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- A lawyer of the Inner Temple, in London. He came to New England in 1638 with his second wife, Lucy, and settled at Salem, but returned to England several times and ultimately died in Scotland.
A son by his second wife, Sir George Downing, held various positions under Cromwell: minister to Holland, secretary to the Treasury, and Scout Master General of the Parliamentary army.
From Abandoning America (citation details below):
Emmanuel Downing was a lawyer of Inner Temple, London. He married Lucy, a sister of John Winthrop, in 1622. He had grown up in Ipswich and attended Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He worked in Dublin for a time but came back to London in 1626. He was an adventurer in the Massachusetts Bay Company from the start, and acted as the Company's attorney in England. He also looked after John Winthrop's business interests after Winthrop left for New England in 1630. Some of Downing's children -– James, Mary and Susan -– preceded him to New England, c. 1633. Emmanuel and Lucy Downing emigrated in 1638, with their son George Downing, at Winthrop's encouragement.
Downing, an investor and entrepreneur as well as a lawyer, settled in Salem, Massachusetts. He was admitted to the church on 4 November 1638, and as a freeman on 14 March 1638/9. He became recorder of deeds for Salem on 7 October 1640, and kept that office into the 1650s. He was active in town government and often acted as a representative at the Massachusetts General Court. Before Hugh Peter, Thomas Weld and William Hibbins returned to England as agents for Massachusetts in 1641, Downing briefed them on legal matters relating to the colony's charter.
Downing seems to have made three visits to England before he returned home for good in 1654. He was in England on business, c. October 1642 to c. June 1643. On this occasion he acted as an attorney for Adam Winthrop, and aided John Winthrop Jr (with Hugh Peter and Thomas Weld) to promote investment in the Saugus ironworks. Downing returned to New England but set sail for England again in December 1644. On 25 February 1644/5 he reported his arrival in London. The Massachusetts General Court had directed him to gather evidence against Thomas Morton. He also handled business for the Saugus ironworks, including the recruitment of Richard Leader as manager. Downing was associated with a scheme promoted by Hugh Peter and Thomas Weld, to send poor children from England to New England. Downing fell under suspicion (with Nehemiah Bourne) of pocketing some of the money raised by Peter and Weld. He sailed for New England in May 1645 and was back there by August. With Bourne, Thomas Fowle and Robert Sedgwick, Downing led a petition against laws restricting the presence of strangers and prohibiting anabaptists, arguing that these colonial policies were deeply unpopular among the godly in England. His son George Downing left New England for good in 1645. Before long, Downing visited England for a third time: he was there in May 1647, but came back to Boston by June 1648. Downing was keenly aware of temptations to return to England: he had heard John Davenport and Theophilus Eaton might go; he knew Hugh Peter was urging John Winthrop Jr to take up opportunities back home.
Emmanuel Downing's fourth journey to England was his last. He received a letter from Hugh Peter in the winter of 1652/3, asking him to come to England, with his wife Lucy. He suspected 'George would have us retorne, and putts Mr Peters upon the invitation'. On 25 September 1654, Emmanuel Downing declared he intended to travel back to England with Robert Sedgwick within two months. He sailed that winter. Stephen Winthrop reported, 11 March 1654/5, that Downing had recently arrived in London. By this time George Downing's star was rising as scoutmaster-general in Scotland. Emmanuel Downing joined him there and quickly became clerk to the new Council of Scotland, established in May 1655 (of which Samuel Desborough was also a member). Later, Downing welcomed Fitz John Winthrop to Scotland. His wife Lucy and daughter Martha joined him in Edinburgh by 1658. Emmanuel Downing died in Edinburgh in 1659. Lucy Downing lived on in England until her death in 1679, in straitened circumstances -- reliant on her son George, who was notoriously rich and notoriously mean.
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Nielsen Hayden genealogy
Bef 1585 - Aft 1660 (> 75 years)
[1, 6, 7, 8]