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Saturday, May 16, 2015

Surname Saturday ~ TOWNSEND of Lynn, Massachusetts


TOWNSEND / TOWNSHEND

The Townsend family has published genealogies going back in time to Roger de Townshende and his wife Catherine Atherton who were born about 1325 AD.  It is a noble lineage that includes knights and ladies.  One Roger Townshend was knighted by King Henry VIII in 1518, and his son was also knighted by King Henry VIII in 1545. Some are buried at the High Cancel of Ludlow Church with recumbent figures in knightly armor.  Queen Elizabeth dined with Sir Thomas Townsend at Mergate Hall in July 1578.  His grandson, also named Thomas Townsend, left England and went to Lynn, Massachusetts.  This noble lineage was confirmed when I read a line by noted genealogist Gary Boyd Roberts, author of Genealogies of Connecticut Families, Vol. III, page 497 “A mass of circumstantial evidence to be embodied in a memorial volume when published has satisfied several expert genealogists and myself that Thomas Townsend son of Henry and Margaret was identical with the settler at Lynn.”

Thomas Townsend (1594 – 1677) was baptized at Bracon Ash, Norfolk, England.  He was granted 60 acres in Lynn, Massachusetts, near the ironworks.  He was made a freeman in 1639. He had come to America with  three sons,  and remarried to Mary Newgate.  I descend from two of his six children- Thomas and John.    Mary Newgate was described as “a cousin” to John Winthrop, but the true relationship has not been found.

Thomas Townsend (1636 – about 1700) was a farmer.  His daughter, Susannah (1672 – 1737) married Daniel Hitchings.  The Hitchings family has lived in Lynn and Salem, Massachusetts since the 1620s through my great grandfather,  Arthur Treadwell Hitchings, who was born in Salem in 1868. 

Little is known about Thomas Townsend’s brother, John (about 1640 – 1726), and his son, John jr. (1675 – 1757) who removed from Lynn to Reading (a contiguous town at that time).   His daughter married Deacon Brown Emerson of the Reading Congregational Church.

Some Townsend sources:

The Essex Genealogist, Volume 13, pages 152- 165, 218 – 228, Volume 14, 45 – 52. 
Thomas Townsend Jr’s son Nathan can be found in the Mayflower Silver Book Volume 23 for 3 generations (he married Elizabeth Howland (about 1694 – 1707), granddaughter of Mayflower Passengers John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley)  

Medieval Heritage: A multi-ancestor genealogy of Thomas Townsend, 1597 – 1677, who emigrated to New England about 1637, showing his lineage back to the time of William the Conqueror, by Rich Townsend, New Haven, Connecticut: 1985. (at the NEHGS library)

The Townshend Family of Lynn, in Old and New England: Genealogical and Biographical, by Charles Hervey Townshend, New Haven, Connecticut, 1882.  (at the NEHGS library and also online at Hathi Trust Digital Library)

The Townsend Society of America (Genealogy and DNA studies)
21 West Main Street
Oyster Bay, NY  11771

My TOWNSEND genealogy:

Generation 1:  Thomas Townsend, son of Henry Townsend and Margaret Forthe, was baptized 8 January 1594 in Bracon Ash, Norfolk, England, and died 22 December 1677 in Lynn, Massachusetts;  married first to Unknown in England; married second to Mary Newgate.  She was the daughter of John Newgate,  born about 1615 and died 28 February 1692 in Lynn.  Six children.

Lineage A:

Generation 2: Thomas Townsend, born about 1636, died before 22 July 1700 in Lynn;  married on 30 October 1661 at the Second Church in Boston, Massachusetts to Mary Davis, daughter of Samuel Davis and Anna Norcross.  She was born 21 May 1647 in Roxbury, Massachusetts and died after 1700. Thirteen children.

Generation 3:  Susannah Townend, born 5 November 1672 in Boston, died 12 May 1737 in Lynn; married on 19 October 1708 in Lynn to Daniel Hitchings, son of Daniel Hitchings and Eleanor Unknown.   He was born about 1660 in Lynn and died 15 January 1735 in Lynn.

Generation 4: Daniel Hitchings married Hannah Ingalls
Generation 5:  Abijah Hitchings married Mary Gardner
Generation 6: Abijah Hitchings married Mary Cloutman
Generation 7: Abijah Hitchings married Eliza Ann Treadwell
Generation 8: Abijah Franklin Hitchings married Hannah Eliza Lewis
Generation 9: Arthur Treadwell Hitchings married Florence Etta Hoogerzeil
Generation 10: Gertrude Matilda Hitchings married Stanley Elmer Allen (my grandparents)

Lineage B:

Generation 3:  John Townsend, born about 1640 in Lynn, died 14 December 1726 in Lynn; married first on 27 January 1669 in Lynn to Sarah Pearson, daughter of John Pearson and Maudlin Bullard.  She was born 20 January 1647 in Lynn and died 9 July 1689 in Lynn.  Three children.  He married second to Mehitable Brown.

Generation 4: John Townsend, born 17 March 1675 in Lynn, died January 1757 in Reading, Massachusetts; married on 28 April 1698 to Sarah Boutwell, daughter of James Boutwell and Rebecca Kimball.  She was born 7 July 1677 in Reading and died 18 September 1737 in Reading.  Six children.

Generation 5: Sarah Townsend, born 25 March 1705 in Lynn; married on 17 June 1725 in Reading to Brown Emerson, son of Peter Emerson and Mary Brown.  He was born 16 April 1704 in Reading and died 16 March 1774 in Reading.  Ten children.

Generation 6:  John Emerson married Katherine Eaton
Generation 7:  Romanus Emerson married Jemima Burnham
Generation 8:  George Emerson married Mary Esther Younger
Generation 9:  Mary Katharine Emerson married George E. Batchelder
Generation 10: Carrie Maude Batchelder married Joseph Elmer Allen
Generation 11: Stanley Elmer Allen married Gertrude Matilda Hitchings (my grandparents)

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Copyright © 2015, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

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