Audrey Harrison Townshend's father was a director of the prosperous East India Company, whose tea would be dumped in protest into Boston, Massachusetts, Harbor in 1773 in a pre-Revolutionary War incident called the Boston Tea Party.
Despite his family's wealth and connections, Charles had an unhappy childhood, according to his biographers, Lewis Namier and John Brooke. His father, though intelligent, had a forceful and suspicious personality. His mother was intelligent but very free with her affections. The couple separated when Charles was fifteen; for the rest of his life Townshend senior remained bitter towards his wife. Charles went to live with his father, claiming an affection for him that he really did not feel. He also claimed to despise his mother and was not close to his siblings. His biographers described young Townshend as suffering from "poverty of heart."
Boyhood
Most of what is known about young Townshend's personal life comes from the letters he wrote to his father and the letters he received in return. Townshend was a sickly boy, and after reaching puberty he began to suffer from seizures that would plague him for the rest of his rather short life.
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