page_title: James Townsend (British politician)
section_title: Life and political career
hierarchical_section_title: James Townsend (British politician) / Life and political career
caption_attribution_description: English: Satirical print on the quarrels internal to the group of supporters of en:John Wilkes in the City of London.
context_page_description: James Townsend was an English Whig politician and Lord Mayor of London in 1772–73. It has been claimed that he was the first person of mixed race to hold such positions.
context_section_description: James Townsend was baptised on 8 February 1737 at the church of St. Christopher-le-Stocks in London. He was the son of London merchant (and later MP) Chauncy Townsend and his wife Bridget Phipps. He attended Hertford College, Oxford in 1756.
  In politics James Townsend was closely linked from the 1760s with the Whig grandee William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne. Supported by Shelburne, he entered Parliament as Member for West Looe at a by-election in 1767, holding the seat until 1774.
  In 1769, Townsend was elected alderman of the City of London for Bishopsgate ward and Sheriff of the City of London, becoming one of the leaders of the Whig party in London. In 1771 Townsend followed John Horne Tooke in breaking away from the Society of Gentlemen Supporters of the Bill of Rights, which had been created to support John Wilkes after his expulsion from the House of Commons, and of which Townsend was a co-founder. He turned from a friend of Wilkes's to one of his fiercest opponents.
  Townsend was elected Lord Mayor of London in 1772. Wilkes had come first in the polls but Sheriff Richard Oliver manipulated the voting process to prevent the election of Wilkes. This created political turmoil in the City and a mob incensed by Townsend's coup rioted outside Guildhall during the ball on Lord Mayor's Day. Townsend's arms were erased from the church of St Helen's Bishopsgate. John Wilkes was eventually elected Lord Mayor in 1774.
  In 1781, Townsend presented a petition for electoral reform from the Tiverton activist Martin Dunsford. Townsend ran unsuccessfully for Parliament for the City of London in the general election of 1780, and in April 1782, Shelburne arranged for Townsend's election to Parliament for the pocket borough of Calne. As a member he backed some calls for reform, but mainly supported William Pitt the Younger. Shortly before his death in office he had opposed the impeachment of Warren Hastings.
  Townsend died at his estate, Bruce Castle in Tottenham, on 1 July 1787. He was buried nearby at Old Church Tottenham in the mausoleum of his wife's family, the Coleraines. Her inheritance had made him a wealthy man.
caption: Satirical print from 1773 about the schism in the Wilkesite group. Townsend is upper right whipping the girl with sticks: a story to this effect had been publicised by Wilkes, though in reality it was two six-year-olds.[2] The bull stands for Frederick Bull.
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