DOWNING, George (1623-84), of Axe Yard, Westminster, and East Hatley, Cambs.

The Downings had settled in Suffolk by the early years of Elizabeth’s reign and were probably related to the Edmund† and William Downing† who had sat for Higham Ferrars and Orford in 1572 and 1586 respectively.43Muskett, Suff. Manorial Fams. i. 99; Beresford, Godfather, 18; HP Commons 1558-1603. Downing’s grandfather had been master of Ipswich grammar school, and his father, Emmanuel Downing, consolidated the family’s links with Suffolk through his second marriage to a daughter of Adam Winthrop of Groton. The Winthrops were one of Suffolk’s better established gentry families and were noted for their attachment to godly religion.44Beresford, Godfather, 18-21, 24. Emmanuel Downing shared the Winthrops’ religious sympathies, and during the late 1620s he was involved in discussions with his brother-in-law John Winthrop and other leading Puritans concerning the government and finance of the Massachusetts Bay colony, which was soon to become a haven for godly opponents of Caroline rule.45Beresford, Godfather, 32; T. Webster, Godly Clergy in Early Stuart Eng. (Camb. 1997), 22, 152, 155, 214. In 1630, John Winthrop emigrated to Massachusetts as the colony’s first governor, and Downing was keen to follow him, even though this meant giving up his practice as an attorney in the court of wards. The young George Downing was also eager to embark for New England, but his mother feared that the lack of a college in the new colony would retard his studies. The Downings eventually emigrated in 1638 and by the autumn of that year had settled at Salem, where they became members of Hugh Peters’s congregation.46Beresford, Godfather, 24-5, 35-6, 40-2.

George Downing entered Harvard at its foundation and his name stands second on the college’s graduate roll. Educated for the ministry, he proved a ‘very able scholar and of ready wit and fluent utterance’.47Sibley, Biographical Sketches, i. 29-30. However, the lack of opportunities for aspiring young ministers in Massachusetts prompted his return to England at some point between the autumn of 1645 and August 1646, when he preached at Maidstone – the location of his old school – to the ‘great support’ of the town’s godly.48Winthrop Pprs. (Mass. Hist. Soc.) v. 42-5, Beresford, Godfather, 48. That same month, according to the Presbyterian heresiographer Thomas Edwards, Downing preached at Hackney against the ‘uncharitableness’ shown by the Common Council and citizens of London towards the ‘Saints’ in the New Model army.49Edwards, Gangraena, iii. 81-2. Edwards referred to Downing as an army preacher, and it was certainly reported by many later authorities that Downing was chaplain to the New Model regiment of the future regicide John Okey*, although there is no official record of his service.50Ludlow, Mems. ii. 330; Clarendon, Life (1857), ii. 49; Beresford, Godfather, 48, 147, 149; Laurence, Parliamentary Army Chaplains, 122. Assuming Downing did take up this post, it is possible that his patron was Hugh Peters, who by now was chaplain to the regiment of Sir Thomas Fairfax*.51Laurence, Parliamentary Army Chaplains, 164. This would perhaps account for Edwards’s claim that Downing was known as ‘a young Peters’, or ‘alias Peters junior’.52Edwards, Gangraena, iii. 82.

By the spring of 1648, Downing had joined the household of Sir Arthur Hesilrige*, the newly-appointed parliamentary governor of Newcastle and the four northern counties, either as a chaplain or secretary, or both. It was almost certainly through Hesilrige’s influence that Parliament appointed Downing comptroller of customs for Londonderry that March.53CJ v. 503a; LJ x. 127a. By that August, at the latest, he was chaplain to Hesilrige’s regiment at Newcastle.54SP28/125, pt. 3, unfol.; Winthrop Pprs. (Mass. Hist. Soc.) v. 207-8; Beresford, Godfather, 51. Downing and Hesilrige shared close links with the New England puritans, and in particular, it seems, with Hugh Peters.55Infra, ‘Sir Arthur Hesilrige’; CJ vii. 499b; Winthrop Pprs. (Mass. Hist. Soc. ser. 4, vi), 114; Beresford, Godfather, 54. It was probably through Hesilrige that Downing first made the acquaintance of Oliver Cromwell* (although Peters was also on close terms with the lieutenant-general), who was sufficiently impressed by his capabilities to appoint him scoutmaster-general, or chief intelligence gatherer, of the army, reputedly with a salary of £365 a year.56[G. Wharton], A Narrative of the Late Parliament (1658), 11 (E.935.5); Beresford, Godfather, 52. Downing served under Cromwell in his campaign against the Scots of 1650-1 and was present at the battles of Dunbar (where he was wounded) and Worcester.57A True Relation of the Progress of the Parliaments Forces in Scotland (12 Aug. 1651), 1-3 (E.640.5); CJ vii. 12a; Winthrop Pprs. (Mass. Hist. Soc.) vi. 184; Beresford, Godfather, 55-9. He spent much of the period 1651-3 based in Edinburgh and was closely involved in the negotiations initiated by the Rump for a union between England and Scotland.58CSP Dom. 1651-2, pp. 439, 441, 452, 458; CSP Dom. 1652-3, pp. 127, 131, 156; Burton’s Diary, ii. 214; A. Williamson, ‘Union with England traditional, union with England radical’, EHR cx. 313-14. He had returned to England by October 1653, where his evident skill as a man of affairs recommended him to successive councils of state.59CSP Dom. 1653-4, pp. 194, 206, 209, 266, 285, 308; 1654, pp. 144, 166.

Downing’s various employments brought him into contact with the north-country magnate and captain of Cromwell’s life-guard, Charles Howard* of Naworth Castle, Cumberland.60Beresford, Godfather, 58. Howard was on friendly terms during the early 1650s with Downing’s patron, Hesilrige, the most powerful figure in northern England under the Rump.61Infra, ‘Charles Howard’; J. Musgrave, A True and Exact Relation (1650), 4, 10 (E.619.10). At some point in 1654, Downing married Howard’s sister, Frances – a match that elevated him both socially and politically.62Beresford, Godfather, 59. Nevertheless, he first entered Parliament not through his brother-in-law’s influence, as was the case on all subsequent occasions, but upon the interest of the army and the Cromwellian establishment in Scotland. In the elections to the first protectoral Parliament in the summer of 1654, he was returned for Edinburgh.63Supra, ‘Edinburgh City’. He was named to 11 committees in this Parliament, including those to recommend a retrenchment in the military establishment, to consider Scottish affairs and to settle a revenue on the protector.64CJ vii. 366b, 370b, 371b, 373b, 378b, 380a, 381a, 395a, 415a, 415b. As a member of the committee for Scottish affairs he acted as parliamentary man-of-business for General George Monck*, the commander of the army in Scotland. Thus on 30 September 1654, he wrote to Monck asking him to ‘let me have your directions what you think fit for that committee to consider of for Scotland’.65Eg. 2618, f. 46; Beresford, Godfather, 64. Downing and his father – for whom Downing secured the office of clerk to the protectoral council in Scotland – were evidently trusted members of the Cromwellian establishment. Indeed, according to Clarendon, Downing enjoyed the esteem and confidence of the protector himself.66Clarendon, Life, ii. 49; CSP Dom. 1655, p. 152; ‘Sir George Downing’, Oxford DNB.

In the summer of 1655, Cromwell appointed Downing his ambassador extraordinary to the Swiss Cantons to investigate the massacre of Protestants in Piedmont.67CSP Dom. 1655, pp. 247, 606; TSP iii. 740; HMC 3rd Rep. 287; Beresford, Godfather, 65-6. On his way to Switzerland, Downing had an interview with Cardinal Mazarin (conducted in Latin) in which, on Cromwell’s behalf, he invited France to join England, Sweden and the German Protestants in a league against the Austrian Habsburgs.68TSP iv. 2; Beresford, Godfather, 66-7; ‘Sir George Downing’, Oxford DNB. Downing’s diplomatic and administrative endeavours were rewarded the following year with a tellership in the exchequer – an office with a salary of £400 a year.69Sl. 3243; Add. 32471, f. 11v; Aylmer, State’s Servants, 128; Sainty, Officers of the Exchequer, 238. The claim that his offices as scoutmaster-general and teller paid £1,000 and £2,000 a year respectively is almost certainly an exaggeration.70J. Scott, ‘‘Good night Amsterdam’. Sir George Downing and Anglo-Dutch statebuilding’, EHR cxviii. 336.

In the elections to the second Cromwellian Parliament in the summer of 1656, Downing was returned for Carlisle, where Charles Howard – now deputy major-general for the north west – was governor and the city’s chief electoral patron.71Supra, ‘Carlisle’. The president of the Scottish council, Lord Broghill (Roger Boyle*), also secured Downing’s return for Peebles Burghs in Scotland, but he opted to sit for the English constituency.72Supra, ‘Peebles Burghs’; CJ vii. 432a. Downing was one of the most active Members of the second protectoral Parliament in which he was named to 58 ad hoc committees.73CJ vii. 424a, 427a, 428a, 429b, 434a, 434b, 436b, 439b, 440a, 440b, 442a, 445a, 445b, 447a, 449a, 459a, 461a, 463b, 464a, 469a, 470b, 472a, 472b, 476b, 477a, 478a, 484a, 484b, 491a, 493b, 498a, 504a, 505a, 513b, 515a, 515b, 516b, 519b, 520b, 521a, 521b, 528b, 529a, 532a, 538a, 539a, 540b, 543a, 557b, 570b, 576a. As a leading member (possibly chairman) of the committee for trade set up on 20 October 1656, he made a number of reports to the House concerning the ‘exportation of several commodities for the growth of the nation’ and was given leave to bring in legislation for encouraging the export of fish, which had been hard hit by the war with England’s principal customer, Spain.74CJ vii. 442a, 447a, 451b, 454a, 455a, 456b, 513b; Burton’s Diary, i. pp. clxxxviii, clxxxix, 175. One of his main preoccupations in this Parliament, and indeed throughout his career, was the advancement of English trade. On 19 December, in his first recorded reference to the country with which his future career was to be closely linked, he declared that ‘Holland has engrossed and put great inconveniences upon our manufactures ... They are far too politic for us in point of trade and do eat us out in our manufactures’.75Burton’s Diary, i. 181. Several of his early committee appointments were concerned with the vending and taxation of imports and domestic produce – notably, wine and beer – and in a debate on customs and excise on 8 January 1657, he sided with those Members who urged setting rates that would favour England’s mercantile sector at the expense of its retailers. He also emerged as a keen advocate of reforming – and thereby improving, he argued – the collection of excise along Dutch lines.76CJ vii. 436b, 440a, 445b; Burton’s Diary, i. 323, 324, 325, 326, 327, 330; D. Coffman, ‘The Fiscal Revolution of the Interregnum: Excise Taxation in the British Isles, 1643-63’ (Univ. of Pennyslvania Ph.D. thesis, 2008), 209, 210. His growing expertise in matters of public finance was reflected in his appointment on 31 January as chairman of a committee of the whole House for raising £400,000 to prosecute the war against Spain.77CJ vii. 484b. He made numerous reports from this committee and helped to steer legislation through the House for enacting its principal recommendations – an assessment of £60,000 a month for three months and a tax or ‘fine’ on new buildings within ten miles of London.78CJ vii. 485b, 486a, 486b, 487a, 487b, 489b, 490b, 491a, 493a, 494a, 502a, 533b, 537a. He was subsequently named to committees for the public revenue and for raising £130,000 a year from the treasuries of England, Scotland and Ireland.79CJ vii. 543a, 576a.

Downing was an important figure in the conduct of northern affairs in the second protectoral Parliament. He was a leading member of the committee set up on 4 December 1656 for suppressing theft upon the northern borders and was chairman of the 16 March 1657 committee for altering the market day at Carlisle.80CJ vii. 464a, 504a, 515a, 540b; Burton’s Diary, i. 345; ii. 120, 142. On 23 December 1656, he joined other northern Members in calling for the reading of a petition presented by George Eure*, 6th Baron Eure, requesting (among other things) the abatement of assessments and the excise and proposing that all the burden of maintaining the army be laid upon the royalists, ‘that the old army may be encouraged and the new charges laid aside’.81Burton’s Diary, i. 208-9. The petitioners were demanding, in effect, an extension of the decimation tax – a measure that Downing would implicitly reject in subsequent months by supporting the Humble Petition and Advice. Another of his priorities at Westminster was to promote the Scottish union bill – legislation for joining the commonwealths of England and Scotland. As he admitted to the House, he had been ‘employed, all along, in that business’ and was convinced that the Scots ‘are easily made one with you if you do not discontent them by the influence you have upon their trade’.82Burton’s Diary, i. 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 347; ii. 214; Little and Smith, Cromwellian Protectorate, 276-7. He remained on close terms with leading figures within the Scottish establishment, reporting legislation for settling lands in Scotland upon Monck (for whom he continued to act as an agent in London) and for rewarding Lord Broghill with an estate in Ireland.83CJ vii. 476b, 485a, 543a; TSP vi. 635; Little and Smith, Cromwellian Protectorate, 270, 279, 285. He likewise favoured settling Irish lands upon Broghill’s ally Henry Cromwell*.84Burton’s Diary, i. 260.

Inevitably, Downing’s clerical background influenced his parliamentary career. Five of his committee appointments in the second protectoral Parliament, and several of his contributions to debate, related to the maintenance of a godly ministry and the suppression of popery.85CJ vii. 434a, 463b, 469a, 493b, 515b; Burton’s Diary, i. 7-8, 160, 245; ii. 285. In the prolonged debate in December 1656 on what punishment to mete out to the Quaker evangelist James Naylor, he consistently took a hard line, declaring that although he was ‘as much for tender consciences as any man’, there could be no excusing such gross blasphemy. Downing rejected the arguments of Adam Baynes and Francis White that Naylor was comprehended in the 37th article of the Instrument of Government, offering protection to ‘such as profess faith in God by Jesus Christ’.86Burton’s Diary, i. 11, 27, 35, 36, 45, 52, 59-61, 143-6, 154, 157, 183, 248, 262. Yet while he was satisfied that Naylor deserved to die, he was ‘altogether unsatisfied’ that this was warrantable under the existing laws, and on 16 December he apparently voted against consideration of the death penalty.87Burton’s Diary, i. 144, 146, 152-3. Instead, he urged the Commons to ‘do something with that tongue that has bored through God. You ought to bore his tongue through’.88Burton’s Diary, i. 154, 157. After the unfortunate Naylor had endured the first round of his punishment, Downing desired that the Independent divines Joseph Caryl and Philip Nye be sent to him ‘to save his soul if it be possible. The ecclesiastical courts were very tender in such cases’.89Burton’s Diary, i. 183. But when Naylor showed no sign of repentance, Downing confessed that if his punishment had been harsher ‘I should now have been very satisfied, since no better effect is wrought upon the person than has been’.90Burton’s Diary, i. 217-18. In general, he seems to have supported the Cromwellian religious compromise of maintaining a godly national ministry while allowing liberty for tender consciences. Thus on 19 March 1657, he was a teller with Cornelius Holland in support of a proviso to the Humble Petition and Advice that allowed freedom of worship over a relatively wide spectrum of Christian belief.91CJ vii. 507b.

Downing has rightly been regarded as a leading figure in the campaign of 1657 to have Cromwell made king.92HP Commons 1660-1690, ‘Sir George Downing’; Burton’s Diary, i. 363, 378. His first statement in support of such a change came on 19 January 1657.

Those governments are best which are upon proof, and long experience of our ancestors (and not such as are only in notion), such whereby the people may understand their liberty and the lord protector his privilege. The people must not be fitted to the government, but the government to the people ... I cannot propound a better expedient for the preservation both of his highness and the people than by establishing the government upon the old and tried foundation...93Burton’s Diary, i. 364.

Downing was not a prominent figure in the debates that followed the introduction of the Remonstrance – the initial draft of the Humble Petition and Advice – on 23 February, but there is no doubt of his commitment to it. On 3 March, another leading supporter of constitutional change, William Jephson, informed Henry Cromwell that a meeting had been held at Downing’s London residence, attended by Charles Howard, Colonel Henry Ingoldsby* and other officers, ‘in order to have let his Highness see all his officers were not enemies to this Remonstrance [the Humble Petition]’.94Henry Cromwell Corresp. 213-14. The author of the Narrative of the Late Parliament was entirely justified in placing him among the ‘kinglings’ who voted in favour of kingship in the House on 25 March, along with Howard.95[Wharton], Narrative of the Late Parliament, 22. Early in April, Downing was named to a series of committees for presenting the Humble Petition to Cromwell, justifying the offer of the crown to him and for satisfying his ‘doubts and scruples’ about accepting the kingship.96CJ vii. 519b, 520b, 521a, 521b. In May and June, Downing was named to two committees for settling the new constitution without the title of king, although he remained hopeful that Cromwell would eventually assume the crown.97CJ vii. 540b, 570b; Burton’s Diary, ii. 140. His commitment to investing the protector with regal authority probably stemmed, as his biographer has argued, from a conviction that Cromwell was ‘the one power capable of imposing order’ on England’s domestic and foreign affairs.98Beresford, Godfather, 79.

In December 1657 Downing received his second diplomatic posting, as Cromwell’s ambassador extraordinary to the States General (with a salary of £1,300 a year).99CSP Dom. 1657-8, p. 222. The principal objectives of his mission were fivefold – to deter Dutch aggression against England’s ally Portugal; to end hostilities in The Sound between Sweden and Denmark; to promote a union of all the Protestant powers; to secure redress for the grievances of English merchants against the Dutch; and to penetrate royalist spy networks in the United Provinces.100Downing Coll. Camb. DCHR/1/4/3/3 (Downing letter bk. 1658), pp. 3-6 and passim; TSP vi. 734, 807, 811, 823-4, 842-3, 851-2, 858, 875; vii. 31, 49, 119, 167, 516-18; CSP Dom. 1657-8, p. 258; ‘Sir George Downing’, Oxford DNB; R. Downing, G. Rommelse, A Fearful Gentleman: Sir George Downing in The Hague, 1658-72 (Hilversum, 2011), 35-6, 40-44, 53-68. His diplomatic duties at The Hague kept him away from the brief 1658 session of the second protectoral Parliament, in which, as Secretary John Thurloe* informed him, his ‘old great friend of the north [Hesilrige]’ ‘blustered terribly’ against the new constitution.101Add. 22919, f. 11v. The tone of this and subsequent letters from Thurloe and from Andrew Marvell* reinforce the impression that Downing had little sympathy for the aims of the protectorate’s republican opponents.102Add. 22919, ff. 57, 78 and passim; Beresford, Godfather, 292. He referred to his ‘unspeakable sorrow’ at Cromwell’s death in September 1658 and regarded it as an ‘astonishing mercy’ that Richard Cromwell* had been proclaimed protector without disturbance.103TSP vii. 379, 381.

In the elections to Richard Cromwell’s Parliament of 1659, Downing was returned for Carlisle again, but his duties in Holland prevented him from taking his seat.104CSP Dom. 1658-9, p. 247. His absence from the House probably spared him considerable frustration, for the republicans’ spoiling tactics fully justified the fear he expressed in letters to Monck and Thurloe in January 1659 that the new Parliament would be a mere talking-shop, to the detriment of England’s interests abroad.

I hope God will give you such spirit as to consider how much you are interested in these concernments abroad and not to spend your time about vain questions and janglings which profit not ... I know not any thing so much talked of at this time as the Parliament at London, and it’s judged 20 to one odds that the issue of it will be nothing but janglings about questions in the air and that by that means you will not be in a readiness ... for affairs abroad.105Clarke Pprs. iii. 177.

Downing assured his correspondents that unless the protectorate’s revenues matched those of neighbouring states, and of the Dutch in particular, then ‘England is undone’. He recommended that domestic taxation be raised ‘by way of excise’, but that customs duties be dramatically lowered in order to promote trade and compete more effectively with the Dutch.106Clarke Pprs. iii. 174-8; Scott, ‘Good night Amsterdam’, 349-50. Downing’s own impact upon ‘concernments abroad’ is difficult to gauge. His most notable diplomatic coup was in working with the Dutch and French to mediate an accord between Sweden and Denmark. He also had some success in monitoring and frustrating the activities of royalist exiles in Holland.107TSP vii. 272, 346-8, 360-1, 362, 398, 419-20, 444-5, 453; Clarendon, Life, ii. 49-50; Sibley, Biographical Sketches, i. 32-4; Downing, Rommelse, Fearful Gentleman, 47-51, 66-8, 169. By October 1658, he had managed to suborn one of his wife’s kinsmen, Thomas Howard†, who, as master of the horse to Princess Mary, had useful contacts with the court of the prince of Orange.108TSP vii. 428; Beresford, Godfather, 116.

The restored Rump and its council of state were initially keen to replace Downing as ambassador to the States General with one of their own adherents – the name of Colonel Nathaniel Rich* was mooted. On 30 June 1659, however, the Rump accepted a proposal from the council that Downing’s credentials be renewed ‘as to the ratification of that treaty [between Sweden and Denmark] and the business of The Sound’ until the House could decide upon a more suitable representative.109Bodl. Rawl. C.179, pp. 25, 80, 82, 101, 114; CJ vii. 688a, 699a. Clarendon claimed that after the downfall of the protectorate that April, Downing had ‘bethought himself how he might have a reserve of the king’s favour’ and had made secret overtures to Charles through James Butler, marquess of Ormond.110Clarendon, Life, ii. 50-1; Sibley, Biographical Sketches, i. 35-6. It is certainly likely that Downing had little sympathy for those who had brought down the protectorate; and in March 1660 he wrote to the new council of state expressing approval at the re-admission of the secluded Members, ‘which hath in it a very great tendency to the composing of the many differences and [a] solid settlement of affairs in England’.111SP84/162, f. 293; TSP vii. 826-7. In a letter to Thurloe the same month, however, he complained that the council had ignored his letters: ‘if they do not like my being here, truly I am willing to return home, this employment having been ... troublesome and chargeable enough’.112TSP vii. 850.

Early in April 1660, Downing approached Thomas Howard and offered his services to the king, confessing his former opposition to the royal interest, but insisting that he had never harboured any malice against Charles’s person or family. He blamed his past conduct on his upbringing in New England, where he had ‘sucked in principles that since, his reason had made him see were erroneous’. He claimed to have a good interest in the army, and that if the king pardoned him he would endeavour to prevail upon the officers for Charles’s restoration. As an earnest of his fidelity to the crown, he revealed details of Thurloe’s secret correspondence and what he perceived as a design by that ‘great rogue’ Monck to usurp the throne.113Original Letters and Pprs. ed. T. Carte (1739), ii. 319-21; Clarendon, Life, ii. 50-1. Downing’s defection was welcomed by the king, who knighted him and confirmed his tellership in the exchequer.114Original Letters and Pprs. ed. Carte, ii. 322-3; CSP Dom. 1660-1, p. 74.

Downing was returned to the 1660 Convention at a by-election for the Northumberland borough of Morpeth, where Charles Howard enjoyed the dominant interest. Downing retained his seat at Morpeth for the rest of his life. He was an active member of the Convention, in which he was instrumental in retaining the commonwealth’s excise and in extending the 1651 Navigation Act.115HP Commons 1660-1690; Oxford DNB; Scott, ‘Good night Amsterdam’, 352. Shortly after Downing’s return for Morpeth in the elections to the Cavalier Parliament, the king re-appointed him ambassador extraordinary to the States General, and he returned to The Hague (this time with a salary of £1,825 a year).116Add. 22919, f. 146. In 1662, he was responsible for seizing the regicides John Barkstead*, Miles Corbett* and his old regimental commander, John Okey, in Holland and having them shipped back to England for execution.117Beresford, Godfather, 142-6. Downing’s former deputy in the exchequer, Samuel Pepys†, thought he had acted ‘like a perfidious rogue, [for] though the action is good and of service to the king, yet he cannot with any good conscience do it’.118Pepys Diary, iii. 44-5. Pepys’s assessment of Downing – as a skilful and energetic administrator but deplorably ‘niggardly’ – was probably typical of his contemporaries.119Pepys Diary, i. 186; viii. 85, 238.

Besides his stinginess, Downing was noted during the Restoration period for his central role in reforming public finances (modernising them along Dutch lines) and in shaping foreign and colonial policy, where his strongly mercantilist agenda was much in evidence.120Clarendon, Life, ii. 53, 54; H. Roseveare, The Treasury 1660-1870: the Foundations of Control, 19-45; Beresford, Godfather, 168-70, 201-19, 240-1, 269-73; Oxford DNB; Downing, Rommelse, Fearful Gentleman, 83-4, 168, 172-82; Scott, ‘Good night Amsterdam’, 337-8, 350-5. A ‘voluminous speaker’ and ‘fertile legislator’, he was one of the most active members of the Cavalier Parliament, in which he was consistently identified as an adherent of the court.121Clarendon, Life, ii. 52, 215; HP Commons 1660-1690. It was alleged in 1677 that he had received £80,000 by Charles II’s favour.122A Seasonable Argument to Persuade All the Grand Juries in England to Petition for a New Parliament (1677), 14. He voted against Exclusion in 1679.123HP Commons 1660-1690.

Downing died early in July 1684 and was buried at Croydon, Cambridgeshire, on 24 July.124Beresford, Godfather, 287. In his will, he charged his estate with annuities of £700, portions for his three younger daughters totalling £8,000 and bequests amounting to about £300.125PROB11/377, ff. 322-3. His grandson and namesake sat for Dunwich, Suffolk, as a whig in all but one of the Parliaments between 1710 and 1749.126HP Commons 1715-1754.