Person:George Downing (8)

George Downing's Parentage Unknown

"In an effort to extend the Downing line from the already known George(C) [this man], many Downing wills of Suffolk and Norfolk have been read, and other records have been checked. This pursuit to extend the pedigree was unsuccessful. … genealogist Paul C. Reed of Salt Lake City tried independently to extend the Downing line. We came to similar conclusions. … More extensive sleuthing might add earlier generations."^[1]

George Downing's Will

Will: 15 Dec 1561; Proved: 26 Jun 1564 at Suffolk, England. George Downing was of Beccles, Suffolk, England. When he died in 1564, he gave to his wife two houses in Beccles for life, and then entailed them to his son Barnaby and his male heirs, next to his son John, then to his sons George and William, in that order, and failing such issue of his sons then to his next heir male. To daughter Margaret Downing, 20 pounds; to son John, 20 pounds; John and George to be educated at "the grammer schole' and at the University of Cambridge; to son Barnaby, 80 pounds. He mentions his cousin Robert Downing of All Saints in South Elmham. (From One Thousand Years of Hubbard History.)

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5} Hyde, Myrtle Stevens, “A Study of the Downing Family in England, with Connections in Early New England”, v. 74 [Jul-Oct 1999] : 161-174, 299-308., in The American Genealogist (TAG). (Donald Lines Jacobus, et.al.)
   (at 74:162-163).

   George(C) Downing was born say 1525. He lived in Beccles, Suffolk, England, at the time of the writing of his will on 20 December 1561, and his wife was CICELY -----. probably he was born elsewhere than Beccles, because no Downing who might have been his father appears in the 1524 Subsidy of the town. His will was proved on 26 June 1564. Because the Beccles parish registers are extant only from 1586, George's probable burial there cannot be checked. If his children were baptized in Beccles, these events also cannot be verified. He named wife Cicely as executrix of his will, and she served in this capacity. Whether she died as his widow or remarried has not been ascertained. As Cicely Downing, she does not appear in the 1568 Subsidy of Suffolk.