Born: February 12, 1818, Pulverbatch, Shropshire, England.
Died: June 8, 1885. Place of death reported as either Hopton, Suffolk, England (per Julian & The Peerage) or Thetford, Norfolk, England (Ancestry.com).
Buried: Hoxne, Suffolk, England.
Henry was the son of John Downton and Hannah Kingwell, and husband of Elizabeth McKee (married 1849, Ardagh, County Longford, Ireland).
He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge (BA 1840, MA 1843).
Taking Holy Orders in 1843, he served as curate of Bembridge, Isle of Wight (1843–44); curate of Holy Trinity, Cambridge (1847–49); and incumbent of St. John’s, Chatham, Kent (1849–57).
In 1857, he went to Geneva, Switzerland, where he was English Chaplain until 1873. Returning to England, he was rector of Hopton, Suffolk (1873–85). He was also for some time Domestic Chaplain to Lord Monson.
Downtown’s hymns were mainly contributed to the Church of England magazine, Arthur Russell’s Psalms and Hymns (1851), Barry’s Psalms and Hymns (1862), and the Sunday Magazine.
In 1873, he collected these and published them as Hymns and Verses. His translations from the French of Alexandre Vinet are also in the volume.
His other works include:
If you know where to get a good photo of Downton (head-and-shoulders, at least 200×300 pixels), would you ?