TOWNSHEND OF WINCHAM
Grid Ref SJ 685 752
25 May 2002
Wincham Hall Hotel
As my photograph shows, little now remains
of Wincham Hall but the section at the right, with the large chimney, presumably
belongs to an older building. The hall does not warrant a mention in Cheshire
Country Houses, by de Figueiredo and Treuherz.
Edward Venables Townshend was a contemporary of Sir
John Fleming Leicester of Tabley. He was appointed a captain in the Cheshire
Yeomanry Cavalry in 1803 and Lieutenant Colonel in 1816. The manner in which
he inherited Wincham is complicated. The Lee family of Dernhall acquired Wincham
by the marriage of Thomas Lee to Frances Venables. This Thomas gave Wincham
to his third son Robert Lee but in due course this line ran out of heirs and
Hester Lee, who became the wife of Charles Legh of Adlington, left Wincham
to her second cousin, Edward Venables Townshend. He was the son of Frances
Lee who had married as her second husband, J. Townshend of Denbighshire.
Thomas Lee and Frances Venables had four sons but after
two more generations there were no male heirs of this branch of the Lee family.
Note that at this period Sidney was a girl's name. The following genealogical
information is taken from Ormerod's History of Cheshire, 2nd Edition.
For further information on the Townshend family, see Nigel
Watts' web pages.
I have also been contacted by Derek Townshend, who
tells me that the Wincham Townshends are mentioned in Burke's Landed Gentry.
They are a side branch of the Townshends of Hem House and Trevallyn House.
Derek has his own Townshend
web-site.
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1. Thomas Lee, second son of Thomas
Lee of Darnhill, Esq was sherrif of Cheshire in 1697
- + Frances daughter and co-heiress of Robert Venables
of Antrobus and Wincham, died 1666.
- 2. Nathaniel Lee, baptised Whitegate, 4 March
1655.
- + Sydney, daughter of Sir Robert Cotton of Combermere,
Kt.
- 3. Thomas Lee, baptised Whitegate, 20 July
1692.
- 3. John Lee, baptised Whitegate, 20 March
1696/7, sold Dernhall.
- 4. Thomas Lee, born 13 September 1721,
died 9 August 1741 without issue.
- 4. Elizabeth Lee, died without issue.
- 4. Sidney Lee (girl) died unmarried aged
61 on 16 January 1788, bequeathed her property to her cousin Susannah
or Susan Townshend.
- 4. Henry Lee, second son, born 1722,
died without issue in 1732.
- 4. Charles Lee, American General, born
1731, died without issue 2 October 1782 leaving the bulk of his
fortune to his sister, Sidney Lee.
- 3. Salisbury Lee, baptised Whitegate, 11 August
1698, became wife of Robert Davis of Manley.
- 3. Frances Lee, baptised Whitegate, 14 August
1702
- + 1st husband was Samuel Mynshull of Chester
- + 2nd husband was J. Townshend of
Denbighshire. This couple had three daughters, Frances, Susan and
Anne who died unmarried and six sons, John, Robert, William, Edward,
Thomas and George Salisbury Townshend of whom we follow only Edward.
- 4. Edward Townshend Esq. of Wincham and
Antrobus, by will of Hester Legh of Adlington.
- + 1st wife Frances Lee in 1763, his second
cousin. They had one child, which died in infancy.
- + 2nd wife Anne, eldest daughter of Rev.
John Baldwin of Hoole on 25 March 1773 at Plemstowe. This couple
had six daughters Hester, Wilhelmina-Maria, Sidney, Barbara-Anne,
Arabella, Harriot-Frances and one son, Edward Venables whom we
follow below.
- 5. Edward Venables Townshend of Wincham
born 31 August 1774, married October 1801 died 6 April 1845
and buried at Great Budworth.
See picture of plaque below.
- + Cornelia Anne dau. of Josias Dupres
Esq., of Wilton Park, Bucks, governor of Madras. She died
on 26 June 1849 and was buried at Great Budworth. This couple
had three sons Lee Porcher, Edward and Henry and a daughter
Charlotte Hester of whom we follow only the eldest son, Lee
Porcher.
- 6. Lee Porcher Townshend of Wincham,
Esq., born 13 March 1804, married 27 December 1833 and
died 16 May 1871, buried at Great Budworth.
- + Emma Johanna, daughter of General
Glegg of Backford Hall, Cheshire.
This couple had three sons, Edward, Lee Glegg, and Charles
Lee and five daughters, Mary Charlotte, Fanny Emma, Cornelia
Jane, Harriet Maria, and Emily Eliza of whom we follow
the eldest son.
- 7. Edward Townshend of Wincham,
Esq., born 23 November 1835, married December 1867
- + Alicia Jane, daughter of
T. Parr, Esq., of Grappenhall
Heyes, Cheshire.
- 2. Thomas Lee, baptised Whitegate, 22 January
1661
- 2. Robert Lee, baptised at Whitegate, 18 April
1664 of Wincham by gift of his father.
- + Magdalen, dau. and heiress of Richard Ward of
Cotton, Shropshire.
- 3. Thomas Lee of Cotton, married 15 October
1738
- + Alice, daughter of Roger Comberbach recorder
of Chester.
- 4. Edward Lee, born 28 September 1738,
died Philadelphia 5 April 1759
- 4. Francis Lee, married in 1763 to her second
cousin Edward Townshend, had one child which died in infancy.
- 3. Robert Lee
- + Hester Glegg, dau. of Sir William Glegg of
Gayton, Kt.
- 4. Robert Lee, died unmarried
- 4. Glegg Lee, died unmarried
- 4. Elizabeth Lee, died unmarried
- 4. Hester Lee, married Charles Legh
of Adlington, Esq. They had one son,
Thomas Legh of Wincham who died before his father without surviving
issue. Hester left her interest in Wincham to Edward Townshend.
- 3. Frances Lee, married Thos. Jones of Churton, see monument below.
- 2. John Lee of Cotton, Shropshire, died 1738.
- 2. Elizabeth Lee, baptised Whitegate, 4 March
1655, wife of John Wade of Gloucestershire.
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Townshend Monument at Great Budworth |
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Townshend Memorial at Aldford |
Shown above on the left is the plaque
on the north wall of St Mary and All Saints at Great
Budworth. It commemorates Edward Venables Townshend and his wife Cornelia
Anne. Above right is the monument to a further member of the family
found at Aldford on the River Dee near Eccleston.
The monument is difficult to read in the church but with the aid of flash
photography the following was discerned:
Under this seat lies interred the remains
of Frances, late wife of Thos. Jones of Churton, in this Parish, Esq., Counsellor
at Law. She was the youngest daughter of Robert Lee of Wincham in this County,
Gent., by Magdalen his wife, who was daughter and heir of Richard Ward of
Cotton in the County of Salop, Gent. The said Frances upon the 2nd day of
July 1719 resigned her soul to its maker, leaving issue Sarah, the only daughter
she had by her said husband, who (?) in a *** of remembrance of the singular
endowment *** mind ***ness of her temper caused this to be erected
***.*** *** lies Sarah Daughter of Thos Jones
of Churton, Esq., *** ***ing young was interred March the 14th 1722.
*** Thos Jones of Churton Esq., Counsellor at
law who with *** *** departed ys life July 30th was interred Aug 2 1737.
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