Emily Sarah Townsend

My great grandmother lived in China, possibly between 1866 and 1869, as her husband Edward Townsend was involved in the tea trade between Hangchow and England. Some of her children were born in China at the British Consulate including Elizabeth Annie Townsend, who died as an infant; while Henry Townsend also died young (1867) then Ethel Mary (1868), Edward Wilfrid (1869) & Herbert Berners Townsend in January( 1871). As the Taiping Rebellion meant that her family were in increasing danger from rampaging bands of enraged Chinese, one can understand the parents' anxiety to move to a safer place or to return to England. Whether they travelled overland via Foochow or kept to the Yangste river & canals, reaching Shanghai & then sailing in a fast moving clipper through the South Pacific Ocean, passing Formosa on the way & then Singapore, I do not really know but by April 2 1872 when Emily Alice Townsend was born, the family were in Brighton, England with William & Elizabeth Friend. George Harold Townsend was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent in 1874. Emily Sarah Townsend died in1875, in Tunbridge Wells, Kent & she was buried in Southborough, as witnessed to by Brenda Souter's cousin Doris Brooke. Doris wrote to Brenda on November 18th 1968 & asked : I have a photo of your grandmother Emily Sarah Townsend's tomb at Southborough.(Kent) .I wonder if you have one? Fortunately, we do have a portrait of Emily Sarah Townsend thanks to the generosity of our cousin Brenda C Souter in 1962, who gave us two portraits & perhaps the second one shows Emily's husband Edward Townsend 1835-1915.