Person:Francis Townsend (3)

Francis TOWNSEND was the eldest of Joseph and Lydia TOWNSEND's five children but was still only nine years old when his father died. He apparently lived in Chester County his entire life.

    He married Rachel Talbot of Middletown Township about 1762. Rachel's family was among the early residents of Chester County. Her grandfather John Talbot arrived sometime before 1711 from England. Her parents, Joseph an Hannah Baker TOWNSEND, raised ten children there, of which she was the seventh.
    Francis and Rachel returned to the family tradition of large families, producing eleven children over a period of twenty years. One of them Joseph, was on the way before the wedding vows were spoken. Childbearing may ultimately have been responsible for her death; she passed on, twelve days after the birth of her last child, five days before her 42nd birthday. Francis was left with six children under twelve years of age, much as his mother had been left with all of her five under nine years. But he was more fortunate than she -- his five other children were between 14 and 21, old enough to help with family responsibilities. Fragmentary evidence suggests that he may have later taken another wife, Mariah Cadwallader.
    As he was approaching middle age, Francis TOWNSEND witnessed increasing Colonial opposition to what was believed to be oppressive dictates by Great Britain, leading to the landmark Declaration of Independence. He would see the new country, the United States of America, come into being before his death. (Taken from a Family History, by Donovan Faust.)

1. ↑ A. Donovan Faust (Foust). A Family History: The Ancestors of Thomas Wilson Faust. (1997).