William Towse was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons

House of Commons of England

The House of Commons of England was the lower house of the Parliament of England from its development in the 14th century to the union of England and Scotland in 1707, when it was replaced by the House of Commons of Great Britain...

 at various times between 1586 and 1626.

Towse was from Hingham, Norfolk

Hingham, Norfolk

Hingham is a market town and civil parish in the Forehoe district in the heart of rural Norfolk, in England. The civil parish covers an area of and had a population of 2,078 in 944 households as of the 2001 census. Grand architecture surrounds the market place and village green...

. He was admitted at Inner Temple

Inner Temple

The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court in London. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, an individual must belong to one of these Inns...

 in 1571 and was called to the bar. He lived in the Inner Temple until 1614 and audited the steward’s accounts and the treasurer's accounts five times between 1583 and 1600 and served on several committees investigating matters of concern to the inn. In 1586, he was elected Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Bramber

Bramber (UK Parliament constituency)

Bramber was a parliamentary borough in Sussex, one of the most notorious of all the rotten boroughs. It elected two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons in 1295, and again from 1472 until 1832, when the constituency was abolished by the Great Reform Act.-History:The borough consisted of...

. He was a J.P.

Justice of the Peace

A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...

 for Essex from about 1592. In 1595 he became bencher of Inner Temple and in 1597 was summer reader 1597. He was treasurer of the Inn in 1607 and was Lent reader in 1610. In 1614 he became serjeant-at-law

Serjeant-at-law

The Serjeants-at-Law was an order of barristers at the English bar. The position of Serjeant-at-Law , or Sergeant-Counter, was centuries old; there are writs dating to 1300 which identify them as descended from figures in France prior to the Norman Conquest...

 and was elected MP for Beverley

Beverley (UK Parliament constituency)

Beverley has been the name of a parliamentary constituency in the East Riding of Yorkshire for three separate periods. From medieval times until 1869, it was a parliamentary borough, consisting solely of the market town of Beverley, which returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons...

. He was town clerk of Colchester by 1620 and in his later years lived at Takeley

Takeley

Takeley is a small village in Essex near Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, England.When Takeley was first registered by the Normans in 1086-87 its boundaries were approximately 8 miles in length, with a total area of 3,000 acres . However, since the development of Stansted Airport, it has lost...

, Essex. In 1621 he was elected MP for Colchester

Colchester (UK Parliament constituency)

Colchester is a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.-History:...

. He was re-elected MP for Colchester in 1624, 1625 and 1626.

Towse died at the age of about 83.

Towse married Jean French and had a son and three daughters.