Sir George Downing, 2nd Baronet ( – June 1711) was a British civil servant. He was the son and heir of

Sir George Downing, 1st Baronet Sir George Downing, 1st Baronet ( – 1684) was a statesman, soldier, diplomat and spymaster and preacher, whose allegiances changed significantly during his career, giving his support to Oliver Cromwell and (later, after the Restoration) ...

, for whom Downing Street is named. His father worked as

Teller of the Receipt of the Exchequer The Teller of the Receipt of the Exchequer was an office in the English Exchequer. The Tellers of the Exchequer received any money to be paid into the Exchequer, noted the amount in a book, and sent a copy of the entry, called a Teller's Bill, to t ...

from 1660 until 1684 and was made a baronet of

East Hatley East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sunrise, Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from ...

, in 1663. In 1680, the younger George Downing joined his father as a Teller of the Receipt of the Exchequer, holding that position until April 1689. His father died in July 1684, and the younger Downing inherited his father's baronetcy. On 12 July 1683, Downing married Lady Catharine Cecil, daughter of

James Cecil, 3rd Earl of Salisbury James Cecil, 3rd Earl of Salisbury, (1648 – June 1683), known as Viscount Cranborne from 1660 to 1668, was an English nobleman and politician. Biography Salisbury was the son of Charles Cecil, Viscount Cranborne, the son of William Cecil ...

, and his wife Lady Margaret Manners, daughter of the

Earl of Rutland Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. The title originates in the Old English word ''eorl'', meaning "a man of noble birth or rank". The word is cognate with the Scandinavian form ''jarl'', and meant "chieftain", particular ...

. They had one son before Lady Catharine's death in 1688, George Downing, who inherited his father's title upon the second baronet's death in June 1711. George married Mary Forester, daughter of

Sir William Forester ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as p ...

Dothill Dothill is a small district in the north-western part of Telford, England. It is located to the north-west of Wellington, one of the old towns that form a part of the modern-day new town of Telford. The area of Dothill used to be the home of the ...

, Shropshire, in whose home he was brought up following his mother's death. He also served as

Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire This is an ''incomplete'' list of Sheriffs of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire in England from 1154 until the abolition of the office in 1965. Exceptionally, the two counties shared a single sheriff. Sheriffs had a one-year term of office, bei ...

in 1686–87.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Downing, George 1650s births 1711 deaths Baronets in the Baronetage of England People from Cambridgeshire High Sheriffs of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire People from Westminster