In 1377, the ancestor of this family was of Snoring Magna in this county. In 1398, John Townshend settled at Rainham, which according to some accounts accrued to them by the heiress of Havile, but the pedigree as given by Collins cannot be relied on, neither can the defamatory account of Leland, who says—"the grandfather of Townsende now living was a meane man of substance." The truth seems to be that the family is old, but not of great account before the time of Sir Walter de Townsend, who married Maud Scogan, and flourished about the year 1400.
See Blomefield, iii. 815; Brydges's Collins, ii. 454; and Leland's Itinerary, iv. p. 13.
Arms.—Azure, a chevron ermine between three escallops argent.
Present Representative, John Villiers Stuart Townshend, 5th Marquess Townshend.
NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.
Knightly.
Wake of Courteenhall, Baronet 1621.
This is a younger branch of the very ancient baronial house of Wake, who were Lincolnshire Barons in the reign of Henry I. Sir Hugh Wake was lord of Deeping in the county of Lincoln, and of Blisworth in this county, by gift of his father, Baldwin fourth Lord Wake. He died in 1315, and was the direct ancestor of the present Baronet. See memoir of the family of Wake privately printed in 1833, but written by Archbishop Wake; and Wotton's Baronetage, i. 465.