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ARCHIVE OF THE TOWNSHEND FAMILY
This archive was formerly at Frognal, Chislehurst, Kent, the seat of a junior branch of the Townshend family of Raynham, Norfolk.
The Hon Thomas Townshend (1701-80), second son of Charles, 2nd Viscount Townshend, KG, of Raynham, was MP for the University of Cambridge and one of the tellers of the Exchequer. He married in 1730 Albinia, daughter of Colonel John Selwyn of Matson, Gloucestershire (and sister of the celebrated wit George Augustus Selwyn). In 1752 Townshend acquired the manors of Chislehurst and Scadbury from his father-in-law to whom they had passed through the female line.
Thomas Townshend (1731-1800), eldest son of Thomas and Albinia, was a distinguished politician, created Viscount Sydney (after whom the capital of New South Wales is named). He was MP for Whitchurch, Hampshire from 1754 until his elevation to the peerage in 1783. He served as Joint Paymaster-General of the Forces in the Pitt-Grafton ministry, 1767-68, Secretary at War in Rockingham's ministry, March-July 1782 and Secretary of State for Home Affairs under Shelburne and then Pitt from 1782 until his resignation in 1789. He was President of the Committee of Trade, 1784-86 and President of the Board of Control, 1790-91.
Viscount Sydney's eldest son, John Thomas Townshend (1764-1831), 2nd Viscount, was Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department under his father from 1783 to 1789; a Lord of the Admiralty, 1789 to 1793 and a Lord of the Treasury from 1793 to 1800. After he succeeded to the peerage he served as Lord of the Bedchamber to George III from 1800 to 1810.
His son, John Robert Townshend (1805-90), 3rd Viscount, was Lord of the Bedchamber to William IV in 1835, Lord-in-Waiting to Queen Victoria from 1841 to 1846, Lord Chamberlain of the household in Gladstone's first administration from 1868 to 1874 and Lord Steward of the Household in Gladstone's second and third administrations (1880-85 and 1886). He died without issue in 1890 when his peerages became extinct. The Frognal estate was inherited by Robert Marsham, a grandson of the 2nd Viscount Sydney, who assumed the additional name of Townshend. After his death the contents of Frognal were sold by Knight, Frank and Rutley over a twelve-day period in 1915. The majority of the political papers of the 1st Viscount Sydney were included in this sale and are now widely dispersed: significant sections being held by the Willliam L. Clements Library, University of Michigan, the Brotherton Library, University of Leeds and the Huntington Library, San Marino. The present archive was retained by the family and is offered for sale by a direct descendant of the 1st Viscount Sydney.
TOWNSHEND CORRESPONDENCE: PUBLIC OFFICE
1st Viscount Sydney: including letters addressed to him by George III (twelve autograph letters signed 'GR' and one autograph letter unsigned, 13 pages, 1782-89, concerning an execution for highway robbery, smuggling, the army in Ireland, commercial links with Ireland, the voting rights of Scottish peers, attendance of Peers at St. Paul's on 21 April 1789, conduct of Lord Stormont in House of Lords, Sydney's surrender of seals of office); drafts of letters, Sydney to the King; also autograph letters signed by: George Grenville, John Wilkes (three, on politics); Lord Thurlow (as Lord Chancellor, on Habeas Corpus Act); Marquess Camden; 1st Earl of Chatham; Hester, wife of 1st Earl of Chatham; William Pitt (long autograph letter on parliamentary matters, 1784); William Paley; Lord Egremont and many others.
2nd Viscount Sydney: including letters addressed to him by Spencer Perceval; 1st Duke of Wellington; Sir Robert Peel, and others, including letters addressed to him in St Petersburgh and elsewhere on the continent.
3rd Viscount Sydney: papers as Lord Chamberlain, including his appointment diaries for 1866-87 (lacking 1869, 1874 and 1875); autograph letters signed by Queen Victoria (approximately 10); aut notes by Queen Victoria relating to placements (11); telegrams (one packet); drafts and retained copies of letters to the Queen (18); autograph letters signed by: Edward VII as Prince of Wales (5); Queen Alexandra (2); Princess Frederick William of Prussia; Empress Eugenie and other royals; politicians including Sir Robert Peel, Palmerston, W.E. Gladstone, Lord Chancellor Campbell and others; correspondence relating to: death of the Prince Imperial including letter signed by Disraeli; the visit of the Shah of Persia (including unseemly behaviour at Buckingham Palace and the rudeness of the Prince of Wales); documents and commissions signed by Queen Victoria; papers relating to the Royal Bodyguard (Yeoman of the Guard) including correspondence with officers, and to St James's Park (one packet, 1850s); also general political papers including one packet relating to the Jewish Bill 1853; Dinner Books (series of six vols giving names of guests, 1835-92, 4to, full green morocco); visitor's book, Deal Castle (during Sydney's captaincy of the castle, 1879-89).
Miscellaneous political papers, including document signed by George I ordering payment to Spencer Compton, late Speaker, 1722; MS Minutes of a cabinet meeting under Pitt, 1788; aut memorandum on Treasury matters, by Charles Townshend, late 1790s; 'Minor addresses to the King', one packet, late 18th early 19th Century; accounts for keeping royal gardens at Richmond, 1730-37; Privy Council document ordering that 20,000 acres of land in East Florida be surveyed, 1766; Royal letters addressed to the Hon Georgina Townshend (daughter of 1st Viscount), at Court, by Princess Charlotte (5, 1800-21), Queen Adelaide (2), Princess Augusta (series), Dukes of Cambridge and Gloucester, and others (one packet), Sir Horatio Townshend: notebook and correspondence on funeral of William IV.
TOWNSHEND CORRESPONDENCE: FAMILY:
Hon. Thomas Townshend: including letters addressed to him by his father, Charles, 2nd Viscount Townshend, KG, of Raynham (series of approximately 65, many undated but 1730s, on politics, his activities and family matters); by his brothers, Charles, 3rd Viscount (series of 33, 1736-38); Admiral George Townshend (10, Genoa, Charles Town, Corsica etc. 1739-45), and many others.
Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney: including his letters to his father and sister, Mary, written on the Grand Tour (16, Switzerland, Italy, early 1750s); letters to his son (two, 1794, 1797, one on the French expedition) and numerous letters addressed to him.
John Thomas Townshend, 2nd Viscount Sydney: including letters to his father (series including letters written at the Hague and Berlin, 1780s, 1790s); letters to his wife (affectionate series); letters to his son, 3rd Viscount (39, some lengthy, written from England to the continent principally about politics and current affairs, 1825-29); letters to his aunt, Mary (series); autograph account of travels in the Netherlands (unsigned), 21 pages, 4to, 1786.
John Robert Townshend, 3rd Viscount Sydney: including letters to and from his wife; letters written on the death of his father (one packet), and numerous letters addressed to him.
Other family correspondents include: Charles Townshend MP (brother of 1st Viscount, series on politics, 1790s); George, 1st Marquess Townshend; Colonel Henry Townshend (Army officer, killed at the battle of Wilhelmstadt, series of approximately 70 letters written mostly on active service to his family, Germany, Barbados etc, 1738, 1756-62); Mary Townshend (to her brother, 2nd Viscount, one packet) Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Horatio Townshend (on military matters, including papers relating to his imprisonment at Bayonne, 1814); George, 3rd Marquess Townshend (relating to his debts and poor behaviour); 1st Marquess Cornwallis (series of 7 letters from India, to Mrs Charles Townshend 1788-92, 'If I have wantonly and unjustly engaged in this war, I have indeed been the cause of severe mortification and disappointment to myself'); Lord [Charles] Brodrick; Lady Dynevor (to her brother, 2nd Viscount Sydney); George Augustus Selwyn (4, two with signatures cut away); Charles Townshend (1st Lord Bayning, from Spain, 1750-51), and many others.
Commissions, including two signed by George II (Henry Townshend as ensign, Coldstream Guards, 1755 and as captain, 5th Foot, 1758): one signed by George III (Henry Townshend as captain 1st Foot Guards, 1769); commissions and appointments, 2nd and 3rd Viscounts; commissions (Colonel the Hon H.G.P. Townshend), signed by George III (1809), George IV (one as Prince Regent, 1819, 1821), William IV, 1830; Passports (19th Century).
Legal papers relating to Townshend and Cornwallis estates, accounts; elevation and two groundplans (Frognal, 1801); letters (including six by Alfred Gilbert) relating to funerary monument of 3rd Viscount;
Diaries (Letts) of Emily Caroline (Paget), daughter of 1st Marquess of Anglesey and wife of 3rd Viscount Sydney, 1828-68 (28 vols)
(contained in seven medium sized tin document boxes and one black morocco box).
This archive was formerly at Frognal, Chislehurst, Kent, the seat of a junior branch of the Townshend family of Raynham, Norfolk.
The Hon Thomas Townshend (1701-80), second son of Charles, 2nd Viscount Townshend, KG, of Raynham, was MP for the University of Cambridge and one of the tellers of the Exchequer. He married in 1730 Albinia, daughter of Colonel John Selwyn of Matson, Gloucestershire (and sister of the celebrated wit George Augustus Selwyn). In 1752 Townshend acquired the manors of Chislehurst and Scadbury from his father-in-law to whom they had passed through the female line.
Thomas Townshend (1731-1800), eldest son of Thomas and Albinia, was a distinguished politician, created Viscount Sydney (after whom the capital of New South Wales is named). He was MP for Whitchurch, Hampshire from 1754 until his elevation to the peerage in 1783. He served as Joint Paymaster-General of the Forces in the Pitt-Grafton ministry, 1767-68, Secretary at War in Rockingham's ministry, March-July 1782 and Secretary of State for Home Affairs under Shelburne and then Pitt from 1782 until his resignation in 1789. He was President of the Committee of Trade, 1784-86 and President of the Board of Control, 1790-91.
Viscount Sydney's eldest son, John Thomas Townshend (1764-1831), 2nd Viscount, was Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department under his father from 1783 to 1789; a Lord of the Admiralty, 1789 to 1793 and a Lord of the Treasury from 1793 to 1800. After he succeeded to the peerage he served as Lord of the Bedchamber to George III from 1800 to 1810.
His son, John Robert Townshend (1805-90), 3rd Viscount, was Lord of the Bedchamber to William IV in 1835, Lord-in-Waiting to Queen Victoria from 1841 to 1846, Lord Chamberlain of the household in Gladstone's first administration from 1868 to 1874 and Lord Steward of the Household in Gladstone's second and third administrations (1880-85 and 1886). He died without issue in 1890 when his peerages became extinct. The Frognal estate was inherited by Robert Marsham, a grandson of the 2nd Viscount Sydney, who assumed the additional name of Townshend. After his death the contents of Frognal were sold by Knight, Frank and Rutley over a twelve-day period in 1915. The majority of the political papers of the 1st Viscount Sydney were included in this sale and are now widely dispersed: significant sections being held by the Willliam L. Clements Library, University of Michigan, the Brotherton Library, University of Leeds and the Huntington Library, San Marino. The present archive was retained by the family and is offered for sale by a direct descendant of the 1st Viscount Sydney.
TOWNSHEND CORRESPONDENCE: PUBLIC OFFICE
1st Viscount Sydney: including letters addressed to him by George III (twelve autograph letters signed 'GR' and one autograph letter unsigned, 13 pages, 1782-89, concerning an execution for highway robbery, smuggling, the army in Ireland, commercial links with Ireland, the voting rights of Scottish peers, attendance of Peers at St. Paul's on 21 April 1789, conduct of Lord Stormont in House of Lords, Sydney's surrender of seals of office); drafts of letters, Sydney to the King; also autograph letters signed by: George Grenville, John Wilkes (three, on politics); Lord Thurlow (as Lord Chancellor, on Habeas Corpus Act); Marquess Camden; 1st Earl of Chatham; Hester, wife of 1st Earl of Chatham; William Pitt (long autograph letter on parliamentary matters, 1784); William Paley; Lord Egremont and many others.
2nd Viscount Sydney: including letters addressed to him by Spencer Perceval; 1st Duke of Wellington; Sir Robert Peel, and others, including letters addressed to him in St Petersburgh and elsewhere on the continent.
3rd Viscount Sydney: papers as Lord Chamberlain, including his appointment diaries for 1866-87 (lacking 1869, 1874 and 1875); autograph letters signed by Queen Victoria (approximately 10); aut notes by Queen Victoria relating to placements (11); telegrams (one packet); drafts and retained copies of letters to the Queen (18); autograph letters signed by: Edward VII as Prince of Wales (5); Queen Alexandra (2); Princess Frederick William of Prussia; Empress Eugenie and other royals; politicians including Sir Robert Peel, Palmerston, W.E. Gladstone, Lord Chancellor Campbell and others; correspondence relating to: death of the Prince Imperial including letter signed by Disraeli; the visit of the Shah of Persia (including unseemly behaviour at Buckingham Palace and the rudeness of the Prince of Wales); documents and commissions signed by Queen Victoria; papers relating to the Royal Bodyguard (Yeoman of the Guard) including correspondence with officers, and to St James's Park (one packet, 1850s); also general political papers including one packet relating to the Jewish Bill 1853; Dinner Books (series of six vols giving names of guests, 1835-92, 4to, full green morocco); visitor's book, Deal Castle (during Sydney's captaincy of the castle, 1879-89).
Miscellaneous political papers, including document signed by George I ordering payment to Spencer Compton, late Speaker, 1722; MS Minutes of a cabinet meeting under Pitt, 1788; aut memorandum on Treasury matters, by Charles Townshend, late 1790s; 'Minor addresses to the King', one packet, late 18th early 19th Century; accounts for keeping royal gardens at Richmond, 1730-37; Privy Council document ordering that 20,000 acres of land in East Florida be surveyed, 1766; Royal letters addressed to the Hon Georgina Townshend (daughter of 1st Viscount), at Court, by Princess Charlotte (5, 1800-21), Queen Adelaide (2), Princess Augusta (series), Dukes of Cambridge and Gloucester, and others (one packet), Sir Horatio Townshend: notebook and correspondence on funeral of William IV.
TOWNSHEND CORRESPONDENCE: FAMILY:
Hon. Thomas Townshend: including letters addressed to him by his father, Charles, 2nd Viscount Townshend, KG, of Raynham (series of approximately 65, many undated but 1730s, on politics, his activities and family matters); by his brothers, Charles, 3rd Viscount (series of 33, 1736-38); Admiral George Townshend (10, Genoa, Charles Town, Corsica etc. 1739-45), and many others.
Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney: including his letters to his father and sister, Mary, written on the Grand Tour (16, Switzerland, Italy, early 1750s); letters to his son (two, 1794, 1797, one on the French expedition) and numerous letters addressed to him.
John Thomas Townshend, 2nd Viscount Sydney: including letters to his father (series including letters written at the Hague and Berlin, 1780s, 1790s); letters to his wife (affectionate series); letters to his son, 3rd Viscount (39, some lengthy, written from England to the continent principally about politics and current affairs, 1825-29); letters to his aunt, Mary (series); autograph account of travels in the Netherlands (unsigned), 21 pages, 4to, 1786.
John Robert Townshend, 3rd Viscount Sydney: including letters to and from his wife; letters written on the death of his father (one packet), and numerous letters addressed to him.
Other family correspondents include: Charles Townshend MP (brother of 1st Viscount, series on politics, 1790s); George, 1st Marquess Townshend; Colonel Henry Townshend (Army officer, killed at the battle of Wilhelmstadt, series of approximately 70 letters written mostly on active service to his family, Germany, Barbados etc, 1738, 1756-62); Mary Townshend (to her brother, 2nd Viscount, one packet) Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Horatio Townshend (on military matters, including papers relating to his imprisonment at Bayonne, 1814); George, 3rd Marquess Townshend (relating to his debts and poor behaviour); 1st Marquess Cornwallis (series of 7 letters from India, to Mrs Charles Townshend 1788-92, 'If I have wantonly and unjustly engaged in this war, I have indeed been the cause of severe mortification and disappointment to myself'); Lord [Charles] Brodrick; Lady Dynevor (to her brother, 2nd Viscount Sydney); George Augustus Selwyn (4, two with signatures cut away); Charles Townshend (1st Lord Bayning, from Spain, 1750-51), and many others.
Commissions, including two signed by George II (Henry Townshend as ensign, Coldstream Guards, 1755 and as captain, 5th Foot, 1758): one signed by George III (Henry Townshend as captain 1st Foot Guards, 1769); commissions and appointments, 2nd and 3rd Viscounts; commissions (Colonel the Hon H.G.P. Townshend), signed by George III (1809), George IV (one as Prince Regent, 1819, 1821), William IV, 1830; Passports (19th Century).
Legal papers relating to Townshend and Cornwallis estates, accounts; elevation and two groundplans (Frognal, 1801); letters (including six by Alfred Gilbert) relating to funerary monument of 3rd Viscount;
Diaries (Letts) of Emily Caroline (Paget), daughter of 1st Marquess of Anglesey and wife of 3rd Viscount Sydney, 1828-68 (28 vols)
(contained in seven medium sized tin document boxes and one black morocco box).