Townshend and Sydney

When John Selwyn died in 1751, his sons agreed to settle the Scadbury estate on Thomas Townshend (1701-1780). He pulled down the old manor house at Scadbury about 1730, possibly because it had become unsafe, intending to build a fine new house on the site, but the early death of his wife at the age of twenty five caused him to give up the project.

He purchased Frognal House in 1752 where the family was to remain until the First World War.

The Townshends were a Whig family and strong supporters of the House of Hanover, receiving favours from the monarchy as a result.

His son Thomas (1733-1800), pictured at right, succeeded to Scadbury in 1780. He was advanced to the peerage by George III in 1783 as Baron Sydney of Chislehurst, and then as Viscount Sydney in 1789. He served in various administrations and held the post of Home Secretary, which at that time also had responsibility for the Colonies.

In 1787 the First Fleet of 11 ships and about 1350 people under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip set sail for Botany Bay in Australia. On arrival, Botany Bay was considered unsuitable and on 26 January 1788 - a date now celebrated as Australia Day - landing was made at nearby Sydney Cove. Phillip named the settlement after Baron Sydney, the Home Secretary. The new colony was formally proclaimed as the Colony of New South Wales on 7 February 1788. The Canadian city of Sydney on Cape Breton Island is also named after him.

The second Viscount Sydney (John Townshend, 1764-1831) succeeded in 1800 and his son John Robert Townshend (1805–90) followed him in 1831 as the 3rd Viscount Sydney.

John held many posts including M.P. for Whitchurch from 1826–31; Captain, West Kent Militia, 1827; West Kent Yeomanry, 1830; Colonel of the Kent Militia Artillery and Lord Lieutenant of Kent, 1856–90. He was present at the funeral of the exiled French Emperor Napoleon III in 1873 at St.Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Chislehurst. Queen Victoria conferred an earldom on him in 1874, and paid him at least one visit when she is said to have been shown fig trees planted by Queen Elizabeth I on one of her visits to the Walsinghams.

The titles died with him in 1890 and, having no children, he was succeeded as Lord of the Manor by his nephew the Hon. Robert Marsham, on condition he added the name of Townshend.