Anne Townshend or Anne Bacon; Anne, Lady Townshend (August 1573 – November 1622) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should b ...

gentlewoman and benefactor of Puritan causes.

Life

Townshend was born in

Waxham Waxham is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Sea Palling, in the North Norfolk district, on the north-east coast of the county of Norfolk, England. Buildings in the village include Waxham Hall, the 14th-century St. John's C ...

in 1573 and was baptised on 7 August. Her parents were Anne (born Gresham) and Sir Nathaniel Bacon MP. Her formal education was at a boarding school in Dickleborough and she married in December 1593 Sir John Townshend. The marriage had been negotiated by her father and the agreement was that the couple would inherit her father's land in

Stiffkey Stiffkey () is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish on the north coast of the England, English county of Norfolk. It is situated on the A149 road, A149 coast road, some east of Wells-next-the-Sea, west of Blakeney, Norfolk, ...

, Langham, and Morston. It was a difficult marriage as her husband frequently rowed with people. Their son and heir,

Sir Roger Townshend, 1st Baronet Sir Roger Townshend, 1st Baronet (c.1596 – 1 January 1637), was an England, English landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons of England, House of Commons in two parliaments between 1621 and 1629. Family Townshend was the son ...

, was born in

Melton Constable Melton Constable is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the North Norfolk district of the county of Norfolk, England. It covers an area of and had a population of 518 in 225 households at the United Kingdom Census 2001, 200 ...

. Her husband died in 1603 from his wounds after taking part in a duel where he had killed his opponent. Anne recorded that had he lived then he may have moved abroad and left her without an income.

Death and legacies

Townshend lived in Heydon, but she died at the home of her cousin, Anne, Lady Corbett, in Sprowston Hall in Norfolk in early November 1622.Gaby Mahlberg, ‘Townshend , Anne, Lady Townshend (1573–1622)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Oct 2005; online edn, Jan 200
accessed 11 Oct 2017
/ref> Townshend had given money to ministers, including the poet

Giles Fletcher Giles Fletcher (also known as Giles Fletcher, The Younger; 1586? – 1623 in Alderton, Suffolk) was an English cleric and poet chiefly known for his long allegorical poem ''Christ's Victory and Triumph'' (1610). Life Fletcher was the younger ...

, during her lifetime but her will required that money be distributed to the poor of the neighborhood. She left money also for ministers including John Goodwin who was later in disfavour with his bishop.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Townshend, Anne 1573 births 1622 deaths People from North Norfolk (district) British philanthropists Puritans People from Stiffkey