PORTRAITS - ARTHUR DOWNES AND LUCY TODD

Many readers know about the portraits of ARTHUR DOWNES 1765-1838  and LUCY TODD 1810-1890  which hung a Canford, Lee-on-Solent, for many years and were apparently bequeathed by Leonard Downes to Southampton University where they are now in store.

Arthur and Michael Carden (great grand-sons of each of them) arranged to view them in June 2017. They are in excellent condition apart from the frames which can easily be repaired. Both the university and the National Trust view favourably our suggestion that they should be loaned to the NT and put on public view at Basildon Park, owned by James Morrison, related to both sitters by marriage, from 1838 to 1928.  But there are many small problems to be overcome before this is achieved.

(Added November 2017).  Little progress has been made with the above project so far despite my offer to defray any costs. Southampton University tell me that Sebastian Conway, the House and Collections Manager at Basildon House, said that he would need to discuss the possibility with Oonagh Kennedy, the Curator and that it is possible that the portraits would not fit in with their current hang as it portrays a later period but might fit in with a different display.

(Added September 2020).  This item was originally posted in July 2017.  At that time the sitters were not named by Southampton University or by ArtUk.  It has taken until now to correct this, as will be seen from https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/view_as/grid/search/makers:william-patten-d1843.  No progress has been made with the proposal to hang them at Basildon.

The Downes family 1904

 I expect most family members are familiar with the picture below, which appears in my book about Andrew which can be found at www.lulu.com/spotlight/carden, where it is incorrectly stated that Allen John Downes was in the Royal Navy.

 

 ANDREW    DOROTHY (LE GRICE)   ROBERT    LEONARD    ALLAN JOHN (JACK)   ROGER   CONSTANCE

The Downes family 1904

See Lalage's interesting comments on Allen John Downes in a post earlier this year.

Andrew Downes and the King James bible

Andrew Downes and the King James bible

My daughter Kirsten has drawn my attention to the book Power and Glory by Adam Nicolson about the making of the King James Bible.  Andrew Downes was one of the Translators.  He was Professor of Greek at St John’s College, Cambridge. He is mentioned many times in the book, which also gives a delightful description of Jacobean England, where the new king played a major part in trying to heal the rift between the Puritans and the traditional church.

Leonard Downes, in his Downes Pedigrees book, claims that this Andrew Downes was a member of our branch of the family.  He says on page 33, ‘A Bible has been handed down in our family as an heir-loom, which is now in my possession, that is supposed to have belonged to Andrew Downes, the translator.’  He traces its ownership by our ancestor Arthur Downes a cousin of Andrew (who died in 1628) to 1640.

Who has it now?

Downes and the Antipodes

Lalage Cambell writes - 

I have recently been doing some digging about my paternal grandfather Allan John ‘Jack’ Downes as he was missing from the 1901 census.  I have discovered that he sailed to Wellington, New Zealand on the Kaikoura on 22 July 1896 arriving there on 10^th September.  He returned to the UK on the Weimar sailing this time from Sydney and arriving in Southampton on 3 June 1901.  On the passenger lists on the way out he is described as a ‘Farm pupil’ on the return as a ‘Labourer.’ My mother always described him as a ‘man of independent means’ and I have never got to the bottom of that! 

A son of Colonel Leonard Downes, he was born in 1875, so he made this four-year trip in his early 20s..

I would love to know more about this unexpected discovery.  If anyone can help me to discover more please add a comment to this blog or write to me at lsanders@cardiffmet.ac.uk. 

In the 1911 census he was a ‘ Works Manager’ in an ‘Electric Lamp’ Manufacturer’. He lived in an eleven roomed house in Croydon with his wife and children and his father Leonard who was a retired lieutenant colonel in the Royal artillery.  Family legend tells me that they moved to Lee on the Solent buying Canford out right in 1917. 

Robert Enys Hichens (‘Bob’) RIP. 1932-2020

There were about 200 of us at the funeral in Flushing, Cornwall of Bob Hichens on 24 January 2020

and afterwards at Enys House.

Bob was the elder son of Lieutenant Commander Robert Peverell Hichens RNVR, DSO and bar, DSC and two bars, the famous motor gunboat ace who was killed in action in 1943 and Catherine Enys, and grandson of Constance (‘Connie’) Downes.

After obtaining a first in chemistry at Oxford, Bob joined Shell where he had an illustrious career, remaining with the company until he retired in about 1990 and he and his wife Mariquita soon went to live at his father’s house Bodrennick at Flushing.  He was well known locally, and became a cabinet member of Cornwall County Council.

He and I became very good sailing friends, cruising almost every year from 1992 until 2011 in his 35ft yacht Panacea, visiting Brittany many times and also Ireland and Spain.  These were wonderful trips, all including hilarious and sometimes challenging incidents. He always displayed remarkable self-confidence, courage, tolerance, ingenuity and mechanical ability.