Townshend Charles2nd Viscount

Townshend, CHARLES, 2ND VISCOUNT (1676-1738), statesman and agriculturist, entered public life as a Tory, but soon became connected with the Whigs: In 1709, when the colleague of Marlborough at The Hague, he disagreed with him on the Barrier Treaty, for which the Tories nevertheless censured him. George I., even before his arrival in England, appointed Townshend his first Prime Minister, but soon dismissed him when he refused to sacrifice English to Hanoverian interests. He was then for a time Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, but in 1719 rejoined the Ministry. He next became Secretary of State under his brother-in-law Sir R. Walpole, and in 1725 concluded the Treaty of Hanover. Of this Walpole disapproved, and the result was the retirement of Townshend from public life. On his estates in Norfolk he introduced the cultivation of the turnip.