Periods of anti-Catholic agitation before and after the 1688 Glorious Revolution, saw him fined and imprisoned, culminating in accusations of involvement in the 1694 Lancashire Plot, an alleged attempt to restore the exiled James II.

[6][5] Francis' father died in 1711,;[5] his eldest brother, also called Richard, was captured at Preston during the 1715 Rising but a jury acquitted him of treason in May 1716,[7] although the trial involved the family in heavy expenses.

[citation needed] Like many English Catholics, Francis was educated at Douai and served in the French army from 1728 to 1734, acting as aide to the Duke of Berwick during the 1734 siege of Philippsburg.

Hearing of Charles' landing in north-west Scotland in August 1745, he traveled to Manchester, with two prominent Welsh Jacobites, David Morgan and William Vaughan.

They met other Jacobite sympathisers at Didsbury, among them the poet John Byrom, who described Towneley as a "gallant soldier", devoted to the Stuart cause, but was shocked by his "profane swearing".

[11] Since 1721, Walpole's government pursued a policy of reconciling Catholics to the regime, while closely monitoring any of doubtful loyalty, and the Jacobites made little effort to raise them.

Although viewed favourably by Irish Jacobite Sir John MacDonald, this opinion was not universally shared; Towneley had a reputation for being hot-tempered and one of his officers, James Bradshaw, transferred to Lord Elcho's regiment as a result.

Charles Radclyffe, de jure 5th Earl of Derwentwater and a captain in Dillon's Regiment, was captured with his eldest son en route to Scotland in 1745.

[21] Towneley's reliance on his French commission was disallowed; he was tried on 13 July 1746, found guilty of treason and sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered, although by then it was customary to ensure the condemned were dead before being eviscerated.

[23] Along with that of George Fletcher, his head was placed on a pike on Temple Bar; the journalist John Taylor reported that it was later removed by friends of his nephew Charles Townley.