TOWERSON, William II (1569-1637), of Portsmouth, Hants.

Like his London cousin William Towerson I*, this Member prospered as a merchant. He settled in Portsmouth, where he took out his freedom on receiving his first wife’s portion in 1605. PROB 11/159, f. 14. From around 1623 he looked after the local interests of the East India Company, and was twice rewarded for his services with pieces of plate. CSP Col. E.I. 1622-3, p. 151; 1625-9, pp. 59, 266. By 1626 he was joint owner of two ships, and was rated at £10 for the Forced Loan. SP16/32/72; Add. 21922, f. 17. As deputy to the vice admiral, the 1st Viscount Conway (Sir Edward Conway I*), he was authorized in November 1626 to disburse £1,200 on the town’s fortifications, and in May 1627 he was granted letters of marque. APC 1626, p. 359; 1627, p. 48; CSP Dom. 1628-9, p. 296. The duke of Buckingham stayed at his house a month later, before embarking on the expedition to the Ile de Ré. CSP Dom. 1627-8, p. 205. Returned for Portsmouth to the third Caroline Parliament, Towerson’s first appointment, on 17 May 1628, was to consider the patent of the Muscovy Company, of which his cousin was a member. CD 1628, iii. 449. Four days later Towerson was granted leave of absence, and may not have returned before the session was prorogued. Ibid. 511. In June he undertook to provide corn for La Rochelle. CSP Dom. 1628-9, p. 166. In the second session, he was appointed, on 11 Feb. 1629, to the committee for a bill to encourage trade. CJ, i. 929a.

Towerson lived to see the two branches of his family reunited by the marriage of his daughter to William Towerson I’s younger son. PROB 11/159, f. 14. Towerson’s own son William was illegitimate, and his son Erasmus probably so. The latter took service with Sir Patricius Curwen*, and carried the standard at his funeral. Curwen, 125, 150. Towerson was ‘very weak and sick’ when he drew up his will on 21 May 1635, but lived on until November 1637. CSP Dom. 1637, p. 511. Although he left a house in Portsmouth and the lease of Porchester parsonage to his two sons-in-law, his will does not suggest wealth; his wife received only a silver tankard ‘as a remembrance of my true love and affection to her’. PROB 11/175, f. 185v. He was the last of the family to sit in Parliament.