There a few still living who remember him, and they confirm the traditiona ry description of him as a tall, large man, of strong, original mind, a nd great energy. He was an active Whig in the Revolution. He is always dis tinguished as Squire George Townsend. We have seen a very interesting* let ter written by him in 1769 (now in the possession of his grandson, John To wnsend, of Poughkeepsie), containing many items of family history, in whi ch he took great interest.

*see page 232

Townsend Memorial, p. 169

THE following copy from the original of paper of Esquire George Townsen d, of Norwich, now in the possession of his grandson, John Townsend, of Po ughkeepsie, must have been written late in the summer, or early in the fal l, of 1769:

TO CHRISTOPHER TOWNSEND

ìI make bold to write to you, and am but a stranger, although I am a pt to believe that we both sprung from one family ñ no longer agone than o ur great-grandfathers. And if what I have heard ñ that you have had so me desire to know the genealogy of our, or, I might have said, your famil y, which is what I have heard by Samuel Townsend, a kinsman of yours her e, at Oyster Bay, which is what hath occasioned the boldness that I have t aken, being myself desirous of a further knowledge in that than I have be en able to learn as yet, there not having been many of our name hereabou ts since my time, very inquisitive about the history of our ancestors. A nd as Justice Samuel Townsend was telling me, some time agone, that a rela tion of his, in Rhode Island, Christopher Townsend by name, and elderly ma n, was very desirous to know something more of the genealogy of the Townse nds than he then did; and I now begin to be a man in years myself, a nd am willing to send this to Rhode Island, to Christopher Townsend, to g et him to inform me more than I know already. I shall take it as a kindne ss of you, and shall be much obliged to you for it, after I have told yo u, by writing, what I have heard already from some of my old relation s, by way of traditional account, and no other way. As early as the distu rbance in England, in the time of King Charles the First, the first Townse nd came into America, with a great number of others, on a religious accoun t; and, as I have said before, those Townsends, our ancestors, came thr ee brothers ñ John Townsend, Henry Townsend and Richard Townsend. Henry T ownsend, the youngest brother but one, came first, being a handy craftsma n, came to some parts of Long Island, as it was and is still sometimes cal led, being one of the first men in these parts that ever erected a grist-m ill, and in the town of Oyster Bay in particular. And as he had been us ed to the seas, as I have been told, he went home again to England* befo re he married, and then he came again. He married and settled in Oyster B ay, and after he was married, the youngest brother, Richard Townsend, cam e, a young man, and after some time, he married one of his brother Henry ís wifeís sisters ñ both Coles. And after some time came John Townsend, w ho was yours and my great-grandfather, who brought a wife and several chil dren with them, and settled in this Town; and here he lived and died, I be lieve, and left a large family, although there is not much mention ma de of his name on our Town Records for above one hundred years, for I fi nd as long agone as the year 1677, his oldest son, John Townsend, of Jeric ho, called senior by, by reason of his brothers Henry and Richard had nam ed each of them a son John, which I have heard mention made of by the na me of Mill John, which was Henryís son, and Cape May John, which was Richa rdís offspring. And as for Jericho John, Senior, I suppose to be your gra ndfather, and he was the eldest son of John Townsend the 1st, and my grand father was George Townsend, the youngest of the sons but one, although the re was five sons and three daughters ñ the names I suppose you may kn ow as well as I, which I donít know but by hearsay, they being dead befo re my time; but I am acquainted with all their offspring, the names of t he five brothers, John and Thomas Townsend, as I suppose you might know, a nd James, George, and Daniel Townsend, and three daughters ñ Rose Weeks, a fterward Hayden, and Mary Wright and Elizabeth Ludlam. Ü But to retu rn to their father, John Townsend the 1st. He came, an old man, into the se parts, before the Town was purchased, and made large improvements, a nd was dead before the Town Charter of Patent was taken. But there is a g reat deal of mention made of Elizabeth Townsend, his widow; but what her m aiden name was, or what country-woman, I donít know, but I have reas on to believe that she was a Scotch or Irish, which I never could learn; b ut our great-grandfather, her husband, came out of the County Norfol k, in England, near Norwich, which occasioned my grandfather and his broth er James to name this place Norwich, where both purchased and improved lan ds before they died. And they died in what was and is still called the gr eat sickness, which was seventy-two or seventy-three years agone the la st winter; and their father, John Townsend, had been dead a great many yea rs, for my grandfather died in the house that his mother built after her h usband died, and the date of that house, with the first two letters of h er name,
Elizabeth built the house in the year 1670, and my grandfather was bo rn in this Town, and his youngest brother, Daniel, and most of his brothe rs and sisters were born in this country. This is the sum and substan ce of that I have been able to learn. My grandmother, that is my mother ís mother, hath been dead eleven or twelve years, who was a woman of abo ut ninety years old, who knew all the old settlers of this Town, such as o ur grandfathers and their brothers and sisters, but not their father and m other. I make bold to call you kinsman. If you know any thing more th an all that I have rehearsed, I should be glad to be informed. As for a ny of their old writings, I never saw any except what is on the Town Recor ds. My grandfather being one of the youngest, and your grandfather the ol dest, it seems likely for him to have had some of his fatherís or mother ís papers. And there was Thomas Townsend, a second son, who was a great wr iter in this Town while here; and he removed to Rhode Island, and died the re; and it hath been supposed that he left a great many papers in Rhode Is land, that his children nor grandchildren never recovered them back agai n, and as you are in those parts, you might perhaps have any manuscri pt or letter, if any had ever been preserved, of your great-grandfather a nd great-grandmother, coming into these American parts; and when our great -grandmother died, all her husbandís and her own papers fell into the han ds of her sons John and Thomas, for I never saw or heard of any, for my pa rt, and have made a large enquiry. My father was but small when his fath er died, so that I donít expect to learn any thing further here, but sha ll still press my enquiry in so doing. If I should ever chance to co me to Rhode Island, I should endeavor to find you out for a further acquai ntance; but myself almost fifty-six years old, never having been much abro ad, but having lived at Norwich, the same place that I now do and have do ne ever since my remembrance, being the place that my grandfather and h is brother James gave name to, as aforesaid. Notwithstanding the improbab ility of my coming to see you, I desire and beg the favour of your calli ng to see me, if you should perchance travel in these parts again. I thi nk I have heard my brother John say that a Christopher Townsend, a Rhode I sland man, had been at his house some few years agone, who lives at Mamaro neck, in Westchester County. I have spent the most part of this day in me ditating on the discourse that Justice Samuel Townsend and I had, with in a fortnight or three weeks agone, and in writing these lines, in ord er to have them ready to send by Robert Stoddard, Justice Townsendís wife ís brother, whom I saw yesterday, as he told me he should return in abo ut a weekís time; and as I have wrote so correct as I would have done h ad I had time, that I shall be the favour of your receiving and accepti ng of the same under the most favorable construction.î

*Henry did not go back to England.
ÜElizabeth married Gideon Wright. John had no daughter Mary.

Townsend Memorial, pp. 231-233