Francis Downing

Trustee with others under the will of John William Ward, Earl of Dudley, in which capacity they were awarded the compensation for the Whitney and Rhymesbury estates in Clarendon and the New Yarmouth estate in Vere.  

1. Francis Downing was 'principal mining and minerals agent of the Earl of Dudley's estates.' Francis Downing as Mayor of Dudley, and having chaired the meeting giving rise to it, signed a loyal (anti-reform) petition to HRH George Prince of Wales Regent in 1819: the petition was transmitted by Viscount Dudley and Ward, later the Earl of Dudley.

2. An obituary of Francis Downing was published in the Gentleman's Magazine in 1858 after his death aged 80 at Winson Green on 18/11/1857.

3. The Francis Downing 'Miner' and 'Engineer' born c. 1799, shown in the censuses of 1841, 1851 and 1861 as living at Bowling Green Dudley with his wife and family was another man, presumably related.

T71/859 Clarendon Nos.284 and 320; T71/858 Vere No. 70.

1. www.dudleytunnel.co.uk/ninety_two.html [accessed 25/01/2012]; London Gazette, Issue 17525, 16/10/1819, p. 1828.

2. Gentleman's Magazine NS Vol. 4 (Jan-June 1858) p. 103.

3. 1841, 1851 and 1861 census online.

We are grateful to Alan T. Robertson for his help with this entry.