According to the Towne Family Memorial compiled from the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Towne Manuscripts, Public and Family Records (Author Edwin Hubbard, Pub. Fergus, Chicago 1880):
http://www.archive.org/stream/townefamilymemor00hubb/#page/n38/mode...

We now come to William Towne, the Anglo-American progenitor of descendants who have settled in a majority of the States of the American Union. Of his birthplace or parentage we know nothing positively, though he may have come from the County of Lincoln in England, and may have been the son of Richard and Ann Towne of Braceby.

The earliest postive information we have related to him is at Yarmouth, Norfolk County, a city of considerable maritime importance located on the East coast of England, 108 miles in a direct line northeast of London.