John Townsend may refer to:
- John Townsend (author) (born 1956), American psychologist and author
- John Townsend (basketball) (1916–2001), American basketball player
- John Townsend (British politician) (1819–1892), British politician and member of Parliament for Greenwich
- John Townsend (MP for Warwick), English politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1597 to 1614
- John Townsend (footballer) (born 1943), Australian rules footballer
- John Townsend (Irish politician) (1737–1810), Irish MP for Dingle, Doneraile and Castlemartyr
- John Townsend (Mayor) (1783–1854), 37th mayor of Albany, NY
- John Townsend (New York City) (1789–1863), New York politician
- John Townsend (Norwich) (1608–1668), early settler of the American colonies
- John Townsend (Wisconsin politician) (born 1938), Wisconsin politician
- John G. Townsend, Jr. (1871–1964), American businessman and politician, governor and senator from Delaware
- John Kirk Townsend (1809–1851), American naturalist
- John P. Townsend (1832–1898), American financier
- John Rowe Townsend (born 1922), British children's author
- John Sealy Townsend (1868–1957), Irish physicist
- John Selby Townsend (1824–1892), American Democrat legislator and jurist from Iowa
Famous quotes containing the words john and/or townsend:
“The question confronting the Church today is not any longer whether the man in the street can grasp a religious message, but how to employ the communications media so as to let him have the full impact of the Gospel message.”
—Pope John Paul II (b. 1920)
“When other helpers fail and comforts flee, when the senses decay and the mind moves in a narrower and narrower circle, when the grasshopper is a burden and the postman brings no letters, and even the Royal Family is no longer quite what it was, an obituary column stands fast.”
—Sylvia Townsend Warner (1893–1978)