Townsend Mrs. Eliza. Carrigfadda" owning land in the parish of Abbeystrewry.
Richard was a Freeman of the City of Cork. Between 1710 and 1841, when the power of admitting Freemen only by birth or right ceased, a total of thirty three members of the Townsend family were admitted as Freemen.
(1) 'Protestant Militia and Volunteers 1778. Co. Cork' records "HANOVER SOCIETY, CLOUGHNAKILTY. Enrolled 1778. Force 2 companies. Uniform: scarlet, faced buff. Officers at 1782 - Colonel, Richard Hungerford; Major, Thomas Hungerford; Captains, John Hungerford and Beecher Hungerford; Lieutenant, Swithin White; Adjutant, Richard Bagley; Chaplain, John Townsend; Secretary, Thomas Morgan." There must be a Hungerford connection here - Glandore is just down the road from Clonakilty.
(1a) The entry for Hungerford in the National University of Ireland (NUI) Galway Connacht and Munster Landed Estates Database records "Burke indicates that this family traditionally claimed descent from the Hungerford family of Farley in Somerset. Captain Thomas Hungerford settled in west Cork in the later seventeenth century.The Hungerfords married into many other influential families in the area including Beecher, Jones and Daunt. Both Mary Sandes Hungerford and Francis Hungerford, of The Island House, Inchydoney, were the owners of over 500 acres in county Cork in the 1870s. Thomas Hungerford was among the principal lessors in the parishes of Castleventry, Island and Ross, barony of East Carbery, at the time of Griffith's Valuation. Both Richard and Beecher Hungerford held townlands in the parish of Kinneigh at that time. Much of this land was held on lease from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. In July 1852 over 800 acres in the parish of Kinneigh, barony of East Carbery, the property of Richard Hungerford, deceased, was offered for sale in the Encumbered Estates Court. Over 300 acres, the property of Alexander George Hungerford, was offered for sale in the court in June 1856 while 560 acres of Thomas Hungerford's estate, located in the barony of East Carbery, was offered for sale in the Landed Estates Court in October 1859."
(2) He was preceded in the living at Abbeystrewry by Rev Horatio Townsend [5D00] 1770-1781 and then Rev William Robinson 1781-1819, husband of Mary Townsend [314]. When Richard died in 1850 he was succeeded in the living by his brother Rev Horace Thomas Townsend [334] who remained there until 1867 - in all 96 years of Townsend or Townsend connections with the parish. See page 454 et seq of Brady's Parochial and Clerical Records Volume 2. Rev Horace Webb Townsend [634] was vicar of Abbeystrewry 1896-1915 and extended the Glebe House.
(2a) He wrote 'Narrative of a Journey from Oxford to Skibbereen in the Year of the Irish Famine (1847).' In it he described how he found Mrs Townsend sewing shrouds with two maidservants lying dead of typhus in the house.
(3) Extract from the book 'This Great Calamity' by Dr Christine Kinealy of the Institute of Irish Studies at Liverpool University.
(4) John Sealy Townsend [507] 'An Officer of the Long Parliament' Ch IX p. 223-24 refers.
Chambre Corker Townsend [5D01] and William Robinson Townsend [6B02], like Richard, devoted all their energy to helping the poor during the famine 1846 - 51.
For other connections with Abbeystrewry see Richard Townsend [310], Mary Townsend [314], Horatio Thomas Townsend [334], Dorothea Townsend [404], Charlotte Frances Townsend [422], Horatio Townsend [5D00], Horace Webb Townsend [634].
For other Hungerford connections see also Barbara Townsend [210], Richard Townsend [315], Philip Townsend [500], Horatio Townsend [600].