Peronneau, belonged in 1868 to Mr. Charles Towneley. Towneley died at Chiswick, at the residence of his nephew and namesake, early in 1782, and was buried in Chiswick churchyard.
A second edition of his translation of ‘Hudibras,’ with the English text revised by Sir John Byerly and the French spelling modernised, was painted by Firmin-Didot at Paris in 1819. Some fragmentary manuscripts in his handwriting were included in the sale of the Towneley library in 1883. A catalogue of the library was printed in 1814–15 under the title ‘Bibliotheca Towneleiana’ (2 parts, London, 8vo). He possessed a considerable collection of Wenceslaus Hollar's prints, which were sold by auction on 26–29 May 1818 (cf. Cat. Towneley Collection of Hollars, 1818).
[Gent. Mag. April 1782; European Mag. 1802, i. 22; Whitaker's Hist. of Whalley; Cottin's Protégé de Bachaumont (this and other French authorities confuse John with Francis Towneley); Palatine Notebook, 1881–3; Grimm's Correspondence Littéraire; Revue Rétrospective, 1885.]
TOWNLEY, Sir CHARLES (1713–1774), Garter king-of-arms, eldest son of Charles Townley of Clapham, Surrey, descended from a younger branch of the ancient family of Towneley Hall, near Burnley, Lancashire, was born on Tower Hill, London, on 7 May 1713. James Townley [q. v.] was his younger brother. He was sent to Merchant Taylors' school in 1727. Entering the College of Arms, he was appointed York herald in July 1735, Norroy king-of-arms on 2 Nov. 1751, Clarenceux king-of-arms on 11 Jan. 1754–5, and Garter principal king-of-arms on 27 April 1773. He was knighted at George III's coronation in 1761. He died in Camden Street, Islington, on 7 June 1774, and was buried in the church of St. Dunstan-in-the-East. His portrait was painted by Thomas Frye.
He married Mary, daughter of George Eastwood of Thornhill, Yorkshire. A son, Charles Townley, born on 31 Oct. 1749, became Bluemantle pursuivant on 31 Dec. 1774, Lancaster herald on 24 Dec. 1781, and died on 25 Nov. 1800.
[Noble's College of Arms, pp. 383, 386, 388, 414, 418, 439, 441; Gent. Mag. 1774, p. 287; Robinson's Register of Merchant Taylors' School, i. 70.]
TOWNLEY, JAMES (1714–1778), author of ‘High Life below Stairs,’ the second son of Charles Townley, merchant, of Tower Hill, and of Clapham, Surrey, was born in the parish of All Hallows, Barking, on 6 May 1714. Sir Charles Townley [q. v.] was his elder brother. He was admitted at Merchant Taylors' school on 7 Feb. 1727, and matriculated as a commoner from St. John's College, Oxford, on 15 May 1732, graduating B.A. 14 Jan. 1735 and M.A. 23 Nov. 1738. He took deacon's orders at Grosvenor Chapel, Westminster, from Bishop Hoadly of Winchester on 6 March 1736, and priest's orders on 28 May 1738. On 12 Oct. in the same year he was chosen lecturer of St. Dunstan's-in-the-East, and three years later he became chaplain to Daniel Lambert, lord mayor. He was third under-master at Merchant Taylors' from 22 Dec. 1748 until July 1753, when he left his old school to become grammar-master at Christ's Hospital. In 1759 he was chosen morning preacher at Lincoln's Inn, and on 8 Aug. 1760 he returned to Merchant Taylors' as headmaster. Under his predecessor, John Criche, an avowed Jacobite, the school had lost ground in the favour of the magnates of the city, which Townley set himself speedily to recover. In this he was in the main successful; but his endeavours to modernise the curriculum were thwarted by the Merchant Taylors' board. In 1762 and 1763 dramatic performances were revived at the school at the wish and under the direction of Townley, whose friend David Garrick took an active interest in the arrangements. In 1762 the ‘Eunuchus’ of Terence was played in the schoolroom, Dr. Thomas, bishop of Salisbury, and other distinguished alumni being present. In 1763 were played six times to large audiences ‘Senecæ Troades et Ignoramus Abbreviatus, in Schola Mercatorum Scissorum’ (both programmes are preserved at St. John's College, Oxford), but the trustees intervened to prevent any further representations.
Townley's interest in the drama was not confined to these schoolboy performances. In 1759 he had written (the authorship was for several years carefully concealed) the laughable farce, in two acts, ‘High Life below Stairs,’ first acted at Drury Lane on 31 Oct. 1759, with O'Brien, Yates, and Mrs. Clive in the leading rôles. ‘This is a very good farce,’ says Genest. George Selwyn expressed his satisfaction with it as a relief from ‘low life above stairs.’ At the time it was attributed to Garrick; the vein is rather that of Samuel Foote. The plot is rudimentary—that of a long-suffering master disguising himself in order to detect the rogueries of his servants; but the presumption and insolence of flunkeydom are hit off in a succession of ludicrous touches, and the fun never flags. Nor was the satire without its sting. At Edinburgh the servants in their
