Dr Robert Townson MD FRSE LLD was an English natural historian and traveller, known also a mineralogist and medical man. In 1806 he emigrated to New South Wales.
Early life
He was born at Richmond, Surrey, the youngest child of John Townson and Sarah Aldcroft née Shewell. His father was a London merchant, his mother was from the Shewell business family, and she was married at the time of his birth to Charles Aldcroft, a haberdasher. His parents married in 1766, and John Townson died in 1774. From 1777 the Townson family were in Shropshire. Townson, however, was an apprentice in Manchester from about the time the family moved. He didn't wish to enter commerce, and led an itinerant life that started around 1783.
Townson aimed to use his knowledge of mineralogy in India, but failed to find work there. At the home of Sir Joseph Banks he met William Paterson, of the New South Wales Corps. His brother John of the Royal Marines was in Australia, returning to England in 1800 for a visit. Townson went there, setting off from England at the end of 1806. He became one of the opponents of William Bligh in the Rum Rebellion, and received a land grant. Subsequently, Townson showed dissatisfaction with his Australian venture. Firstly all the land grants made after the Rum Rebellion were cancelled. Lachlan Macquarie who replaced Bligh visited Townson at home at Kogarah Bay, and replacement grants of land were made, with Townson and his brother having a land grant at Varroville, New South Wales; but Townson did nothing to accept the land until Macquarie left office. He thought the land unsuitable, made plans to return to the United Kingdom that fell through, and became reclusive. Townson succeeded in his farming and wine growing. In 1822 he was elected to the Agricultural Society of New South Wales He died on 27 June 1827, and was buried in Parramatta.
Works
Townson published:
Observationes physiologicæ de Amphibiis, Göttingen, 1794
Travels in Hungary London, 1797. The book contains an account of Townson's exploration of the Tatra Mountains, in which he was accompanied by Thomas Mauksch. It was published with a map supplement, by Johann Matthias Korabinsky.
The Philosophy of Mineralogy, London, 1798
Tracts and Observations in Natural History and Physiology, London, 1799. This work includes the discovery, claimed as original to Townsend, of how tortoises breathe, in the absence of a thoracic diaphragm.
He contributed a paper "Perceptivity of Plants" to the Transactions of the Linnean Society.
