Sir Roger Townshend of Raynham, Knight, was descended, according to
Collins and other learned antiquaries, through a long line of ancestry
from Lodovic or Lewis, a Norman nobleman, who married Elizabeth,
daughter and heir of Sir Thomas de Hauteville or Havile, Lord of
Raynham, through which match the Raynham estate came into the family and
is now the chief seat of the Marquis Townshend.
This Sir Roger was born about 1550, and was heir to his great
grandfather, Sir Roger Townshend, Kt., whose will was proved at Norwich,
Co. Norfolk, May 10, 1552. He was a gentleman of high rank and great
worth in his native county Norfolk, and while Spain was preparing the
Invincible Armada of 1588 to invade England, he manifested the greatest
spirit and energy in fitting out and manning ships at his own expense to
repel the invaders, going in person in the cause of his country, and on
account of his undaunted spirit and bravery in the several engagements
previous to the 26th of July, he was knighted that day on board the _Ark
Royal_, by the Admiral Lord Howard of Effingham, who had power from
Queen Elizabeth so to do. This Sir Roger was in the thickest of the
fight and suffered the loss of many of his men, and we have evidence
from a letter dated at Margate, Kent, August 10, 1588, in which Lord
Howard writes Burghley “that of all the men brought by Sir Roger
Townshend he has but one left alive.”
He lived but two years afterwards, dying in the flower of his age at a
seat he had purchased of Thomas Sutton, Esq., at Newington, Co.
Middlesex, and was buried June 30, 1590, in the church of St. Giles,
Cripplegate, London.