Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 15.djvu/405

Rh Downing, baptised at Quainton 1628, may have been confounded by Wood with his father, the vicar of Hackney); Newcourt's Repertorium, i. 620; Fosbroke's Gloucestershire, ii. 536; Robinson's Hackney, ii. 158; Laud's Works (Lib. of Anglo-Cath. Theol.), iv. 298; Commons' Journals, vols. ii. and iii.]  DOWNING, GEORGE (1623?–1684), soldier and politician, son of Emmanuel Downing of the Inner Temple, afterwards of Salem, Massachusetts, and of Lucy, sister of Governor John Winthrop, was born probably in August 1623 (Life of John Winthrop, i. 186;, Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard College, p. 583). In Burke's ‘Extinct Baronetage’ and Wood's ‘Athenæ Oxonienses’ he is wrongly described as the son of Dr. Calybute Downing [q. v.] George Downing and his parents went out to New England in 1638, on the invitation of John Winthrop, and he completed his education at Harvard College, of which he was the second graduate (, p. 28). On 27 Dec. 1643 Downing was appointed to teach the junior students in the college. In 1645 he sailed to the West Indies, apparently as a ship's chaplain, preached at Barbadoes and other places, and finally reached England (ib. p. 30). In England he is said to have become chaplain to Okey's regiment (, Memoirs, ed. 1751, p. 377), but his name does not appear in the lists of the New Model. In the summer of 1650 Downing suddenly appears acting as scout-master-general of Cromwell's army in Scotland. Numerous letters written by him in that capacity are to be found in ‘Mercurius Politicus’ and other newspapers of the period, also in the ‘Old Parliamentary History,’ among the Tanner MSS., and in Cary's ‘Memorials of the Civil War.’ After the war he was engaged in the settlement of Scotland, and Emmanuel Downing, probably his father, became in 1655 clerk to the council of Scotland (, iii. 423). Downing's rise was much forwarded by his marriage with Frances, fourth daughter of Sir W. Howard of Naworth, Cumberland, and sister of Colonel Charles Howard, afterwards Earl of Carlisle. This marriage, which took place in 1654, is celebrated by Payne Fisher in a poem contained in his ‘Inauguratio Olivariana,’ 1654. In 1657 Downing is described as receiving 365l. as scout-master and 500l. as one of the tellers of the exchequer (‘A Narrative of the late Parliament,’ Harleian Miscellany, ed. Park, iii. 454). Downing was a member of both the parliaments called by Cromwell; in that of 1654 he represented Edinburgh (Old Parliamentary History, xx. 306),and in that of 1656 he was elected both for Carlisle and for the Haddington group of boroughs (Names of Members returned to serve in Parliament, 1878, p. 506). In the latter parliament he was loud in his complaints against the Dutch; ‘they are far too politic for us in point of trade, and do eat us out in our manufactures’ (, Diary, i. 181). He was also distinguished by his zeal against James Naylor (ib. i. 60, 217), but above all by a speech which he made on 19 Jan. 1657 in favour of a return to the old constitution: ‘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’ (ib. i. 363). He thus headed the movement for offering the crown to Cromwell. But Downing's chief services during the protectorate were in the execution of Cromwell's foreign policy. In 1655, when the massacre of the Vaudois took place, Downing was despatched to France to represent Cromwell's indignation to Louis XIV, and also to make further remonstrances at Turin (credentials dated 29 July 1655, MASSON, Milton, v. 191). An account of his interview with Mazarin is given in the ‘Thurloe Papers’ (iii. 734), and many references to his mission are contained in Vaughan's ‘Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell’ (1838, i. 227, 260, 266). Downing was recalled in September 1655 before reaching Turin (, iv. 31). More important was Downing's appointment to be resident at the Hague, which took place in December 1657 (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1657–8, p. 222). The post was valuable, being worth 1,000l. a year, and he continued to occupy it until the Restoration (for his letters of credence, vide, Milton, v. 378). He was charged with the general duty of urging the Dutch to promote a union of all the protestant powers (see his propositions in Mercurius Politicus, 11–18 Feb. 1657–8), also with the task of mediating between Portugal and Holland and between Sweden and Denmark (, vi. 759, 790–818). At the same time he actively urged the grievances of English merchants against the Dutch, and kept Thurloe well informed of the movements of the exiled royalists (ib. vi. 835, vii. 91). In Richard Cromwell's attempt to intervene between Denmark and Sweden Downing played an important and a difficult part (ib. vii. 520–32). He was reappointed to his post in Holland by the Rump in June 1659, and again in January 1660 (, f. 681;, Register, p. 23). This gave him opportunity to make his peace with Charles II, which he effected early in April 1660 through Thomas Howard (, Original Letters and Papers, ii. 319–22). Howard, who was