James Townsend was a British Whig politician who served as the Lord Mayor of London in 1772. He was Britain's first member of parliament of partial Black African descent.
James Townsend (centre) in 1769 as alderman of the City of London.
Satirical print from 1773 about the schism in the Wilkesite group. Townsend is upper right whipping the girl with sticks: a story to this effect had been publicised by Wilkes, though in reality it was two six-year-olds. The bull stands for Frederick Bull.
Bruce Castle, Tottenham, James Townsend's estate. He redesigned the east façade, depicted here.
Bruce Castle
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Bruce Castle is a Grade I listed 16th-century manor house in Lordship Lane, Tottenham, London. It is named after the House of Bruce who formerly owned the land on which it is built. Believed to stand
James Townsend (British politician)
…supported William Pitt the Younger. Shortly before his death in office he had opposed the impeachment of Warren Hastings. Townsend died at his estate, Bruce Castle in Tottenham, on 1 July 1787. He was buried nearby at Old Church Tottenham in the mausoleum of his wife's family, the Coleraines. Her inheritance had…
Bruce Castle's south façade
The earliest known depiction of the house: detail of the 1619 Earl of Dorset's Survey of Tottenham. The Norman All Hallows' Church and priory, then as now the oldest surviving buildings in the area, are also shown.
The round tower
Richard Sackville, by William Larkin; in the collection of the Iveagh Bequest at Kenwood House. Sackville's large debts led to the sale of the house to Hugh Hare.