The work Directory of the Ancestral Heads of New England Families from 1923 states the following: 1) That John Townsend was the son of Thomas Townsend (1594-1677) and Mary Newgate (1595-1692); 2) He was born at Raynham Hall, Norfolk, England in 1608; and 3) His family emigrated to the colonies in 1637 when his father Thomas was granted 60 acres of land with Lord Brook and others in the Town of Lynn.