Robert Townshend (MP)

Robert Townshend (1580–1615), of Raynham, Norfolk, was an English politician.[1][2]

He was the younger son of Sir Roger Townshend of Raynham and his second wife Jane (d. 1618), daughter of Sir Michael Stanhope. Sir John Townshend was his elder brother.[1][3] On his father's death in 1590, he was what his father considered a sufficient amount to allow him to live as a gentleman, provided he was not extravagant.[4] In 1593 he matriculated at New College, Oxford [5] and in 1599 was admitted to Gray's Inn.[6] In 1598 his mother married Henry, lord Berkeley.[7]

Through his family's local connections Townshend was chosen as Member (MP) of the Parliament of England for Castle Rising in 1601, a seat that had been held by his brother in 1593.[1] He was knighted at the Charterhouse on 11 May 1603.[8] Soon after he purchased an estate in Wivenhoe, Essex, with money borrowed from his mother.[2] In the parliament of 1604 he again sat for Castle Rising.[2] He became embroiled in a legal dispute over his Wivenhoe estate and became seriously indebted, eventually selling the property to his mother.[2][9] He died unmarried in 1617.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b c "TOWNSHEND, Robert (B.1580), of Raynham, Norf". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 4 December 2025.
  2. ^ a b c d "TOWNSHEND, Sir Robert (1580-bef. 1617), of Raynham, Norf. and Wivenhoe, Essex". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 4 December 2025.
  3. ^ The visitation of Norfolk in the year 1563. 1878. p. 308.
  4. ^ Broadway, Jan (2021). The Wives of the Berkeleys. p. 68.
  5. ^ "Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714:Thoren-Tozer". British History Online. Retrieved 4 December 2025.
  6. ^ The register of admissions to Gray's Inn, 1521-1889. 1889. p. 97.
  7. ^ Broadway 2021, p. 66.
  8. ^ The Knights of England. Vol. 2. 1906. p. 109.
  9. ^ a b Campbell, Linda (1990). Sir Roger Townshend and His Family: A Study of Gentry Life in Early Seventeenth Century Norfolk (PhD thesis). University of East Anglia. pp. 10–11.
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