Dr. Calybute Downing (1605–1643) was an English clergyman, a member of the Westminster Assembly.B. Donagan, 'Downing, Calybute (1606–1644)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004). Also a civil lawyer, he is now remembered for political views, which moved from an absolutist position in the 1630s to a justification of resistance to authority by 1640, within a contractarian setting.J.P. Sommerville, Politics and Ideology in England 1603-1640 (Longman, London & New York 1986), pp. 37, 68 and 74.
Life He was son of Calybute Downing of the manor of Sugarswell in Shenington, in an exclave of Gloucestershire,'Parishes: Shenington', in M.D. Lobel and A. Crossley (eds), A History of the County of Oxford Vol. 9: Bloxham Hundred, ed. Mary D Lobel and Alan Crossley (V.C.H./HMSO London, 1969) pp. 139-50, at notes 88-89 (British History Online, accessed 22 November 2018). (between Banbury, Oxfordshire and Upper Tysoe, Warwickshire), and Elizabeth Morrison née Wingfield, who married in December 1604 at Tinwell, Rutland. Tinwell was in the sphere of Stamford and Burghley House, reflecting the fact that Elizabeth and her brothers Robert Wingfield, M.P., of Upton, Northamptonshire,A.M. Mimardière and P.W. Hasler, 'Wingfield, Robert II (c.1558-1609), of Upton, Northants.', in P.W. Hasler (ed.), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603 (from Boydell and Brewer, 1981), History of Parliament Online. and John Wingfield, M.P. (for Stamford) of Tickencote, Rutland,S.M. Thorpe, 'Wingfield, John (c.1560-1626), of Tickencote, Rutland.', in P.W. Hasler (ed.), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603 (from Boydell and Brewer 1981), History of Parliament Online]. were the daughter and sons of Elizabeth Cecil, sister of Lord Burghley.S.M. Thorpe, 'Wingfield, Robert I (d.1580), of Upton, Northants.', in P.W. Hasler (ed.), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603 (from Boydell and Brewer, 1981), History of Parliament Online. Calybute's unusual Christian name was the maiden surname of his paternal grandmother, Susan Calybut of Castle Acre, Norfolk.W.C. Downing and R. Wilberforce, Genealogy of the Downing Family and Immediate Collateral Relations (Private, 1901), p. 11 (Internet Archive). Some relationships shown in this work may not be reliable.For this family, see 'Calybutt' in W. Rye (ed.), The Visitacion of Norffolk... by William Hervey, 1563,... enlarged by Clarenceux Cooke,... and the Vissitation made by John Raven, Richmond, Anno 1613 Harleian Society vol. XXXII (London 1891), pp. 67-68 (Internet Archive).
He was baptised on 27 October 1605 at St. Andrews church, Northborough, Northamptonshire (now Cambridgeshire). He was admitted pensioner of Emmanuel College, Cambridge in 1623 but migrated as a commoner to Oriel College, Oxford in the same year,'Downing, Calibut (Downame)', in J. Foster (ed.), Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714 (Oxford 1891), pp. 406-39 (British History Online, accessed 22 November 2018). from which he proceeded B.A. (as 'Calbutus Downam') in 1626. He left Oxford and was apparently curate at Quainton, Buckinghamshire when on 2 December 1627 he married Margaret, the daughter of the rector Richard Brett. Downing's stepmother, Anne, daughter of Edmund Hoogan of Hackney, Middlesex, died at Quainton in December 1630 and was buried there.G. Lipscomb, The History and Antiquities of the County of Buckingham (J. & W. Robins, London 1847), I, pp. 390-444, at pp. 434 (Google).
Incorporated at Cambridge in 1629, he proceeded M.A. from Peterhouse in 1630. In 1632 he became rector of Ickford, Buckinghamshire,Clergy of the Church of England database, Appointment Record ID 189027. and about the same time of West Ilsley, Berkshire. At this time, at Oxford, he first published his Discourse of the State Ecclesiastical of this Kingdom in relation to the Civil, of which a second edition appeared in 1634. Competing unsuccessfully against Gilbert Sheldon for the Wardenship of All Souls' College, Oxford in 1636,'Calibute Downing', in A. Wood, Athenae Oxonienses, New Edition ed. P. Bliss (F.C. & J. Rivington, etc., London 1817), III, pp. 105-08 (Internet Archive). See 'Sheldon, Gilbert' in J. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses Part I vol. 4 (Cambridge University Press 1927), p. 57 (Internet Archive). in that year he exchanged with Sheldon the rectory of Ickford for the vicarage of Hackney, Middlesex,'Hackney, Vicarage,' in R. Newcourt, Repertorium Ecclesiasticum Parochiale Londinense (Benjamin Motte, London 1708), I, p. 620 & note r (Google).Clergy of the Church of England database, Appointment Record ID 338140 (where George Moore was rector),Clergy of the Church of England database, Location Records ID 11756. and resigned the living of West Ilsley. In 1637, the year in which Richard Brett died, he gained the degree of Doctor of both laws.J. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses Part I vol. 2 (Cambridge University Press 1922), p. 62 (Internet Archive). According to Anthony à Wood, he aimed at a chaplaincy to Thomas Wentworth, and so wrote in favour of episcopacy.Wood, 'Calibute Downing', Athenae Oxonienses, III, pp. 105-08. The diarist Samuel Rogers called him "our sad pastor", and dreaded having to hear his preaching.T. Webster and K. Shipps (eds), The Diary of Samuel Rogers, 1634-1638 (Boydell Press, 2004), p. xliii (Google).
Preaching before the Artillery Company of London on 1 September 1640, however, he stated that for defence of religion and reformation of the church it was lawful to take up arms against the king. Samuel Butler comments that Downing on this occasion was acting for Puritan leaders to test opinion, and that after preaching the sermon he went to the house of Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick at Little Lees, Essex.(S. Butler), A Letter from Mercurius Civicus to Mercurius Rusticus (Oxford 1643). Full text at HathiTrust (page views): see pp. 8-9. Also at Umich/eebo (open). In the December following Downing made a petition to the House of Lords for the living of Hackney, on the grounds that the rector had received another incumbency.The National Archives (UK), Parliamentary archives, ref HL/PO/JO/10/1/44 and ref HL/PO/JO/10/1/45 (Discovery Catalogue). '24 December 1640', in Journal of the House of Lords: Volume 4, 1629-42 (HMSO, London 1767-1830), p. 117 (British History Online, accessed 23 November 2018). (Moore, who had been appointed in 1622, survived to subscribe as Rector in 1662 and died in office in 1664.Clergy of the Church of England database, Appointment Record ID 134302, Subscription Evidence Record ID 120716, and Vacancy Evidence Record ID 161700.) In 1641 Downing declared his views fully in committing four of his principal works to the press.
Wood states that Downing became chaplain to Lord Robartes's regiment in the Earl of Essex's army.R. Baxter, Reliquiae Baxterianae: or, Mr. Richard Baxter's narrative of the most memorable passages of his life and times (T. Parkhurst, J. Robinson, F. Lawrence and F. Dunton, London 1696), Book 1, p. 42 (Internet Archive). Wood, 'Calibute Downing', Athenae Oxonienses, III, pp. 105-08. On 31 August 1642 he preached a Fast sermon before the House of Commons. On 23 October following, the Battle of Edgehill was fought at the north end of Sugarswell Lane, two miles from his father's home. In 1643 he took the Solemn League and Covenant and was appointed, with Jeremiah Burroughs, for Middlesex in the Westminster Assembly;'An Act for the calling of an Assembly of learned and godly divines', (Parliament 1643) pp. 56-61, at p. 58 (Google). he sided with the Independents. He resigned the vicarage of Hackney on 3 May 1643,Clergy of the Church of England database, Vacancy Evidence Record ID 285764. and on 20 June 1643 was appointed by parliament one of the licensors of books of divinity.D. Masson, The Life of John Milton Vol. 3: 1643-1649, New Edition (Macmillan and Co., London 1896), p. 270. He died suddenly soon afterwards: he was deceased by 2 November 1643, when the House of Lords approved the Commons nomination of John Dury to succeed him in the Assembly of Divines.'House of Lords Journal Volume 6: 2 November 1643', in Journal of the House of Lords Volume 6: 1643 (London, 1767-1830), pp. 290-93 (British History Online, accessed 22 November 2018). See Masson, The Life of John Milton, III (1896), p. 392. According to Wood his father died of grief for him late in 1644.Wood, 'Calibute Downing', Athenae Oxonienses, III, pp. 105-08.
Biographical pitfalls The Norfolk Visitation incorrectly shows him as the son of his father's second marriage to Ann Hoogan.'Downing' (from Harleian MS 1552), in Rye, The Visitacion of Norffolk, p. 113 (Internet Archive). Anthony à Wood gave Downing a bad character, not least because he mistakenly believed that he was the father ("father to a son of his own temper named George") of Sir George Downing, 1st Baronet, nephew of John Winthrop, a mis-affiliation which is repeated persistently in later sources. Despite the inconsistency of the given date, Wood associates him with Thomas Edwards's remarks in the Third Part of Gangræna (1646): "August 16. 1646. Preached at Hackney one Master Downing, a Preacher of the Army, and a young Peters (as he was called), some who were eare-witnesses told me of his Sermon, and it was to this effect; That the Country people say (that is, he meant the Sectaries in the Army say) that the Parliament would do them good, but the Lord Major, the Common-Councell and the Citizens of London would not permit them; he feared God would bring the Plague upon them, and Risings among them; and the cause of all was, the uncharitablenesse of London against the Saints; and that the opposition now was not between worldly men, but between Saints and Saints.
This Downing, alias Peter junior, spake in Hackney pulpit of the Common Councell of London at that time in way of aspersion of them as if they were for the Cavaliers, that when they entered Oxford, the Cavaliers told them, Tis your turn now, it may be ours hereafter, for we have the City of London and the Common-Councell for us."Thomas Edwards, The third part of Gangræna. Or, A new and higher discovery of the errors, heresies, blasphemies, and insolent proceedings of the sectaries of these times (Ralph Smith, at the Bible in Cornhill, London 1646), pp. 81-82. Full text at Umich/eebo (open).
"But behold" (adds Wood), "while he was in the height of these diabolicall and rebellious actions, he was suddenly, and as I may say most justly, cut off from the face of the earth and was no more seen."Wood, 'Calibute Downing', Athenae Oxonienses, III, p. 107. Ronald Bayne suspected that this Hackney preacher was a son of Dr Downing's,R. Bayne, 'Downing, Calybute', Dictionary of National Biography (1885-1900), sources. but the suggested son had died in childhood. As to Downing's character and motivations, Benjamin Brook took issue with several of Wood's statements.'Calibute Downing, D.D.', in B. Brook The Lives of the Puritans, 3 vols (James Black, London 1813), II, pp. 495-96 (Google). The will proved in P.C.C. for Calibut Downing in December 1644 is that of the father and not (as Venn supposed) of the pastor of Hackney.Will of Calibut Downing or Downinge, Gentleman of Shenington, Gloucestershire (P.C.C. 1644, Rivers quire) Discovery Catalogue.
Family The children of Calybute Downing and his wife Margaret Brett included:
Calybute (baptized Quainton, October 1628: died young) Elizabeth (baptized Quainton, May 1630). Living 1653: Elizabeth and Ann sold their moiety of Sugarswell to John Goodwin, of Rollright, Oxfordshire, in 1653.'Parishes: Shenington' (VCH), note 90. Ann (baptized Quainton, March 1631/32). Living 1653 Margaret (baptized Ickford, January 1633/34). Living 1644 Jane (baptized Quainton, June 1636). Living 1644 Henry (baptized Hackney, November 1640). Living 1644
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