Anne Townshend, Marchioness Townshend

{{Short description|British courtier}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Infobox nobility|name=The Marchioness of Townshend|honorific_prefix=The Most Honourable|image=File:Anne, Viscountess Townshend.jpg|caption=Portrait of Anne, Viscountess Townshend (c. 1780)|birth_name=Anne Montgomery|birth_date=c.1752|death_date=29 March 1819|noble family=Montgomery|spouse=George Townshend, 1st Marquess Townshend|issue=Lord William Townshend
Lord James Townshend
Lady Anne Townshend
Charlotte Osborne, Duchess of Leeds
Lady Honoria Townshend
Lady Honoria Townshend|father=Sir William Montgomery, 1st Baronet|mother=Hannah Tomkins|occupation=Mistress of the Robes to Caroline of Brunswick}}

Anne Townshend, Marchioness Townshend (c. 1752 – 29 March 1819),G. E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H. A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910–1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume IV, page 109. formerly Anne Montgomery, was a British courtier. She was the second wife of George Townshend, 1st Marquess Townshend, previously Viscount Townshend.

She was the daughter of Sir William Montgomery, 1st Baronet (1717–1788), and his first wife, Hannah. Her only brother William died in 1777, while on active service during the American War of Independence, and her half-brother George inherited the baronetcy. The family seat was at Macbie Hill, Peebles, Scotland.{{cite book|author=Sir Bernard Burke|title=A Visitation of the Seats and Arms of the Noblemen and Gentlemen of Great Britain and Ireland|url=https://archive.org/details/avisitationseat00burkgoog|year=1855|publisher=Hurst and Blackett|pages=[https://archive.org/details/avisitationseat00burkgoog/page/n79 41]–}}

Anne Montgomery married the viscount on 19 May 1773.Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003. He already had three children by his first wife, who died in 1770. With Anne, he had a further six children:{{cite book|last=Heathcote|first=Tony|title=The British Field Marshals, 1736–1997: A Biographical Dictionary |publisher= Leo Cooper|location=Barnsley|year= 1999|isbn= 0-85052-696-5|page=278}}

• Lord William Townshend (1778–1794)
• Captain Lord James Nugent Boyle Bernardo Townshend (11 September 1785{{snd}}28 June 1842)
• Lady Anne Townshend (died 29 November 1826)
• Lady Charlotte Townshend (16 March 1776{{snd}}30 July 1856), who married George Osborne, 6th Duke of Leeds
• Lady Honoria Townshend (1777–1826)
• Lady Henrietta Townshend (died 9 November 1848)

In 1787, Anne's husband was created 1st Marquess Townshend. The Marchioness was officially Mistress of the Robes to Caroline, Princess of Wales, from 1795 to 1808. In 1801 she commissioned the dual Portrait of Caroline, Princess of Wales and Princess Charlotte from the artist Thomas Lawrence.

Her portrait (1780), by Sir Joshua Reynolds, is held by the National Portrait Gallery.{{cite web|url=https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw67696/Anne-Townshend-ne-Montgomery-Marchioness-Townshend?LinkID=mp63775&role=sit&rNo=0|title=Anne Townshend (née Montgomery), Marchioness Townshend|website=National Portrait Gallery|access-date=19 December 2017}} She is also one of the sitters in Reynolds' A Sacrifice to Hymen (1773), along with her sisters Elizabeth Gardiner, Viscountess Mountjoy and Barbara.{{cite web|url=https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw133669/A-Sacrifice-to-Hymen|title=A Sacrifice to Hymen|website=National Portrait Gallery|access-date=19 December 2017}}