Note 50 — Chapter VII

Lady Townshend’s father, Edward Harrison, Esq., of Balls, in the county of Hertford, had formerly been Governor of Fort St. George, in the East Indies; she was sole heir to his immense fortune. Her eldest son, the first Marquis Townshend, who had served at the battles of Dettingen, Fontenoy, and Culloden, and also at the remarkable siege of Quebec, which town surrendered into his hands, as commander-in-chief, after the fatal death of Wolfe, became nearly allied to Lady Huntingdon by his marriage with Lady Charlotte Compton, only surviving issue of James, Earl of Northampton, by Elizabeth Shirley, who was in her own right Baroness Ferrars, of Chartley. Her second son, Charles Townshend, was celebrated for his brilliant talents, by which he distinguished himself in a most eminent degree, both in the Senate and Cabinet; perhaps there never arose, in any country, a man of more pointed and finished wit; and, where his passions were not concerned, of a more refined, exquisite, and penetrating judgment; but although a man of genius, he appears to have been rather more fit for literary than political attainments, and from the versatility of his political conduct he acquired the nick-name of “the weathercock.” He died in 1767, and his brother, the Marquis Townshend, survived him exactly forty years; both through life maintained a steady friendship for Lady Huntingdon, who outlived their eccentric mother only a few years.