Henry Townsend (Oyster Bay)

Infobox Person
name = Henry Townsend


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birth_date = 1649
birth_place = Norwich, Norfolk England
death_date = Circa 1695
death_place = Oyster Bay, Long Island, NY
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nationality = American
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known_for = Early settler of American colonies, Quaker, signatory to the Flushing Remonstrance
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home_town = Oyster Bay, Long Island
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religion = Quaker
spouse = Deborah Underhill Townsend
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children = Uriah TownsendRobert Townsend Elizabeth Townsend Henry J. Townsend
parents = Henry Townsend and Anne (Coles) Townsend
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Henry Townsend (1649-1695) was an early settler of the American Colonies and a member of the Quaker religion. He and his family initially settled in Jamaica Long Island, but were forced out by religious conflict with the Dutch authorities then ruling New York. After seeking refuge in the religiously-tolerant Rhode Island, Henry and his brothers returned to Long Island. A signer of The Flushing Remonstrance, a precursor to the freedom of religion provision in the Bill of Rights, Townsend once again earned the wrath of the authorities and eventually settled in Oyster Bay where they were among the earliest families.

Biography

Henry Townsend and his brothers sailed from Norwich, Norfolk, England, and landed at Lynn, Massachusetts. While there he met and married Deborah Underhill, daughter of John Underhill, Captain of the Massachusetts Colony. They then moved to Long Island, and settled at Flushing where along with his brothers John and Richard they made an application in early 1656 to the Governor and Council to begin a plantation in the area that was to become known as Jamaica.

Henry was a member of the Quaker religion which was frowned upon by the political authorities of the day. He frequently hosted religious meetings at his home in Long Island, earning the wrath of the Dutch governor, Peter Stuyvesant, who banished them from his colony. The Townsend brothers moved to Warwick, Rhode Island, which was more tolerant of Quakers. While there they were all three members of the provincial assembly, as well as holding municipal offices. In 1656 they once more attempted to settle in Long Island, and in that year obtained, with others, the patent of Rustdorp (now Jamaica).

"On 15th Sept., 1657, according to the Dutch records, Henry Townsend was condemned in a amend of £8 Flanders, or else to depart the province within six weeks, upon the penalty of corporeal punishment, for having called together conventicles. A proclamation followed, imposing a fine of £50 for sheltering a Quaker for a single night, one-half going to the informer... On Dec. 29. 1657 the magistrates of Rusdorp informed the Governor that the Quakers and their adherents were lodged, entertained and unrelentingly corresponded in said village at the house of Henry Townsend. He was therefore cited to appear Jan. 10, 1658. John Townsend was also ordered to appear, the court having suspicions of his favoring Quakers, and he was ordered to find bail for £12 to appear when summoned. On an inquisition ordered by the Governor, the magistrates reported twelve persons including Henry and John Townsend and their wives who had countenanced the "odious sect." Henry Townsend was a third time haled before the Court, he having ingenuously acknowledged that he had lodged in his house some of the friends who are called Quakers, and had a meeting of friends at his house at which one of them spoke, and concluding, said, "they might squander and devour his estate and manacle his person but his soul was his God's and his opinions his own." Whereupon he was sentenced to the payment of 600 Guilders, to be imprisoned until the amend was paid and further to be banished out of the Province for an example to others."cite book
last = Cocks
first = George William
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = History and Genealogy of the Cock - Cocks - Cox Family
publisher = Privately Printed
date = 1914
location = New York
pages = 367
url = http://books.google.com/books?id=2xpGAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA367&dq=%22henry+townsend%22+-frederick&as_brr=1#PPA367,M1
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In 1657 Henry Townsend joined with a number of other citizens in petitioning Peter Stuyvesant to lift the Governor's ban on Quaker worship. Stuyvesant had formally banned the practice of all religions outside of the Dutch Reformed Church, the established church of the Netherlands, in the colony. This petition, known as The Flushing Remonstrance was signed on 27 December, 1657. Stuyvesant rejected the petition and arrested a number of signers, including Townsend who was arrested, imprisoned and fined "one hundred pounds Flanders" for harboring Quakers in his house. The Flushing Remonstrance is considered a precursor to the United States Constitution's provision on freedom of religion in the Bill of Rights. Stuyvesant eventually dissolved the town government of Flushing and replaced it with his appointees.

In the following year, 1658, Townsend moved with his brothers to Oyster Bay, which was out of the jurisdiction of the Dutch hierarchy at New Amsterdam, where he spent the remainder of his life, and died at Oyster Bay, in 1695. Henry Townsend's grandson was Peter Townsend, owner of the Stirling Iron Works, the manufacturer of The Great Chain which was strung across the Hudson River during the American Revolutionary War to prevent the British Navy from sailing up the Hudson and potentially dominating the countryside, including the town of Albany, NY.

=References=cite book
last = Hughes
first = Thomas Patrick
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = American Ancestry
publisher = J. Munsell's Sons
date = 1887
location = New York
pages = 83-84
url = http://books.google.com/books?id=Wb4UAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA82&dq=henry+townsend&as_brr=1
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id =
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cite book
last = Cocks
first = George William
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = History and Genealogy of the Cock - Cocks - Cox Family
publisher = Privately Printed
date = 1914
location = New York
pages = 367
url = http://books.google.com/books?id=2xpGAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA367&dq=%22henry+townsend%22+-frederick&as_brr=1#PPA367,M1
doi =
id =
isbn =