TOWNSHEND OF WINCHAM

Grid Ref SJ 685 752
25 May 2002

Wincham Hall Hotel

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.

Townshend Monument spacer Townshend Memorial
Townshend Monument at Great Budworth      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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