Much of the following text is taken from the public domain Encyclopedia Britannica 1911, as such it may contain errors and inaccuracies

Charles Towneley (1737-1805), English archaeologist and collector of marbles, was born at Towneley, the family seat, near Burnley in Lancashire, on the ist of October 1737. He was educated at the college of Douai, and subsequently under John Turberville Needham, the physiologist and divine. In 1758 he took up his residence at Towneley, where he lived the ordinary life of a country gentleman until about 1765, when he left England to study ancient art, chiefly at Rome. He also made several excursions to the south of Italy and Sicily. In conjunction with Gavin Hamilton, the artist, and Thomas Jenkins, a banker in Rome, he got together a splendid collection of antiquities, which was deposited in two houses bought by him for the purpose in Park Street, Westminster, where he died on the 8th of January 1805. His solitary publication was an account of an ancient helmet found at Ribchester. His marbles, bronzes, coins, and gems were purchased by the British Museum (for about £28,000) and form part of the Graeco-Roman collection.

The trustees of the British Museum therefore obtained from parliament a grant of £20,000, probably not half the original cost; and for this sum they were purchased from the family.

He became the most famous member of the family and another of the treasures now at Towneley is a painting by Johann Zoffany of Charles with his friends in his London home surrounded by his collection of Roman sculptures.