John Towneley

John Towneley (1697–1782) was an English gentleman from a Roman Catholic family, who served in the French Army and supported the Jacobite Rising of 1745. Living in Paris for around 30 years, he also translated Hudibras into French. Early life John Towneley was born in 1697 at Towneley Hall, Burnley, Lancashire, second surviving son of Charles Towneley and Ursula, daughter of Richard Fermor of Tusmore, Oxfordshire. The Towneleys were prominent members of the Roman Catholic minority in Lancashire and their private chapel served as the focus of Catholic worship in the area until the building of a public church in 1846. Towneley Hall was occupied by Parliamentary forces during the First English Civil War; Charles Towneley (1604-1644) raised a Royalist infantry regiment and was killed at Marston Moor in 1644. His grandfather Richard Towneley (1629-1707), was a scientist and astronomer, part of a close-knit group of Catholic scientific collaborators. Periods of anti-Catholic agitation before and after the 1688 Glorious Revolution, saw him fined and imprisoned, culminating in accusations of involvement in the 1694 Lancashire Plot, an alleged attempt to restore the exiled James II. Towneley's grandfather died in 1707, as did his father four years later.