According to Joseph Farington, Towne set off from London to Hereford on 19 March 1813 to give evidence with John “Warwick” Smith in a court case on behalf of Captain Dale, who was the son-in-law of their old friend Thomas Jones and against whom a claim was being made by a younger son of Jones for rights to Penkerrig, Jones’s estate. Towne travelled back to London with Mrs Flowerdew, one of Dale’s acquaintances who wrote to him: 

Mr Town and I finished our journey with many compliments on each side, but lest you should think that a woman never outlives her vanity I shall not repeat the fine speeches he made. I adopted your advice of sometimes adverting to the Thursday evening scene when tried with his incessant talk. He certainly talks well but never did I hear anyone speak for such a length of time on a subject. I have forgotten all the rules in drawing he pointed out to me.¹

This conversation led Bury to assert that both Flowerdew and Dale were pupils of Towne, but that conclusion does not seem justified by the evidence.²