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John Richard [Townsend], born June 22d, 1802, in N.Y. City, died February 13th, 1846. A man of very superior attainments and of such distinct integrity that the name John R. Townsend was its own commendation. He was a graduate of Columbia College and of Columbia Law School, and became a distinguished lawyer at the N. Y. Bar. At his death, his funeral look place at his late residence, 7 Washington Place, N. Y. City. The remains were then taken to St. Thomas Church, and from there to Jamaica, L.I., for interment. Later being removed to Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn, where his widow had erected an imposing monument to him in the family plot. The N.Y. Bar and the numerous societies of which he was an officer, among them "The Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents," The New York Society Library, as well as the N.Y. Life Ins. & Trust Co., of which he was the first President, drew up resolutions of regret which were sent to his family, and moved to wear a badge of mourning for thirty days. Among Mr. Townsend's close associates were Stephen Allen, Gulian C. Verplanck, Gardner G. Howland, Albert R. Gallatin, Joseph Kernochan, Robert Ray, William B Astor, Vice Chancellor McCoun, Henry Nicoll, Charles O'Conor, William Mitchell, Francis B. Cutting, Cornelius R. Disosway, Mr. DePeyster, Mr. Verplanck and Mr. Gourlie.
He married Caroline, daughter of John Drake, a wealthy merchant of N. Y. City, November 12th, 1828. At the time, her admirers spoke of her as "the prettiest girl in New York." Her direct ancestor, Samuel Drake, of Boston, removed from there in 1650 and became one of the ten original proprietors of Eastchester, N. Y. Benjamin, of Eastchester, 3d in descent from Samuel, died during the War of the Revolution at Washington's Camp, White Plains, N. Y., and John Drake, of Eastchester, 4th of Samuel, married, in 1794. Magdalen Guion, of New Rochelle, N.Y.
— Issue of John Richard Townsend and Caroline Drake — Thomas Seaman, Madeline, John Drake, Joseph Lawrence and Margaret. ...