AN OFFICER OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT AND HIS DESCENDANTS FACSIMILE OF LIEUT .-COL. RICHARD TOWNESEND'S LETTER TO COL, CEELy ('llide page 28) AN OFFICER OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT AND HIS DESCENDANTS Being some Account of the Life & T£mes of Colonel Richard Townesend of Castletown (Castletownshend) & a Chronicle of hzs Famzty W£tlt lllustrat£ons Edited by R£chard & Dorothea Townshend London HENRY FRownE Deford University Press Warehouse A men Corner, E. C. lvI.DCCCXCII CONTENTS PAGE.. INTRODUCTION • • Vil CHAPTER I. THE DEFENCE OF LYME REGIS AND THE SIEGE OF PEN .. DENNIS CASTLE • . I CHAPTER II. THE IRISH TROUBLES • • 33 CHAPTER III. THE BATTLE OF KNOCKNONES .. • CHAPTER IV. PLOT AND CouNTERPLOT AND THE SURRENDER OF CORK • 62 CHAPTER V. SETTLING DoWN • CHAPTER VI. BRYAN ToWNsHEND, WITH NoTEs'oN SYNGE • 143 CHAPTER VII. CASTLE TOWNSHEND HousE, WITH NOTES ON SOMERVILLE AND TABLES oF THE FIRST HousE (I) AND SoMER- VILLE (II) . • • • • . • 150 . VI CONTENTS. PAGE CHAPTER VIII. THE OTHER CHILDREN OF CoLoNEL RICHARD ToWNESEND, VIZ. JOHN, FRANCIS, HORATIO, PHILIP, CORNEUUS, CATHERINE, DOROTHEA,' AND MRS. OWEN, WITH NoTES · ON THE EARLS OF BARRYMORE AND THE COPINGER AND BECHER FAMILIES. (TABLES III-VIII) . • 195 CHAPTER IX. SKIRTAGH HousE, AND NOTES ON MoRRis. (TABLE IX) . 216 CHAPTER X. WHITEHALL HousE. (TABLE X) • .- 229 CHAPTER XI. DERRY HousE, WITH NoTES oN FLEMING, CoRKER, AND OLIVER. (TABLES XI, XII) . 240 CHAPTER XII. DoNOUGHMORE HousE. (TABLE XIII) • INTRODUCTION •• 'And I but think and speak and do As my dead fathers move me to.' R. L. STEVENSON. THE Engli~h Civil War of 1641-49 was essentially a_ people's· war; it was not fought by rival royal houses, nor by reb~llious Barons marshalling their f~udal re­ tainers. The questions that divided King Charles and his parliament touched .the life of every Englis~man~ and there was hardly an English family that did not take its share in the struggle. The names of the leaders are familiar as household words ; but many soldiers now rest forgotten in their ' camps of gr:een_' who had their share in winning the freedom that has been handed down to us. In telling the story of one of these forgotten worthies, it is hardly possible to separate private from public history, however slightly qualified a genealogist may be to make excursions into that dangerously fascinating field. In truth, we know but little of the private life of Colonel Richard Townesend: public records tell of his public services, and we 'must guess the rest. His descendants; who have left portraits and lette~s behind thein which make us more familiar with their home life, were prominent leaders in the south-west of Munster, ... Vlll INTRODUCTION. a -country to which we may apply Professor Freeman's description o( South Wales, ' The land_ was conquered, divided, to a large extent it was settled, but its former inhabitants were neither destroyed, expelled, nor assimi­ lated, . genealogy and family history connect them­ selves_ more with real history in a district of this sort than elsewhere.' From time to time different members of the Towns­ hend family in County Cork have begun to draw up some account of their ancestors ; but all the memoirs have remained unfinished, and it has fallen to the present editors to try to collect the scattered records and traditions of the line. It is very difficult to avoid errors when drawing up a sketch of such a scattered family, whose history runs through so many troubled ye~rs ; but if these frag-­ mentary records induce any other members of the family to correct the mistakes they contain, or to collect new information, the labours of the editors will be amply rewarded. There js some danger that a family history may resemble a collection of epitaphs ; and it may be fairly asked, 'Where are all the bad Townshends?' To rake up old sins and gibbet the· failings of fore­ fathers is not a very grateful or honourable task, and it is even less necessary to do it in Ireland than else­ where, for facts there speak as plainly as written words. The Protestant.settlers formed a proud and powerful oligarchy, who did very much what seemed right in their own eyes. Those who fell to drinking, gambling, and self-indulgence, very -soon died out altogether. INTRODUCTION. IX Natural selection had free play, and punished promptly and surely, :and only the fit survived. The fit were not always characters that would pre­ cisely suit the nineteenth-century ideals of excellence : undoubtedly they too often shared the faults of their times ; but their virtues were their own. It is idle to expect the men of one time or country to match the model of another; but, speaking roughly,. the families that have survived the days of reoellion and famine are descended from ancestors who were respectable, honourable, and intelligent gentlemen, who served their generation to the best of their ability. The unfit dropped out: for example, one family of Elizabethan settlers has left nothing but its name be­ hind it. Its members were once among the principal gentry of the West, yet the story goes, when money was granted by the grand jury to them for improving the highways, they used to lay the coins in rows on the ground, and call on the passers-by to swear that they had seen the money laid out on the road ! The last of their name lived in a little cabin by the road side, and when a child from the neighbouring big house peeped in one day, the old lady, for a lady she was in manners and appearance, said, 'Ah, my dear, are you looking for a bit of bread ? Not a bit have I in the house.' But queer stories may be told of most of the old families. It was a jolly, free and easy !ife, that was led in the last century, and the reckless ' Castle Rackrent' ways brought many a fine property into the Encum­ bered Estates Court. X INTRODUCTION. One very hospitable Mrs. Townsend loved to keep open house, and when carload after· carload of cousins were seen driving up the avenue, an astonished English visitor askecl the hostess where she could possibly bestow so many guests. ' Ah! ' she answered, ' I needn't trouble at all. I've a very obliging cook and a very accommodating butler, and they'll each take two or three in their beds.' All were not so hospitable, and the opposite extreme from this good old lady was a Mr. Townsend, who had a fine place, entered · by a beautiful avenue of trees. One day a friend met him, and said, ' I was caught in a storm the other day near your house, and I sheltered under that- big oak in the avenue.' 'Ah, now, 'tis a pity you stopped there,' exclaimed Mr. Townsend, 'if only you 'd gone twenty yards fur.th er down the road you'd have found a much thicker tree! ' The younger members of the large families naturally had not much money to spare ; . one young Townsend, it is said, could get no funds to take him to college, , but was so determined to go that he rode all the way up to Dublin, feeding his horse on th~ grass by the road sides as he went. In the more remote parts of the country, life was often not merely poor, but rough and squalid.. There is a story of a great lady, visiting her rector, a Townsend, and being asked to wait i~ the parlour, she sat there till her patience was nearly exhausted, when a bare­ footed girl burst into the room exclaiming, .' M usha, then, did you see the master's razors anywhere?' The great lady thought that it might be some time before . INTRODUCTION. XI Mr. Townsend's toilet was completed, and said she would call another day. In a family that numbered several hundred members it could not be hoped that all should succeed in resist­ ing the attractions offered by the wild, jovial life of their less educated neighbours. In parts where there was not much choice· of society, the talents and charm which ought to have enabled their possessors to take a high position sometimes proved a curse, and sank them to the level of the peasantry around them. One yotJng Townsend tried in vain to coax enough of money out of his mother to take to the races, but the old lady was obdurate ; at last he seemed to give it up, and changed the subject. ' Mother,' said he,·' did you see the new white cow I 've brought back from the fair? she's the greatest cow between this and Cork!' Mrs. Townsend was curious. 'Come ·along,' said he, and they crossed the farm-yard, and he opened the door of the shed. The old lady went a step inside, when the door banged behind her, and she found• that her dutiful son had left her face to face with a great bull. In vain. did she rage and entreat ; the door was kept fast till she had handed the key of her money-box out through ·a chink, and then at last she was released.· A wild and lonely life was led by many of the gentry in the isolated country houses on the western sea-coast. Small profits were made by farming, and it seemed as though the English Government levied duties on· im­ ports for the special purpose of ruining Irish trade. No wonder that when a French ship was seen weather­ bound in the offing, a cow was often hoisted in!o a boat .