Early and Personal Life
Townley was born in 1714 probably at Tower Hill, London, the second son of Charles Townley, of Clapham, Surrey and Sarah Wilde, daughter of William Wilde of Long-Whatton in Leicestershire. His mother died around the time of his birth. His older brother was the officer of arms Sir Charles Townley. Following his mother's death, his father remarried and had many more children. Townley was a descendant of a younger branch of the Town(e)ley family of Towneley Hall, Burnley, Lancashire, the head of which at this time was the antiquary Charles Towneley.
He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, London and at St. John's College, Oxford.
Around 1740, James married Jane, the daughter of Peter Bonnin of Lisbon, and they went on to have eight children: Charles, a notable engraver, James, George-Stephen, Jane, Sarah, Catherine, Mary and Elizabeth.
Read more about this topic: James Townley
Famous quotes containing the words early, personal and/or life:
“Quintilian [educational writer in Rome around A.D. 100] thought that the earliest years of the child’s life were crucial. Education should start earlier than age seven, within the family. It should not be so hard as to give the child an aversion to learning. Rather, these early lessons would take the form of play—that embryonic notion of kindergarten.”
—C. John Sommerville (20th century)
“It has no share in the leadership of thought: it does not even reflect its current. It does not create beauty: it apes fashion. It does not produce personal skill: our actors and actresses, with the exception of a few persons with natural gifts and graces, mostly miscultivated or half-cultivated, are simply the middle-class section of the residuum.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“You might come here Sunday on a whim.
Say your life broke down. The last good kiss
you had was years ago.”
—Richard Hugo (1923–1982)