Family and Education

bap. 18 Apr. 1569,1 s. of William Towerson (d.1579)2 of St. Bees, Cumb. and Anne, da. of Christopher Moore.3 m. (1) by 1605 (with £200)4 Margaret (d. 5 May 1625),5 da. of Sir Henry Curwen† of Workington, Cumb., 2da.;6 (2) Mary, wid. of one Harris, s.p.;7 2s. illegit.8 d. Nov. 1637.9

Offices Held

Freeman, Portsmouth 1605, mayor 1607-8, 1617-18, 1625-6, 1629-30, alderman c.1607-d.;10 commr. assurances, London 1608, 1619-20,11 prizes Portsmouth, 1608, Portsmouth, Southampton, Hants and I.o.W. 1627;12 dep. v.-adm. (jt.) Hants 1626-d.;13 commr. sewers, I.o.W. 1631.14

Commr. policy of merchants 1607.15

Biography

Like his London cousin William Towerson I*, this Member prospered as a merchant. He settled in Portsmouth, where he took out his freedom on receiving his first wife’s portion in 1605.16 From around 1623 he looked after the local interests of the East India Company, and was twice rewarded for his services with pieces of plate.17 By 1626 he was joint owner of two ships, and was rated at £10 for the Forced Loan.18 As deputy to the vice admiral, the 1st Viscount Conway (Sir Edward Conway I*), he was authorized in November 1626 to disburse £1,200 on the town’s fortifications, and in May 1627 he was granted letters of marque.19 The duke of Buckingham stayed at his house a month later, before embarking on the expedition to the Ile de Ré.20 Returned for Portsmouth to the third Caroline Parliament, Towerson’s first appointment, on 17 May 1628, was to consider the patent of the Muscovy Company, of which his cousin was a member.21 Four days later Towerson was granted leave of absence, and may not have returned before the session was prorogued.22 In June he undertook to provide corn for La Rochelle.23 In the second session, he was appointed, on 11 Feb. 1629, to the committee for a bill to encourage trade.24

Towerson lived to see the two branches of his family reunited by the marriage of his daughter to William Towerson I’s younger son.25 Towerson’s own son William was illegitimate, and his son Erasmus probably so. The latter took service with Sir Patricius Curwen*, and carried the standard at his funeral.26 Towerson was ‘very weak and sick’ when he drew up his will on 21 May 1635, but lived on until November 1637.27 Although he left a house in Portsmouth and the lease of Porchester parsonage to his two sons-in-law, his will does not suggest wealth; his wife received only a silver tankard ‘as a remembrance of my true love and affection to her’.28 He was the last of the family to sit in Parliament.

Ref Volumes: 1604-1629

Authors: Virginia C.D. Moseley / Rosemary Sgroi

Notes

• 1. St. Bees Par. Reg. ed. H.B. Stout, i. 17.
• 2. Ibid. ii. 25.
• 3. Ibid. iii. 6.
• 4. J.F. Curwen, Fam. of Curwen, 133.
• 5. Add. 33283, f. 458.
• 6. Curwen, 125.
• 7. Portsmouth Recs. ed. R. East, 54.
• 8. PROB 11/175, f. 185v.
• 9. CSP Dom. 1637, p. 511.
• 10. Portsmouth Recs., 313-14, 328, 347, 595.
• 11. C181/2, ff. 70, 336, 357.
• 12. HCA 14/39, no. 142; APC 1627, pp. 76, 87.
• 13. CSP Dom. 1625-6, p. 486; 1637, p. 511; HCA 30/865.
• 14. C181/4, f. 89.
• 15. C181/2, f. 51v.
• 16. PROB 11/159, f. 14.
• 17. CSP Col. E.I. 1622-3, p. 151; 1625-9, pp. 59, 266.
• 18. SP16/32/72; Add. 21922, f. 17.
• 19. APC 1626, p. 359; 1627, p. 48; CSP Dom. 1628-9, p. 296.
• 20. CSP Dom. 1627-8, p. 205.
• 21. CD 1628, iii. 449.
• 22. Ibid. 511.
• 23. CSP Dom. 1628-9, p. 166.
• 24. CJ, i. 929a.
• 25. PROB 11/159, f. 14.
• 26. Curwen, 125, 150.
• 27. CSP Dom. 1637, p. 511.
• 28. PROB 11/175, f. 185v.