[Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. ii. 93, 355, where are full lists of authorities; Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Carthew's Hundred of Launditch, vols. ii. iii. passim; Playfair's Brit. Families of Antiquity, i. 181–2; Fuller's Worthies of England, ii. 152–3; Kennet's Register and Chronicle, p. 409 n.; Richards's Hist. of King's Lynn, i. 168.]
TOWNSHEND, THOMAS, first Viscount Sydney (1733–1800), born on 24 Feb. 1733, was the only son of Thomas Townshend (1701–1780) [see under Townshend, Charles, second Viscount], by his wife Albinia, daughter of John Selwyn of Matson, Gloucestershire, and Chislehurst, Kent. Charles Townshend [q. v.], the chancellor of the exchequer, and George Townshend, first marquis Townshend [q. v.], were his first cousins, and George Augustus Selwyn (1719–1791) [q. v.], the wit, was his maternal uncle. Thomas was educated, like many members of the family, at Clare College, Cambridge, whence he graduated M.A. in 1753 (Grad. Cantabr. p. 476). On 17 April 1754, when barely of age, he was returned to parliament for Whitchurch, Hampshire, which he represented without interruption until his elevation to the peerage in 1783. Townshend was from his family connections inevitably a whig, and about 1755 he was appointed clerk of the household to George, prince of Wales, afterwards George III. In 1760 the elder Pitt made him clerk of the board of green cloth; but his conduct did not satisfy the ‘king's friends,’ and in 1762 he was summarily dismissed, with others of Pitt's adherents (Walpole, Memoirs of George III, ed. Barker, i. 185). He continued in opposition during Grenville's ministry, and in April 1765, when Grenville justified his American mutiny bill by quoting Scots law, Townshend ‘spoke well and warmly against making Scotch law our precedent’ (ib. ii. 65). In the same session he took an active part in the discussion of the regency bill. Rockingham's advent to power in July brought Townshend into office as a lord of the treasury, and in January 1766 he moved the address to the throne in the House of Commons. He continued in that office when Pitt formed a government under the nominal headship of the Duke of Grafton in August 1766; and on 23 Dec. 1767, when the ministry was remodelled on Chatham's retirement, Townshend became joint-paymaster of the forces and was sworn of the privy council. In June 1768 Grafton wished to gratify Richard Rigby [q. v.] with this post, and offered Townshend the vice-treasurership of Ireland. Townshend refused ‘to be turned backwards and forwards every six months,’ and resigned office in disgust (ib. iii. 152; Rigby to Bedford in Bedford Corresp. iii. 401). He remained in opposition throughout the remainder of Grafton's and the whole of Lord North's administrations, making steady progress in the opinion of the house and country. He possessed, says Wraxall, ‘a very independent fortune and considerable parliamentary interest—two circumstances which greatly contributed to his personal, no less than to his political, elevation; for his abilities, though respectable, scarcely rose above mediocrity. Yet, as he always spoke with facility, sometimes with energy, and was never embarrassed by any degree of timidity, he maintained a conspicuous place in the front ranks of the opposition’ (Memoirs of the Reign of George III, ii. 45). In February 1769, according to Walpole, he strongly opposed the unseating of Wilkes by the House of Commons, and threatened ‘that the freeholders of Middlesex would in a body petition the king to dissolve parliament,’ a threat which Lord North as ‘the most punishable’ breach of privilege recorded in the history of the house (Walpole, Memoirs, iii. 224; Parliamentary Debates, i. 229, where, however, Cavendish attributes the speech to James Townshend). In 1770 Townshend was proposed as speaker in opposition to Sir Fletcher Norton [q. v.], but declined to stand for election and himself voted for Norton. On 11 April 1771 he made a speech, which Walpole says was much admired, against the ‘king's friends,’ declaring that they had no right to that title, but should rather be called les serviteurs des évènemens. Later on he denounced Lord North for the levity of his conduct amid the disasters of the American war; ‘happen what will,’ he said, ‘the noble lord is ready with his joke’ (Wraxall, i. 365).
When at length North was forced to resign, Townshend reaped the reward of his persistent opposition, and on 27 March 1782 became secretary at war in Rockingham's second administration. The death of Rockingham four months later led to the schism of his followers into two sections, one headed by Shelburne and the other by Fox. Townshend threw in his lot with the former, succeeding Shelburne at the home office when Shelburne became prime minister. In this capacity he was nominally leader of the House of Commons from July 1782 to April 1783, but the real burden of the defence of the ministry fell upon the younger Pitt (Stanhope, Life of Pitt, i. 51, 80). On 17 Feb., however, Townshend made an excellent defence of the peace concluded with the American colonies, and
