George Downing III
(1684/5 –1747/9)
The third George Downing was three when his
mother died in 1688. Unable to bring him up on his own, his father agreed that
his sister-in-law, Mary Cecil, the third daughter of Lord Salisbury and wife of
Sir William Forester of
“England and France were at the onset of the
war of the Spanish Succession, during which many great battles would be fought
in western Europe, but the Augustan age knew nothing of the horrors of total
war. Civilised intercourse between citizens of the warring nations was still possible and
young English gentlemen could continue, like their forbears, to wander about
the continent in search of culture and experience, of beautiful objet d’art to send home and lovely ladies to leave behind.
This must be how Goerge Downing spent the next few
years but no record of his travels has survived.”
Towards the end of 1703, when Mary was 16,
she received an invitation to go to
“the glamour of the Court, balls, masques
and frivolities of High Society, outweighed any conscientious scruples she had
about breaking her promise to the far-away young man she probably never thought
of as her husband. Her parents saw the advantage of having their daughter in
intimate attendance on the Monarch and advised her to accept. “
Mary threw herself gaily into Court life
and her “sparkling loveliness made her the toast of everyone, courtiers and
politicians, old and young.” One
admirer asked her father for permission to marry her; but, on learning she was
already married, agreed to the hand of her younger sister, Diana.
“In my retreat here I have just
received news from
(Quoted in French, History of
His parents-in-law tried to convince him that she had
done it to please them, not to displease him. Mary also added her “womanly
protestations”; but it was to no avail. Rather than return to London and
snatch his wife from the King’s Court and announce his marriage to her in front
of the most influential men in English society, he went off on further travels
round Europe without leaving a forwarding address. When he returned in 1704, he
is said to have been at Court and noticed a stunning Lady in Waiting and was
surprised to be told by Sir William Forester that she was his wife. He told his
father-in-law that he intended to dispute the validity of the marriage and
obstinately refused to see or take notice of Mary. Whether he had another
partner is uncertain. Sir William calculated that if his daughter’s marriage
was declared null and void, now that she was mixing in high circles, he could
easily find her another husband of much more influential standing than the
undistinguished twenty-year old son of a dissolute second baronet.
The only reasons for divorce in those days
were adultery, consanguinity and affinity, not sentimental ones. He
acknowledged that over the fourteen years of his marriage, it had not been
consummated. He had hardly seen his wife; she had not taken the name Downing
and that “such disgusts and aversions have arisen and continue between the
two that there is no possibility of any mutual agreement, and so they are very
desirous of being set at liberty.” Persuading the House of Lords to grant a
divorce was a lengthy and costly process.
(Lords’ Journals, xx. 41, 45)
Mary did not let the legal process spoil
her enjoyment. The Globe newspaper reported her attending the first ever
“I was tired with riding a mettlesome
horse a dozen miles, not having been on horseback these twelve months. And Miss
Forester did not make it easier. She is a silly true maid of honour and I did
not like her, although she may be a toast and was dressed like a man.”
They told Mary that a book was to be
written about the Maids of Honour and that they’d all appear in it if they gave
a subscription. Mary realised it was a hoax and declined. Swift’s dislike of
her as “an unlessoned girl,
unschooled, unpractised” didn’t deter her.
She retired at thirty to a small house
near
When George Downing II died in 1711 his
son was about 27. Inheriting an estate of about 8,000 acres in Cambridgeshire
and Bedfordshire as well as property in
One of his first tasks was to ensure that
the building work on the Mansion was completed. He
had his manor house in East Hatley dismantled and the building materials carted
along the
Original
sketch of the south of the house on 1801 map in
Gamlingay took a big step up in the world. The
construction work in the area must have been a great economic stimulus with
demand for bricks, timber and mortar. It’s probable many local men and boys got
employment as bricklayers, carpenters, plasterers and builders’ labourers.
There’d have been both permanent and temporary job opportunities for domestic
staff as well as in the gardens. Local suppliers must have done well with
demand for meat, eggs, bread, cheese, vegetables, beer, wine, flowers etc,
especially when he entertained guests. The estate would have provided a
valuable income for many in the village.
A contemporary map had a sketch of the Mansion from
which these artist’s impressions were taken. It had three-storeys with
twenty-six sash windows on the south facing frontage. It was built in Baroque
style with four ornate pilaster strips dividing the main body of the house into
three regular sections. An elaborate cornice along the top was crowned with
four urns. Single-storey wings with nine floor-to-ceiling windows on both sides
were connected to the house by corridors, giving an inverted U-shaped
appearance. A gravelled courtyard surrounded a sunken circular lawn, 120 feet
(42 m.) in diameter and one foot (0.37cm) lower. The house occupied an area of
225 feet by 150 feet (60.8 x 40.5 m.) and had extensive cellars 105 feet x 35
feet x 6-7 feet (38.8 x 12.35 x 2.1 - 2.59 m). One can imagine the range of
expensive wines, ports and liqueurs stored down there. The interior decorations
and furnishings would undoubtedly have been influenced by his travels on the
continent and the trend in those days for large Italian or French paintings and
Grecian vases standing on Louis XIV side-tables. Unfortunately, there is no
inventory of the house contents.
A coach and stable
block stood alongside
Between 1710 and
1730 there was a new trend for wealthy landowners to employ landscape gardeners.
It was the period of the European Enlightenment, which coincided with the
spread of Freemasonry. Among the well-known Masonic landowners and
intellectuals of the eighteenth century were Alexander Pope, Dr. Arbuthnot,
Edward Harley, the Earl of Chesterfield, James Addison, Richard Steele,
Jonathan Swift, James Thomson, Lord Burlington, Lord Cobham, William Stuckley,
Lord Montague, Voltaire, and Montesquieu. Whether the Downings
or the other major landowners like Astell and Pedley were Freemasons is uncertain
but it is interesting that they had their estates landscaped at the same time.
Freemasonry developed as a focus for intellectuals,
politicians, the gentry, artists and architects providing “a continuous
exchange of ideas, aesthetic values and beliefs between English and European
intellectuals. Freemasons believed in virtue, progress, equality, and they
contributed to the preparation of the soil for the late eighteenth century
democratic revolutions. These Enlightenment ideals (tolerance, equality, universalism,
civic duty, natural religion, morality) which they
helped propagate through their international links were also reflected - by
means of its iconography and design—in the early "emblematic"
landscape garden.”
http://conspiration.ca/franc_macon/Freemasonic%20Symbolism%20and%20Georgian%20Gardens.htm
Downing’s formal landscaped gardens were created
behind the house to the north (centred on TL 22615188). Rev. William Cole, the
Cambridgeshire antiquarian, said simply that Downing had built “a most
elegant House”. Edmund Carter’s History
of Cambridgeshire of 1753 described
A path extended from the
back door of the house to a series of three terraces that sloped down to a
lake. Their construction must have involved employing a considerable number of
labourers to move all the earth. The narrow upper terrace, 500 feet long and 30
feet (185 x 10.5 metres) wide, was created by raising the ground ten feet (3.7
m.) on its eastern side. Two 25 feet (8.2 m.) wide ramps at either end dropped
six feet (2.1 m.) to a second broader terrace. It stretched 460 feet (170.2 m.)
east to west and 230 feet (74 m.) north to south and had a semicircular hollow
matching the shape of the lake. Its western slopes were between 4 and 6½ feet
(1.48 – 2.4 m.) higher than an ornamental garden. Its northern side was 6 feet
(2.1 m.) above the third terrace and its eastern side was 10 feet (3.7m.) above
a series of rectangular ponds. The
third terrace was reached by two equally wide ramps. It was about 400 feet (148
m.) in width but only between 50 (18.5 m.) and 22 feet (8.14 m.) wide. The
semi-circular bay, 100 feet (37 m.) wide and 40 feet (14.8 m.) deep could have
provided boat access to the lake.
To create the ornamental lake the small stream that flowed
eastwards from White Wood was blocked by an earth dam 800 feet (296 m.) long,
5½ feet (2.03 m.) high on both sides, 80 feet (29.6 m.) wide at the base and 20
feet (7.4 m.) wide
across the top. The north and west banks
were between 2 and 5 feet (0.74 – 1.85 m.) high. It was trapezoid in shape,
four feet (1.08 m.) deep and lined with impermeable clay. A small oval island, nearly 40 feet (14.8 m.) across and 2½ feet (0.9 m.)
high was just north of centre and would have caught the eye. The top of the banks
was lined with apple trees and on the sides grew tall reeds and rushes to
attract a variety of birds and ducks. The lake was said to teem with fish.
A series of four ponds formed a semi-circular water
feature on the eastern side of the lake and terraces. They were 40 feet wide
and between 150 and 400 feet (55.5 – 148 m.) in length. An earth dam up to 8
feet (2.96 m.) high separated the first from the second ponds. According to
George Day’s Way about Cambridgeshire and Fenland, Gamlingay was “a
suitable fishing district.” The lake and ponds might have been but
Gamlingay was not. Children today catch sticklebacks and minnows in the brook.
Grouse were said to have been seen on the Heath so Downing probably used the
estate for shooting parties, bringing back rabbits, pheasants and ducks
attracted to the pond.
There was a walled garden to the west of the house.
Several rectangular plantations of trees were planted to protect the house from
the cold, north winds and give the grounds a more beautiful appearance. Scores
of small rectangular fishponds dotted the gardens and numerous paths provided
scenic walks. Each had a piece of Roman statuary at the end and a nice viewing
point. They included Diana, the hunter, Mercury the messenger, a Roman
gladiator and “Fame on a pedestal”. There were also two pyramids, an urn, an
obelisk and a Gothic gate. A network of paths from the upper terrace with
fountains at the intersections, linked up with a serpentine path with “rond-point” and “pattes d’oie” which led the walker on a symbolic trail through the
gardens and woods to the Park’s grandest architectural feature.
The brick wall along the northern boundary of the park
on Drove Road had a Full Moon Gate, a popular 18th century folly
(22275267), thought to have been built early in the park’s development. There
already was a 25 feet (6.75m.) high Moon Gate on the ridge top in Mr Astell’s
Downing also had a splendid labyrinth constructed in
the park, hidden by a ten-foot (2.7 m.) high brick wall. It would have been
quite an attraction for his visitors. Hedges of hornbeam, the same height as
the wall, lined ten-foot wide paths. French commented that
“Those who
ventured into it would find it mysterious and rather frightening as they
followed the meandering paths to a stone bench or creeper covered arbour in the
remote centre. It was a maze to rival that of Hampton Court, but whereas the
girlish laughter of Sir George Downing’s wife when she was a young Maid of
Honour must have sometimes sounded along the tortuous alleys at Hampton, those
at Gamlingay would never hear her voice.
According to Brown, Downing was the first
person of any social standing and importance to live in Gamlingay since the Avenels of the 15th century. Whilst some would locals would
have deferred to his influential position, others were open in their criticism.
Just what this would mean to the other
villagers one of them discovered the hard way. Edward Havelock was hauled
before the Quarter Sessions in January 1713 for speaking [and] reflecting
unmannerly words of her Majesties justices of the peace for this County, and
particularly of Sir George Downing, Baronet. And having upon his Appearance
here this day in open Court submissively begged pardon upon his knees for his
said offence. This Court doth therefore order that the said Edward Haylock be discharged.
The village, for so long free from the presence
of a resident squire, had to swallow its pride and learn for a time anyway,
that it was impossible for a man like Downing to exist without hordes of
forelock-tugging people trailing in his wake. It would be unfair to lay too
much blame on Downing. He was only asking for the same deference that every
other man of wealth and position expected as a God-given right. ‘God bless the
squire and his relations, and keep us in our proper stations’ was an attitude
that most people, rich and poor, considered to be a
fundamental fact of life.
I should think that those ‘unmannerly
words’ of Haylock’s were a joke he made about
Downing’s mansion (then being built) over a jug of ale in the Rose and crown,
and that he was overheard and reported by one of the constables, who all seem
to have been inordinately fond of the place (the pub, not the mansion). It
could be that Haylock made an injudicious comment
about Downing’s mistress. She was Mary Townsend, who began as a kitchen maid in
the
(Brown, op.cit. pp.160-161)
According to French, Mary was born in East
Hatley on 3rd March 1694 and, after working for the first Sir
George, moved into
“She
must also have had considerable feminine charm – enough of it, at any rate, to
make her sexually attractive to a husband unable to exercise his marital
rights. George Downing left posterity hardly any clues to the nature of his
sexual life. It may be that he told the truth when he assured his wife that
during his travels abroad he had no thought for any woman but her; it is
possible that he was unlike other young men on the Grand Tour in not having any
amorous experiences even after his declaration that he would not consummate the
marriage; on the other hand, he may have been as ready to get into bed with any
woman at any time as that fictional hero of his age, Tom Jones. All we know is
that some three years after Parliament had put the seal on his separation from
his wife George Downing began an intimate association with this young member of
his domestic staff. Perhaps that association was between a lonely man hungry
for sexual gratification and an accommodating woman exploiting his lust to her
own advantage; perhaps despite their differing status, they were in love;
perhaps it was merely hat daily contact created mutual liking and affection.
Whichever it was, the result was the same. In May 1722 Mary Townsend bore Sir
George a daughter, who was christened
(French, op.cit. pp.36-7)
When Downing bought the Grey Friars estate
in Dunwich, a small fishing village on the
He was the Dunwich bailiff from 1712 and was due an annual fee-farm rent of £5. As none of
the local farmers had paid him, in 1718 he served writs on them. Ten were sent
to Beccles gaol and ”others, to avoid the
like confinement, were obliged to abscond.”
Despite this, the electors still voted
him their representative in 1722.
To strengthen his position he bought the lease of the
Borough from the crown, which secured the second MPs seat as well as his own.
Between 1726 – 27 it was held by John Sambrooke, his wife’s brother-in-law. For all the trouble and expense to become an
MP he was said not to have been very active and always voted with the Whigs,
(Brown, op.cit. p.159; London Magazine, of 1949)
For more details about Sir George Downing III
and his wife’s political intrigues read O.G. Pickard’s Dunwich ~ the Rotten Borough.
Following Queen Anne’s death in 1714, Mary
was asked by Caroline, the Princess of Wales, to help her set up an
establishment in St James’s Palace. After
ten years writing fruitless letters to George, she eventually petitioned the
House of Lords herself for a divorce. She was only the second woman to try to
do so. Elizabeth, Marchioness of Anglesea, got the
first in 1700 because of her husband’s cruelty but the Act of Parliament did
not dissolve the marriage, only allowed them to live apart. Philip Wharton, a
young nobleman, “had gained full possession of her heart.” He was eleven years younger and at
nineteen had won a Dukedom but Lady Mary Montague considered him depraved, “the
most profligate, impious and shameless of men.”
On 27th February 1715 they signed
a financial settlement. George gave up any claim to her fortune, her estates
and £10,750 capital she had including £2,700 from the Crown. They agreed not to
“molest one another or intermeddle with each other’s personal or private
assets. As soon as the King gave his assent to the Act of Parliament which
sanctioned him living apart from his wife but without being divorced he called
his advisers to help him make his will. He was only 32, surprisingly young to
have given up hope of a legitimate heir. He left the estates to his newly-born
nephew, Jacob Garrard Downing, the son his brother Charles who married Mary
Garrard, the daughter of Sir Thomas Garrard of Langford, near Biggleswade. If
he died before he could inherit, the estates were to go his cousin, Thomas
Barnardiston, the son of George’s aunt Mary, the fourth daughter of the first
Sir George Downing. Two other distant cousins were named should Thomas die
before inheriting. They were Charles and John Peters, the grandsons of Martha,
Sir George Downing I’s youngest sister. Their father was the second inheritor
in Sir George Downing II’s will but only if he changed his name to Downing. Not
wanting the family name to be lost, whoever inherited had to do the same. In
case they all died without issue, the nominated trustees, his cousins, the
third Earl of Carlisle and the fifth Earl of Salisbury, Nicholas Lechmere, the
Solicitor General, John Pedley of Tetworth Hall and Thomas Pulleyn of St Neots
were instructed
“by with
and out of the rents, issues and profits of the premises, buy and purchase the
inheritance and fee simple of some piece of land, lying and being within the
town of Cambridge, proper and convenient for the erecting and building of a
college; and thereon should erect and build all such houses, edifices, and
buildings as should be fit and requisite for that purpose, which college shall
be called “Downing’s College” and “a royal charter should be sued for and
obtained for the founding such college and incorporating a body collegiate of
that name, in and within the University of Cambridge.”
(Quoted in French, op.cit. p.35)
It
also stipulated the new college should be built on a plan
to be approved by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York and the Masters of St. John's College
and Clare Hall.
As his great-grandfather, father and his uncle Charles had connections with the
University, it is probable he developed an interest in supporting
education.
His interest in politics led him to
support Sir Robert Walpole, who, in 1732, appointed him as a Knight of the
33
“the
romantic streak in Sir George must have made him think the expense well worth
while, as he marched in the procession with the Duke of Cumberland in his
robes, watched by the Prince and Princess of Wales, Princess Amelia and other
notables.”
He started visiting his wife in
Confined more to
Gamlingay, he may have spent more time in church for, in Steven’s Downing College he said that Downing
built himself a “very noble pew” over the north chapel of St Mary’s
Church. His only other interest was in Tadlow, where, following the 18th
century trend of having follies on one’s estate, he arranged the building of an
observation tower from which he could enjoy the views over the fields, meadows
and woods and church spires in the valley of the River Rhee
towards Royston and the grassy slopes of the Chiltern Hills on the horizon. The
tower forms part of Tower Farm. It was here in 1744 that Sir George was nearly
murdered. As he was overseeing the construction, a “villainous fellow” took the
opportunity to hit him over the head with a hammer. George ran off and two or
three shots were fired at him before he managed to escape. The man was caught
and taken to Cambridge Gaol where he admitted that he “did no harm by
killing a man who paid nobody, and was so ill a landlord and paymaster with so
great an estate.” As a result, it is said that Downing never spent any more
on this estate.
In his later years, according to William Cole, he led
“a most miserable, covetous & sordid existence. He has about £1500 a
year untenanted about this parish, and has been so for these many years, and
all his houses are tumbling down”. He chose not to stand in the 1747
election. French suggested it might have been because “he had shown unusual independence in voting against the Government in
two important divisions in December 1743 and January 1744 and absenting himself
from another in April 1746.” He died at
The best epitaph to Sir George Downing III comes from
Stephen French who did most to ensure his life has not been in vain.
“Famous Kings and
pious
“No one asks who or
what they have been,
More than he asks what
waves,
In the moonlight
solitudes vast,
Of the midmost Ocean,
have swelled,
Foamed for a moment
and gone.”
It would be wrong, perhaps, to try to
assess the character of a man, born nearly three centuries ago, who not only
left no letters, diaries or other personal documents from which something of
his thoughts and attitudes might be discovered, but who made so little
impression on his contemporaries that there is hardly a mention of him in the
writings of the time. If, as seems probable, he was a sad and ineffectual man,
perhaps in part as result of his unhappy early childhood, all who love Downing
must nevertheless remember him with gratitude and admiration for enriching so
many lives by his benefaction.
(French, op.cit. p.42)