• General Notes

  Mary Townley (1614-1662), the sixth daughter of Laurence Townley of Stonehedge and Jennet Halstead is shown in the evidence of 1664 to have married Augustine Warner of Norwich, gent. Augustine Warner (1611-1674) emigrated to Virginia in 1628 and it seems that Mary Townley joined him in 1638. Her uncle Henry Townley (1571-1626) had an ecclesiastical position in Norfolk and a number of his relations settled in Norwich which may explain the link between the two families.
  There appears to have been a regular emigration of people from East Lancashire in the following years. It is important to realise that land was granted to those who could import others to Virginia in the 17th century and so they encouraged their friends and relations. Laurence Smith, born in Burnley in March 1629, who was a nephew of Mary Townley went to Virginia in 1652. In 1656 and 1657 he was granted land for bringing in others. Sometime before October 1672 the fourth Laurence Townley of Stone Edge went to Virginia to marry Sarah Warner, daughter of Augustine and Mary Warner. His brother John may have gone at the same time because he was granted land in Virginia in 1676. Many of the Towneleys of Virginia who are alive today are descended from this John Townley.
  Further information on the Townleys of Virginia can be found in two articles by Mary Burton Derrickson McCurdy in the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography Vol. 77 no. 4 for October 1969 ("A discovery concerning the Townley and Warner families of Virginia") and Vol. 81 no. 3 for July 1973 ("The Townleys and Warners of Virginia and their English connections").
  The old home of the Warner family, Warner Hall with the Warner graveyard where Mary Towneley Warner is buried, is now owned by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities.
  
  page 22 Tracing the Towneleys Version 3.1 www.burnley.gov.uk/towneley 

Details of Mary's family with Augustine Warner