[1] Townshend was elected to the House of Commons for Cambridge University in 1780, a seat he held until 1784, and later represented Westminster from 1788 to 1790 and Knaresborough from 1793 to 1818.

When his grandmother Etheldreda Townshend died in 1788, she left him much of her fortune, including Balls Park.

[2] Their elder son Charles Fox Townshend was the founder of the Eton Society but died young.

Their younger son John became an admiral in the Royal Navy and succeeded his first cousin as 4th Marquess Townshend in 1855.

Their daughter Elizabeth Frances Townshend (2 August 1789 –10 April 1862 Nice) married 20 October 1813 Captain Augustus Clifford R.N., later Sir Augustus Clifford, 1st Bt (1788-1877), illegitimate son of the 5th Duke of Devonshire and his mistress, Lady Elizabeth Foster, née Hervey, later the Duke's second wife (1811).