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I would never have been able to locate this grave without a copy of the will of William Hicks Townsend, a grandson of Stephen Townsend. As William Hicks had no children he identified his brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews, except of one. This will, together with details in the Townsend family Bible, established the extended Townsend family.
    Addition research at Somerset Records at Taunton suggests that the Townsend’s were living at West Horrington prior to Chilcote and Croscombe. All places are within 3 miles of Wells. The earliest link is to one James Townsend who may have been Stephen’s Grandfather. Rate books show an entry for James in 1692 when he paid 2d and in 1691 when he paid 1d in the tithing of Coxley, west of Wells. There were no records within Wells St Cuthbert’s (in or out parish) before then.
    Stephen Townsend had four children. His son James had four children, James, William Hicks, Sarah and Elizabeth.

The 1830 Pigot's Directory listed William Townsend as a Surveyor of 1 Corn Street, Bristol. William Hicks was also recorded in the Somerset Electoral Register - Eastern Division 1832 (Hundred of Whitestone, Croscombe Parish) as living at 3 Montague Parade Kingsdown Bristol and having two freehold house & gardens at Croscombe.
    Between circa 1827 and 1867 W. H. Townsend was surveyor to the Society of Merchant Venturers. It was probably this role that saw W H Townsend being appointed in March 1832 as Isambard Kingdom Brunel's first assistant engineer with Great Western Railway as the Society had interests in the railway. W. H. Townsend had been a potential rival of Brunel as Engineer to the GWR, but had agreed instead to act as Brunel's assistant surveyor. From the first, Brunel was impatient with Townsend's lax time-keeping habits, and he soon faded from the scene.
    Between 1832-1835 W.H. Townsend designed infrastructure for the Bristol and Gloucestershire Railway.  The Staple Hill Tunnel through Staple Hill originally 3.7 metres wide (12 feet). The airshafts which are square in section are located on the south side of the tunnel. The length of the tunnel is 471 metres (515 yards). The railway bridge at Bridge Road was constructed between 1832 and 1835. It is constructed of pennant sandstone with curved and battered walls and a culvert passes the wing walls on the north side.
    In the 1851 Census William Hicks Townsend was listed at 13 St James Place, St James and St Pauls together with his wife Mary.
     Information sourced from C19th Bristol Street Directories with surveyors named Townsend indicated that between 1820 and 1861 William Hicks Townsend was variously listed as a Land & Timber Surveyor, General Agent and Engineering Surveyor. Business addresses were 22 Bridge Street, 1 Corn Street and 1 Shannon Court and residential addresses as 3 Montague Place, 13 St James Parade, Kingsdown, and Strontium House, Cotham Side near St Mathew’s Church.
    When William Hicks Townsend died in 1867 he made numerous bequests including a number that highlighted his connection with Croscombe. A number of newspaper articles provided some period comment on William Hicks Townsend.
     Bristol Times & Mirror 1867 - 6 April: "One of the oldest and leading land surveyors of Bristol, Mr William Hicks Townsend, has just died at a very advanced age. Mr Townsend who was a man of large property, was land surveyor for their country estates to the Society of Merchant Venturers, and also acted for some other public bodies."
    Morris's Director of Somerset & Bristol 1872 - Wm Hicks Townsend, Esq, of Bristol left £1,000 for investment, the proceeds to be expended in coal and clothing for the poor, to be distributed in winter; £1,500 for education purposes of which £500 was to be used for the enlargement of the schools, and £1,000 invested for endowment?
    Keith Armstrong book "The story of Croscombe - A Somerset Village" - A surprise came when the death of William Hicks Townsend was announced on 4 April 1867. He was a native of Croscombe and had become a Land Surveyor at Bristol. In his will, he left a legacy of £1,000 to be invested, to provide a reasonable income for the School. His generosity did not stop at that. He also bequeathed £500 towards enlarging "the present building to a proper commodious school - to the requirements of the parish." He did insist, however, that the money was used within five years, the £500 would revert to part of his residual private estate.
    Minutes of Merchants Venturers 1867 July 19 - Mr W H Townsend who for more than 40 years was the Surveyor to this Society and especially so for the Charity Proprietors in Sommersetshire, died 4 April last.

James Townsend, grandson of Stephen Townsend, was born on 10 December 1792 at Croscombe. He was a road surveyor who moved about England as evidence by the birth places of his eight children.
   On 30 June 1825 James Townsend married Elizabeth Rose at Thirsk, North Yorkshire. The first two children William Rose and Anne Elizabeth were born on Horsley Wood, West Derby (1826 & 1827), the next three George, Jane & James were born in Sedbergh, Westmoreland (1831,1835 & 1837), the next two Margaret Sarah and John Robert were born in Bromyard, Herefordshire (1840 & 1842), whilst the last Alfred Horsley was born in Bristol (1848).

For some reason yet to be found at least three of James and Elizabeth Townsend’s children decided to come to Australia. Not together but independently. These children were William Rose, Anne Elizabeth and John Robert. Until viewing shipping records it was assumed all came to Melbourne. This was not the case.

Edward Herbert Smith with his wife Elizabeth (nee Powell) came to Melbourne aboard the "Try", a 774 ton ship carrying 254 passengers that had departed Bristol on 11 October 1852 and arrived Port Phillip 12 January 1853. Also aboard were their children; Elizabeth, Mary, Henry, Rebecca, Amelia, William, Caroline, Susan and Anna Graves.
    In addition was their married son Edward Herbert Smith who had married Anne Elizabeth Rose Townsend married prior to coming to Australia.
    Thirteen years after arriving in Melbourne Anna Greeves, the youngest daughter of Edward Herbert and Elizabeth, married John Robert Townsend, the youngest brother of Anne Elizabeth Rose Smith (Townsend).

On 20 September 1889 John James Townsend, the only son of John Robert and Anna Greaves Townsend to reach adulthood, of Fitzroy was indentured for five years to Albert Purchas of the City of Melbourne in the Colony of Victoria Civil Engineer Architect and Surveyor to teach John James Townsend in the knowledge and practice of a Civil Engineer Architect and Surveyor.
    John James Townsend married Lillian Alice King on 9 December 1907 at St Paul's, Fairfield Park Victoria. John James and Lillian Alice Townsend had seven children:
* Gwendaline Llewellyn (1910),
* John Robert Allen (1908),
* David Noel (1911),
* William Hicks (1914),
* Eileen Lois (1916),
* James Henry (1923) and
* George Lionel (1925).
    On 23 February 1916 at the relatively old age of 42 years and 11 months John James Townsend enlisted in the 59th Battalion 1st reinforcements. Whilst on furlough (February 1918 or January 1919) John James visited the following English cousins:
* Mrs Stroud (Nee Ethel Bennett)
* Arthur James Bennett
* Sydney Alfred Bennett Albright
* Harry Hicks Townsend Bennett
* Florie Townsend (daughter of Alfred Townsend)
* C G T Bennett
* Ethel M Merrell
Following his return from the First World War John James could only find employment as a house painter.
    John Robert Allen Townsend, my grandfather, married Dorothy Annie Howe in 1929.

Thomas James King (1835 Tyrone, Ireland) married Bridget Teresa Fitzgibbon (1833 Newcastle, Limerick) 28 June 1868 at Maldon, Victoria. On 21 February 1874 a run-away horse team killed Thomas James King. Thomas and Bridget had four children: Thomas James (1860 Maldon – 1922), Robert Henry (1862 Maldon – 1918 Brunswick), Mary Jane (1866 Maldon) and William Fitzgibbon.
    Robert Henry King married Emma Jane Woodward on 30 April 1883 at St Silas, South Melbourne. They had 10 children of whom Lilian Alice King (1886-1981) married John James Townsend in 1907.
    Emma Jane Woodward’s lineage can be traced to a George Woodward (grandfather) who married Ann Martin on 12 January 1828 in Parish of Hobart Town in the County of Buckingham, Jane Loveday Dickenson (mother 1836, Hobart – 1925, East Brunswick).
Possible arrivals:
* George Woodward free arrivals G Woodward arriving onboard “ Elizabeth” 21 April 1825.
* Mrs Martin and Miss Martin free arrival onboard “Brixton” 21 January 1823
* Mr Dickenson free arrivals onboard"Orelie" 8 May 1829.