File BL/CS 1/15/2/1/1-17 - Correspondence between Philip Case, George, 4th viscount Townshend [later 1st marquess] and Edward Bacon, Bruton Street, about the death of the 3rd viscount on 14 March, his will, arrangements for the funeral, with letters from Lee Warner, Mr Coldham, James Jones, Lord Orford, executorship business, etc.

Sir Roger Townshend, Knight 1484; Sir John Townshend, Knight at Cadiz 1596, Sir Horatio 1st Viscount Townshend created Baron Townshend of Lynn Regis 1661, Charles 2nd Viscount Townshend Lord Lieutenant of Norfolk 1709, 3rd Viscount Townshend appointed Lord of the Bedchamber 1723, George 1st Marquess Townshend Lord lieutenant of Ireland, High Steward of Tamworth, Yarmouth and Norwich 1767-1772, George 2nd Marquess Townshend created Earl of Leicester 1784, George Ferrers 3rd Marquess Townshend 1778-1858, John 4th Marquess Townshend 1798-1825, John James Dudley Stuart 6th Marquess Townshend Mayor of King's Lynn 1928. At Raynham Hall.

Born c 1712 in Great Fransham, and died on 11 April 1792 in King's Lynn. He was the son of Thomas Case and Hester Freeman.
The most successful attorney in King's Lynn in the eighteenth century. The son of a farmer at Fransham, he set up his practice on completion of his articles in 1733, became a freeman of King's Lynn by the end of the year, was elevated to the council on the same day, and married into a local gentry family in the following year. His outstanding abilities soon brought him a large clientele. While still in his twenties he was acting for the second viscount Townshend and Sir John Turner of Warham, and was deputy clerk of the peace. By mid-career he was acting as 'man of business' to many of the landed families of north-west Norfolk, not only as an attorney but often as land agent and steward of their manors - being described as 'the greatest and cleverest court keeper in England' in 1768. He became comptroller of customs at King's Lynn in 1754, and clerk of the peace in 1760.
Throughout his life he purchased property, eventually accumulating estates at Stradsett, Crimplesham and Fincham, Gayton Thorpe and East Walton, Grimston, and Gaywood, Mintlyn and Bawsey. Although he had manor houses at Stradsett and Gaywood, he continued to live at King's Lynn, where he was mayor in 1745, 1764, 1777, and 1786. He had three daughters - Pleasance and Hester who married Thomas Bagge and Samuel Browne, both prominent Lynn merchants, and Sarah, the only one to survive him, who married Anthony Hamond of Westacre. He died worth approximately £100,000 in land and investments.