Col. Richard Townsend

Documented line (per the family chart). Chart: "Col. Richard Townsend of Castletownshend". Backfilled from the family chart (Damery_Family_Tree.html), June 2026. [DIRECT ANCESTOR OF THE COMPILER: flag added 24 Jul 2026 by walking the tree from Aynsley, so that this marker is reliable and can be searched.] ||⚠ DO NOT PUSH - STITCHED PEDIGREE (Aynsley's recollection, VERIFIED by web research 7 Aug 2026)|| Before Col. Richard Townsend of Castletownshend the ancestry is a KNOWN FABRICATION/graft: the printed 'Townshend' descent inserting the Colonel into the ancient pedigreed family was a stitched-on claim (a request/contrivance to make him part of the pedigreed Townshend family), NOT documented descent. His PARENTS ARE DELIBERATELY NOT WIRED and must stay so. Treat the Colonel as a documented FLOOR (the founder of the Irish Castletownshend Townsends); the English/senior-family graft above him is rejected, note-only. This is NOT a clean gentry-wall push. ||VERIFICATION 7 Aug 2026|| Confirmed: Col. Richard Townsend (1618/19-1692) is 'of obscure origins and unknown parentage - nothing is known of him before 1643' (when he took a company in Ceely's Regt). The Norfolk descent is EXPLICITLY a self-made claim: 'according to tradition he was descended from the Townshends of RAYNHAM, Norfolk, and he EVIDENTLY LAID CLAIM to such kinship, ADOPTING THE ARMS of Sir Roger Townshend (1588-1637), head of that family' - i.e. he took the Raynham arms to graft himself onto the pedigreed house; the descent is unproven tradition. The alternative (son of John Townsend of Dichford, Warks, matric. Hart Hall 1634) is 'suggested rather doubtfully, on no more than a rough similarity of age'. So: FLOOR at the Colonel, parents UNWIRED, the Raynham graft REJECTED. Sources: the family's own 1892 history 'An Officer of the Long Parliament' (R.B. & Dorothea Townshend); Wikipedia 'Richard Townsend (soldier)'. Aynsley's caution was correct.

Marriage: Col. Richard Townsend x Mary Hyde