horized" version of the Bible, and one of
the six learned men appointed to revise the new version after its
completion.

DOWNING, SIR GEORGE, Bart. (c. 1624-1684), English soldier and
diplomatist, son of Emmanuel Downing, barrister, and of Lucy, sister of
Governor John Winthrop, was born in England about 1624.[1] His family
joined Winthrop in America in 1638, settling in Salem, Massachusetts,
and Downing studied at Harvard College. In 1645 he sailed for the West
Indies as a preacher and instructor of the seamen, and arrived in
England some time afterwards, becoming chaplain to Colonel John Okey's
regiment. Subsequently he seems to have abandoned his religious vocation
for a military career, and in 1650 he was scout-master-general of
Cromwell's forces in Scotland, and as such received in 1657 a salary of
L365 and L500 as a teller of the exchequer. His marriage in 1654 with
Frances, daughter of Sir William Howard of Naworth, and sister of the
1st earl of Carlisle, aided his advancement. In Cromwell's parliament of
1654 he represented Edinburgh, and Carlisle in those of 1656 and 1659.
He was one of the first to urge Cromwell to take the royal title and
restore the old constitution. In 1655 he was sent to France to
remonstrate on the massacre of the Protestant Vaudois. Later in 1657 he
was appointed resident at The Hague, to effect a union of the Protestant
European powers, to mediate between Portugal and Holland and between
Sweden and Denmark, to defend the interests of the English traders
against the Dutch, and to inform the government concerning the movements
of the exiled royalists.

He showed himself in these negotiations an able diplomatist. He was
maintained in his post during the interregnum subsequent to the fall of
Richard Cromwell, and was thus enabled in April 1660 to make his peace
with Charles II., to whom he communicated Thurloe's despatches, and
declared his abandonment of "principles sucked in" in New England, of
which he now "saw the error." At the Restoration, therefore, Downing was
knighted (May 1660), was continued in his embassy in Holland, was
confirmed in his tellership of the exchequer, and was further rewarded
with a valuable piece of land adjoining St James's Park for building
purposes, now known as Downing Street.[2] Considering his past, he
showed a very indecent zeal in arresting in Holland and handing over for
execution the regicides Barkstead, Corbet and Okey. Pepys, who
characterized