Details of Sculptor

Surname

Townesend

Alternative Surname

First Name

William, of Oxford

Initial of Surname

T

Year of Birth/Baptism

1676

Flourished

Year of Death

1739

Biographical Details

William Townesend was the most prolific member of a leading family of Oxford master masons. The son of John Townesend I, he was baptised in St Giles’s church on 17 December 1676. Working initially with his father, he carried out extensive masonry work at many Oxford colleges, as well as undertaking commissions for monumental and architectural sculpture throughout the county. By the time his father was elected mayor of Oxford in 1720, Townesend had taken his position as that city’s mason of choice and was described by the antiquarian Thomas Hearne as having had ‘a hand in all the Buildings in Oxford’; he was actively promoted by the university’s leading architectural patrons, including Dr George Clarke. He continued the Oxford Townesend dynasty of masons, having by his wife, Mary, a son, John, and a daughter, Mary. He died in 1739 and was buried in the churchyard of St Giles, Oxford, on 22 September. In September 1739 the London Magazine noted the death ‘At Oxford, Mr. Townsend, the great mason and builder’.
As a mason-contractor, Townesend erected many of the new buildings going up in Oxford and the surrounding county between 1700 and 1739, as the accounts of the Queen’s College, Balliol, Christ Church, Trinity and Exeter Colleges reveal. In 1707 he was paid £15 4s 6d ‘for worke at Carfax’ (OU, Vive-Chancellor’s Accts, WP -/21/6). In many cases, he built to the designs of others, such as Hawksmoor at the Clarendon Building and All Souls, Gibbs at the Radcliffe Library, and Vanbrugh at the grand bridge, Blenheim Palace. He was also however capable of architectural design, as at Oriel and Magdalen Colleges, and possibly Radley Hall, where he and Peisley were mason-contractors, at Britwell Salome and at Shotover.
His contribution to sculpture is harder to assess since he combined the roles of mason, sculptor, and contractor on many projects. Even Hiscock, Townesend’s principal champion, was unable to unravel these varied strands. It is known that he provided carving at the Queen’s College where payments appear from 1694 onwards to ‘Lapidicidae Townsend’, when was paid £11 5s 5d ‘ut p billa’. He was paid £2,239 9s between 23 February 1714 and 1720 for work on the chapel and hall and a further £35 10s for carved decoration in the chapel in 1718. In 1733 he submitted an estimate of £1,000 for the ‘Gate cupola & Cloysters in ye front of Queen’s College, according to design given’ with an addition signed by him of ‘sixteen vases over the cloisters as one such in a printed design of the College’ priced £30. On 28 August 1733, his son William addressed a proposal to the Provost, Dr Joseph Smith, to alter Hawksmoor’s design ‘for the new Cloyster’. Further payments for work at the College are listed until the year of his death. It emerges that Townesend was paying his carvers and statuaries direct and being reimbursed by the provost and College. From the presentation of his bills it misleadingly appears that he was doing the carving himself. But, for instance, on 22 December 1711 he ‘paid Mr Garratt for work in Carving the pediment’ and likewise ‘Mr Smith’ [William Smith of Oxford?], who was also paid for three statues, while a payment to Henry Cheere for pediment carving was endorsed by him (10-12, 19, 20).
He was also employed at All Souls (17), Corpus Christi (9) and Pembroke (18), as well assisting with the column of victory (designed by Flitcroft) and the chapel at nearby Blenheim Palace (15, 16). His work on screens, altarpieces, and embellishments contributes substantially to the enrichment of the grand interiors of the chapels of Queen’s and Pembroke, and the hall of Corpus Christi.
Hearne cordially disliked Townesend, writing in 1721 that he was a ‘proud, conceited Fellow, and a great many justly wonder that he should have been so much made use of by the University’. He reported that ’tis well known that he hath spoil’d most, if not all, the Buildings he hath been employ’d in’ (Hearne 1906, 247). On the other hand, that notoriously stern critic, Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, described him and his sometime partner Peisley as ‘able & honest’, though she was subsequently disappointed in the quality of the stonework at Blenheim (Churchill 1884-5, 5 & 12-13).
In recent years his achievement has been well endorsed. Pevsner noted the animation and excellent carving of the monument to David Gregory (4) and considered the memorial to James Narborough ‘specially good’ (3), whilst also praising the chapel screens at Queen’s and Pembroke. Townesend’s lively sculptural style and his great experience in stone working, architectural design, and large-scale construction contributed to his constant employment on all the major architectural projects of early 18th-century Oxford.
See also Townesend family, of Oxford and London.
Lucy Jessop and Kate Eustace
Literary References: Churchill 1884-5, 7, 12-13; Hearne 1906, 171, 247; Hearne 1914; Hiscock 1945, 99-107; Hope 1950, 237; Gunnis 1968, 399; Jackson-Stops 1972, 810-814; Pevsner, Oxon, 1974, 286, 122, 188 & 183; Batey 1977, 1978-1979; Colvin 1995, 984-987; Grove vol 31, 234-5 (Sturdy); Colvin 2000, 43-60.
Archival References: Parish Registers, St Giles’, Oxford; QC, LRS; QC Wm Townesend Accts; QC 2W 222; 2W 128; 2W 64; 2W 125
Will: PCC 219 HENCHMAN