Sir George Downing, 2nd Baronet (c. 1656 – June 1711)[1] was a British civil servant. He was the son and heir of Sir George Downing, 1st Baronet, for whom Downing Street is named.[2]
His father worked as Teller of the Receipt of the Exchequer from 1660 until 1684 and was made a baronet of East Hatley, in 1663. In 1680, the younger George Downing joined his father as a Teller of the Receipt of the Exchequer, holding that position until April 1689. His father died in July 1684, and the younger Downing inherited his father's baronetcy.[3]
On 12 July 1683, Downing married Lady Catharine Cecil, daughter of James Cecil, 3rd Earl of Salisbury, and his wife Lady Margaret Manners, daughter of the Earl of Rutland. They had one son before Lady Catharine's death in 1688, George Downing, who inherited his father's title upon the second baronet's death in June 1711. George married Mary Forester, daughter of Sir William Forester of Dothill, Shropshire, in whose home he was brought up following his mother's death.[4]
He also served as Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire in 1686–87.[1]
References
edit- ^ a b Complete Baronetage: English, Irish and Scottish, 1649-1664. W. Pollard & Company, Limited. 1903. p. 279. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
- ^ Muskett, Joseph James (1900). Suffolk Manorial Families, Being the County Visitations and Other Pedigrees. W. Pollard. p. 99. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
- ^ Burke, John (1838). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland. Colburn. p. 299. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
- ^ Mosley, Charles, ed. (2003). Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knighthood (107 ed.). Burke's Peerage & Gentry. p. 3504. ISBN 0-9711966-2-1.