Townshend Acts

American  

[toun-zuhnd] / ˈtaʊn zənd /

plural noun

American History.

1. acts of the British Parliament in 1767, especially the act that placed duties on tea, paper, lead, paint, etc., imported into the American colonies.

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Etymology

Origin of Townshend Acts

Named after Charles Townshend (1725–67), English statesman, their sponsor

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Townshend Acts

Townshend was Chancellor of the Exchequer for little more than a year, and died in 1767 just after Parliament passed the last of the Townshend Acts.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 13, 2026

In 1767 the Townshend Acts had placed duties on imports including glass, paper and tea.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026

From Britain’s Townshend Acts of 1767, which helped fuel the American Revolution, to the Smoot-Hawley Tariff of 1930, which deepened the Great Depression, tariffs have proved politically toxic.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 28, 2026

The taxes imposed by the Townshend Acts were as poorly received by the colonists as the Stamp Act had been.

From Textbooks ● Jul. 28, 2021

Massachusetts, Bay Company; religious intolerance in; Bay charter granted; in colonial times; opposes Stamp and Townshend Acts; Bill; cedes land to Congress.

From A School History of the United States by John Bach McMaster