Charles Townshend

Charles Townshend (28 August 1725 – 4 September 1767) was a British politician.

Early life
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. He was a sickly child, suffered from epilepsy, and had a strained relationship with his parents. Charles graduated from the Dutch Leiden University on 27 October 1745; while there he had associated with a small group of other English youth, who later became well known in various circles, including Dowdeswell, Wilkes, and Alexander Carlyle. The latter would chronicle their exploits in his Autobiography.

Following his return, he represented Great Yarmouth in Parliament from 1747 to 1756, when he found a seat for the admiralty borough of Saltash, subsequently transferring in 1761 to Harwich, another borough where the seat was in the government's gift. Public attention was first drawn to his abilities in 1753, when he delivered a lively attack against Lord Hardwicke's marriage bill, although this measure passed into law.

Politics
In April 1759, Townshend was transformed from the position of a member of the Board of Trade, which he had held from 1749, to that of a Lord of the Admiralty, but at the close of 1755 his passionate attack against the policy of the ministry caused his resignation. In the administration which was formed in November 1756, and which was ruled by Pitt, the lucrative office of treasurer of the chamber was given to Townshend, but in the following spring he retired and George Grenville took over. The higher post of First Lord of the Admiralty then fell to Townshend's lot and his refusal to accept the nomination led to his exclusion from the new administration.

He condescended to accept, in the dying days of Grenville's cabinet and to retain through the "lutestring" administration of Lord Rockingham "pretty summer wear," as Townshend styled it, "but it will never stand the winter" the highly paid position of Paymaster-General, refusing to identify himself more closely with its fortunes as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

The position which he refused from the hands of Lord Rockingham he accepted from Pitt in August 1766, and a few weeks later his urgent appeals to the great minister for increased power were favourably answered, and he was admitted to the inner circle of the cabinet. The new chancellor proposed the continuance of the land tax at four shillings in the pound, while he held out hopes that it might be reduced next year to three shillings, whereupon his predecessor, William Dowdeswell, by the aid of the landed gentlemen, carried a motion that the reduction should take effect at once. Townshend pledged to find revenue in America with which to meet the deficiency caused by the reduction.

His last official act was to pass through parliament resolutions for taxing several articles, such as glass, paint, paper and tea, on their importation into America, which he estimated would produce the sum of ₤40,000 for the English treasury: the Townshend Acts. He had the support of his cousin Thomas Townshend who was also a minister in the government.

Soon after that he died somewhat suddenly on 4 September 1767.

Private life
In August 1755 he had married Caroline Campbell (d. 1794), the eldest daughter of the 2nd duke of Argyll and the widow of Francis, Lord Dalkeith, the eldest son of the 2nd duke of Buccleuch.

His wife was created (August 1767) baroness of Greenwich, and his elder brother George, the 4th viscount, was made Lord-lieutenant of Ireland.

Townshend conceived a great and dangerous passion for his step-daughter Frances (later Lady Douglas), and her memorialist, Lady Louisa Stuart, wrote after his death of his character: "This was careless, gay, inconsiderate, volatile, seemingly foreign to every serious reflection or feeling. He had one of those happy tempers which nothing can ruffle, without a grain of pride, sternness or resentment in his nature. Ready to laugh with every body and at every thing, he poured out wit in torrents; and it was so much the worse for truth if ever truth stood in wit's way."

The American towns of Townsend, Massachusetts and Townshend, Vermont were founded and named after Charles Townshend in 1732 and 1753, respectively.