V
COMING TO AMERICA
In the cozy confines of his Scotland castle and estate, Lord Lawrence Townley endured a stubborn family. His own daughter Mary had defied his wishes and married against his wishes and fled with her commoner husband to the colonies. Now her brother, his son William, was engaged in similar defiance from his grandson Robert.
Robert had fallen in love with a shepherdess of all things. Her name was Esther Linsey and her father tended sheep near the Townley compound. Robert asked his father for permission to marry her, but she didn’t contain an ounce of royal blood and so his request was denied. He married her anyway and along with his brother John and new wife set sail for the New World.
They intended to land in New Amsterdam, but the ship wrecked off the New Jersey coast near a place called Hopewell. They settled in Oxford, New Jersey. However, the Boston Tea Parties (there were two) had recently occurred in Boston. The good people of Oxford were suspicious of these people newly arrived from Britain and demanded to know if they stood with the Colonists or the King. Robert declared at once for the Colonies, but John held to his loyalty to the Crown. This brought more trouble with their neighbors and they moved to Pennsylvania.
They set up home in the vicinity of Valley Forge in Chester County. John continued to support the King possibly keeping their loyalty in questioned. Their home was attacked one midnight and set afire. They escaped, but only with their nightclothes and a sword baring the family crest. The tip of this sword broke off as they fought their way free.
After that John went to Maryland. Robert and Esther settled in the Conestoga Valley of Lancaster County. After the Revolutionary War broke out, Robert organized a militia company. Like Superman throwing on a pair of glasses to become Clark Kent, Robert Townley added an S to his name and enlisted as Robert Townsley. He incurred a hip wound on September 11, 1777 during the Battle of Brandywine.11
Exactly when Robert died I don’t know or do I know if his war wound was a factor. My final information is Esther listed in the 1810 census as a widow. Her home was Caernarvon Township, Lancaster County.12 The crested sword remains a family mystery. William Townley (pictured right), my Great Grandfather had the sword and loaned it to someone and it disappeared.
LORDLY LINAGE, LOYAL LEGACY
In the midst of sheep began a voyage,
The legacy of Shepardess and Noble.
Within the fiefdom of his father Lord,
In the shadow of the castle keep and
Shadow of wrath and rage that the issue of
The royal loins loved a serf of his board,
Robert Townley married Esther Linsey.
And so he divorced his inheritance,
Stately title and his native Scotland.
Young Robert, his bride and his brother John
Set sail cross the sea for New Amsterdam.
While at Boston an angry rebel band
Was busting boxes and dumping good tea,
The Townley ship wrecked off Hopewell, N J.
Making shore they built a home in Oxford.
Suspicions swirled about newly arrived
Subjects of the Crown. Be they Tory spies?
Mobs burnt the house. They escaped with a sword
With family crest, lives and little else.
Robert swore his America allegiance
In Pennsylvania. After that you find
He added an S and became Townsley.
He molded a militia company,
Was wounded at the Battle of Brandywine.
In eighteen-ten Esther was a widow,
Living on land in Lancaster County,
A patriot, a pioneer Townsley wife.
The man who rejected riches for love
Was the fore bearer of the female who
Gave birth to the father who gave me life.
By Larry Eugene Meredith, 2004
The coming of the Meredith Clan was not quite as dramatic, although fraught with its own dangers. David Meredith was born in Brongwyn, Cardigan, Wales in 1675 and raised a Quaker. He came to America with the group of wealthy Welsh Friends deeded a large section of Chester County, Pennsylvania by William Penn known as the Welsh Tract. David was among those who settled in what they called “Whiteland” in 1683.13
In January 1704 David married Sarah Rush, daughter of William Rush, at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Chester County. Sarah was born in a log cabin where Philadelphia now stands. She and David settled in The Great Valley, 28 miles west of Philadelphia. “Six miles beyond neighbors, except Indians”, she wrote. Sarah’s Uncle James was the Great Grandfather of Dr. Benjamin Rush (pictured left), one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Benjamin is a second cousin.14
The “Indians” Sarah referred to were the Lenni-Lenape. David and Sarah settled near a Native American Village called Katamoonchink (hazelnut grove) in the area of present day Exton. There was a practical reason for settling near this village. The Lenape had dogs. If strangers entered the area or there were other dangers the dogs would bark and warn them.15
Footnotes:
11. History of the Descendents of Lord Townley
Colonel Clarence Townsley,
General Superintendent West Point Military Academy
Indianapolis State Library
12. Census of the United States
1810
13. A History of West Whiteland
Martha Leigh Wolf and Diane Sekura Snyder
The West Whiteland Historical Commission
Exton, Pa.
1982
14. General Society of Pa.
Vol. 12, #1
Harrold E. Gillison
February 1, 1770
15. A History of West Whiteland
Martha Leigh Wolf and Diane Sekura Snyder
The West Whiteland Historical Commission
Exton, Pa.
1982.
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