Lucy Townsend (née Jesse; 25 July 1781 – 20 April 1847) was a British abolitionist.

Her father, William Jesse, was the evangelical incumbent at All Saints Church in West Bromwich.

You have as much right to be there as Thomas Clarkson himself, nay perhaps more, his achievement was in the slave trade; thine was slavery itself the pervading movement.

She and Mary Lloyd were the first joint secretaries of what was at first called The Ladies' Society for the Relief of Negro Slaves.

For many years these anti-slavery organisations, which were run by women, were dismissed as of marginal interest, but recent research has revealed that these groups had a distinct and national impact.

[3] Conversely Townsend's organisation took a more conservative line in 1839 when they followed the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society's policy of supporting a more gradual move.

Eliza Wigham was there representing the Edinburgh Ladies' Emancipation Society, Mary Anne Rawson was from the Sheffield Society; Jane Smeal from Glasgow; Amelia Opie from Norwich; Elizabeth Pease from Darlington and Anne Knight from Chelmsford.