He was born at his family's seat of Raynham Hall in Norfolk, England, the second son of Charles Townshend, 3rd Viscount Townshend, and Audrey (died 1788), daughter and heiress of Edward Harrison of Ball's Park, near Hertford, a lady who rivalled her son in brilliancy of wit and frankness of expression.
Townshend was twice married—first to Elizabeth (d. 1711), daughter of Thomas Pelham, 1st Baron Pelham of Laughton, and secondly to Dorothy Walpole (1686–1726), sister of Sir Robert Walpole and is said to haunt Raynham as Brown Lady of Raynham Hall.
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The old Norfolk family of Townshend, to which he belonged, is descended from Sir Roger Townshend (d. 1493) of Raynham, who acted as legal advisor to the Paston family, and was made a justice of the common pleas in 1484.
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Born at Raynham Hall, Norfolk, Townshend succeeded to the peerages in December 1687, and was educated at Eton College and King's College, Cambridge.
Raynham Hall is a rectangular mansion built of brick and stone dressings.
Until 1904, there were many more paintings at Raynham, including several fine family portraits by Kneller and Reynolds.
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The most famous and valuable was "Belisarius " by Salvator Rosa, which was presented to the 2nd Viscount Townshend by King Frederick William I of Prussia.
Home of the Townsend family, one of the founding families of Oyster Bay, on Long Island, New York, and a member of George Washington's Culper Ring of spies, the house was renamed Raynham Hall after the Townsend seat in Norfolk, England, in 1850 by a grandson of the original owner.
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The ancestral estate hosts The Brown Lady, first photographed in 1938 as a wispy figure descending the staircase.
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Lord Townshend died in September 1863, aged 65, as result of a fall from his horse in the grounds of his home, Raynham Hall, and was buried at East Raynham, Norfolk.
The station lay approximately half a mile from the small hamlets of Tatterford and Helhoughton but took its name from the Raynham Hall residence of Lord Townshend, erstwhile chairman of the Lynn & Fakenham Railway, some 1.5 miles away.