b.March 7, 1524 Pynest, Essex, England; parents ukn
d.Sept. 17, 1595 Ipswich, Suffolk, England
m.(1)abt.1544 Cicely _______ ; b.1524 Beccles, Suffolk, England
m.(2)abt.1551 Elizabeth Wingfield
m.(3)abt.1556 Mary Browne
CHILDREN included:
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b.1552 St. Nicholas, Ipswich, Suffolk, England; s/o Geoffrey Downing and Elizabeth Wingfield
d.Oct. 3, 1610 Beccles, Suffolk, England
m.(1)1576 Ipswich, Suffolk, England; Dorcas Blois
b.1554 Gundesberg, Suffolk, England; d/o William and Cecily (Wingfield) Bloise
d.bef.1611 (prob. bef.1578)
m.(2)bef.1578 Ipswich, Suffolk, England; Miss Bellamy
b.abt.1560, parent ukn
bur.Dec. 21, 1610
CHILDREN of George and Dorcas included:
CHILDREN of George and ______ (Bellamy) included:
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b.Aug. 12, 1585 St. Lawrence, Ipswich, Suffolk, England; s/o George Downing and ukn Bellamy
d.July 26, 1658 Salem, MA
m.(1)June 7, 1614 Norwich, MA Ann Ware
b.1592 Dublin, Ireland d/o James and Mary (Briden) Ware
bur.Sept. 14, 1621
m.(2)April 10, 1622 Lucy Winthrop
b.Jan. 27, 1600 St. Peters, London, England d/o Adam and Anne (Browne) Winthrop
CHILDREN of Emanuel and Ann included (all b. England):
CHILDREN of Emanuel and Lucy included:
FROM History of York by Banks, page 179:...Emanuel Downing, a wealthy lawyer of London, brother-in-law of Winthrop, and the "friend at Court" of the Massachusetts Colony...
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b.March 1640 Salem, MA; s/o Emanuel Downing and Lucy Winthrop
d.Apr. 29, 1694 Salem, MA
m.(1)Nov. 2, 1669 Ipswich, MA; Mehitable Braybrooke
m.(2)July 20, 1675 Hartford, CT; Mary Bunce
NOTES: from an 1997 email from rleutner@blue.weeg.uiowa.edu / robert-leutner@uiowa.edu --...Carol F. Karlsen, The Devil in the Sahpe of a Woman (1987), pages 95-98, treats Salem accused witches Joan PENNEY/PINNEY, who turns out to the remarried Joan BRABROOK, wife of Mehitabel's father Richard, and Mehitabel (BRABROOK) DOWNING, both either acquitted or or freed after the panic faded. Karlsen says (knew?) nothing of the TAG article [TAG 36, pages 68-73 by Ruth Easterbrook Thomas and Ross Boothe Jr. re Downing, etc.] and doesn't list the DOWNING children, but shows that Mehitabel was the illegitimate daughter (b.1653) of Richard BRABROOK by a servant girl, Alice ELLIS, but brought up as their own by Richard and wife Joan. She also appears to not know of John BOWNING's death after his will date but before its probate (19 Jul 1694), nor that he wrote his will (and likely died) away from New England, on the Island of Nevis. [His death ca. 1690-91 would fit nicely with the witchcraft accusations of 1692.] But she does describe John & Mehitable in the 1670's and 1680's as in court several times for excessive drinking and neglect of their children. How that fits with John as son the estimable Emanuel and as a man with interests in the West Indies is hard to say, but Emanuel had another son James DOWNING who appears to have been a hopeless, alcoholic ne're-do-well, so perhaps it fits after all. It might also fit with John DOWNING at 29 marrying the 16-year old Mehitabel BRABROOK, who was something of a problem child, i.e., by some testimony a liar, a thief, and an "unchaste creature."
From Directory of Ancestral Heads of New England Families 1620-1700 by Holmes: JOHN was at Charlestown, Mass., before 1659.
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