John Townsend was born about 1742 in Massachusetts. Many historical texts call him “Doctor” and he is listed among physicians in both Sandown and Rindge, New Hampshire. He married Elizabeth Cotton, daughter of the Reverend Josiah Cotton, probably in Sandown, New Hampshire. John and Elizabeth Townsend moved from Sandown to Rindge, New Hampshire, where they lived throughout the Revolutionary War.
On June 1, 1776, John Townsend signed the New Hampshire Association Test, essentially an oath of allegiance. It read “The subscribers, do hereby solemnly engage, and promise that we will, to the utmost of our power, at the risque of our Lives and Fortunes, with arms, oppose the hostile proceedings of the British Fleets and Armies, against the United American Colonies.” On July 18, 1776, Private John Townsend was on the muster and payroll of Captain Joseph Parker’s Company, part of Colonel Enoch Hale’s Regiment. The company joined the Northern Army at Fort Ticonderoga. To reach it they marched north through New Hampshire, from Rindge, to Jaffrey, to Charleston, where various New Hampshire companies gathered before traveling to Fort Ticonderoga in New York.
An Examination of the Compiled service record demonstrates Private John Townsend served in Wyman’s New Hampshire Regiment. John TOWNSEND appears on a Receipt Roll: “Then we the subscribers Each of us Severally Received of Enoch Hale Esquire, muster master for Captain Joseph Parker’s Company, Seven Pounds lawful money Bounty for Enlisting into said company Eighteen Shillings to Provide our Selves with all a Good musket, Blanket & C. and forty Shillings like money as a months Advance Pay Being Nine Pounds Eighteen Shillings to Each man Received also for Each of us Raition money to Charleston . The regimental roll dated July 18, 1776, prepared at Jaffrey, N.H. for Wyman’s Regiment lists John Townsend as a private on the Muster and Pay Roll of Captain Joseph Parker’s Company, in Colonel Enoch Hale’s Regiment. It further notes he joined the Northern Army at Ticonderoga, was mustered and paid July 18, 1776, by Enoch Hale, Muster and Pay Master at Hillsborough, New Hampshire. The pay roll notes two months advance pay to officers, one month’s advance to soldiers, along with a bounty of 9-18 pounds, travel pay of 1d per mile: 4 pounds, for a total amount of 10-2 pounds.
Records do not reveal when or where John Townsend died. He apparently left Rindge, New Hampshire before 1800 without his wife and family. His wife, Elizabeth Cotton Townsend died in Rindge on January 29, 1826, “the widow of a Revolutionary War Soldier who drew a widow’s pension in her old age.”