This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/YOC.2ACE/831.1.1 Message Board Post: I have been working on my Grandmother Townsends family, the Mahar's and have been away from the Townsends. Only three possiblilities exist for Thomas Townsend. 1) He was a loyalist 2) Was a British soldier 3) Was an early resident of Canada. The preponderance of the circumstantial evidence indicates he was a loyalist although nothing is definative. A Thomas Townsend was in the same militia unit of Richard Townsend jr. along with a Timothy Townsend and were from Kings County , NY (Brooklyn). Richard jr. was a Quaker (don't know about Timothy). This unit bivouaced in Connecticutt in the early part of the war and petitioned the royal gov. of Connecticut. (probably a loyalty oath). In Shelburne was Richard and Richard jr., Timothy, Jacob, Thomas, Benjamin etc. All received royal land grants on the Tuskett River (200 acres) and all were part of Col Buskirk's group in Shelburne. Thomas, somehow acquired quite a bit of land in the area. If you go to his estate each of his five living children obtained one lot of land in the Lockeport area (assumed Lockeport area). A lot of land, from what I have found out, could represent 200 acres. That would mean Thomas might have had 1000 acres. His estate was in the neighborhood ! of 180 pounds sterling which was substantial. His estate payed 25 pounds to Ian Campbell (attorney at law) originally from Burlington, New Jersey (near Cape May). That amount was paid for services rendered while alive. Ian Campbell initiated probate to get that money.That suggests court records untapped. From the records of the Quakers (Pennfield & Nova Scotia), Richard and Richard Townsend jr. were not father and son but cousinst that lived in the same house in Shelburne with their wives. The Quakers visited them, had lunch, and reported in their log on their visit. The Richard Townsend's are probably from the family of the Long Island Townsend brothers. Thomas, from my DNA, I can state was not. The Townsend brothers "Y" chromosone is 3 mutations off from ours. We are related to another Southern Townsend family whose patriarchs are Henry Pinckney Townsend (born about 1830 in Paris Landing Tennessee) and John Riley Townsend (born 1831 god knows where). Henry and John are believed to be brothers but the evidence is not conclusive. It seems, by process of elimination, we could be from the family of Faith Light and John Townsend (Virginia) or Thomas of Lynn. Both had descendants in the North and South Carolina area where Henry and John's family are believed to be from. The! other Townsend families in that area are eliminated by DNA (Repentance, Lettice Mckonkey and Thomas Townsend). Of course, the name Thomas is the commonest name in the Townsend family with the possible exception of John. Rose Townsend Rood (born April 1889 in Lockport; died 1982 in Maine) told me we are descendant from three Townsend brothers that acquired land on the Sable River with Royal land grants. Rose never said they were loyalists but that they acquired land. A Timothy and John Townsend did just that and we know where Thomas was but can find no land grant with the exception of the Tuskett River grant. We know that he acquired around 250 acres in his lifetime through land deals that are on record. Depending on what the legal size of a lot in Shelburne County of 1826, he could have had much more. In 1790, the legal size of a lot of land was 200 acres.