Another older brother, Charles, inherited, but he was killed during the Civil War, leading a small regiment for the Royalists at the Battle of Marston Moor in 1644.

The Towneley Estate was confiscated by the Parliamentary sequestrators, but was recovered by Charles' son Richard by 1653, on payment of a large fine.

[1] Towneley trained as an attorney, but probably did not long follow his profession (there was only a brief period when the recusancy laws did not prevent this), the greater part of his life being occupied in scientific and antiquarian pursuits.

Many years were spent by him in transcribing ‘in a fair but singular hand’ public records, chartularies, and other evidences relating chiefly to Lancashire and Yorkshire.

These transcripts were drawn upon by friends during his lifetime, and have since proved a valuable storehouse of materials for county historians and genealogists.