UCL

John Downer

Profile & Legacies Summary

1784 - 1842

Claimant or beneficiary

Biography

Resident slave-owner, baptised in London, owner apparently briefly of Overvyssel estate in Berbice between at least 1825 and 1828, when the property was bought at an execution sale by the mortgagor John Ross, and subsequently awarded the compensation for seven enslaved people in two separate claims. Probably brother of Richard Clarke Downer (q.v.).

  1. Will of John Downer County of Berbice proved 12/05/1846. Under the will, made in 1841, he stated that he was about to leave for the United States. He left small monetary legacies to several family members, and the rest and residue of his estate as to one moiety [half] to Maryann Vanderstoop and the other to her children 'acknowledged and adopted by me as my offspring'. His death-date was given as 01/02/1842 in the National Probate Calendar, which showed him as merchant dying at New Amsterdam leaving effects of £100 [in England].

Sources

A John Downer, very probably this man, was baptised at St Botolph Bishopsgate, son of Richard and Mary Downer, 01/12/1784, Ancestry.com London, England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 [database online].

  1. PROB 11/2035/299; National Probate Calendar 1874.

We are grateful to James Downer for his help with this entry.

Further Information

Wealth at death
£100

Associated Claims (2)

British Guiana 151
£11 8s 0d
Awardee
Details
British Guiana 155
£325 4s 11d
Awardee
Details

Associated Estates (3)

The dates listed below have different categories as denoted by the letters in the brackets following each date. Here is a key to explain those letter codes:

  • SD - Association Start Date
  • SY - Association Start Year
  • EA - Earliest Known Association
  • ED - Association End Date
  • EY - Association End Year
  • LA - Latest Known Association
1831 [EA] - 1831 [LA] → Attorney
Bellevue [ British Guiana | Berbice ]
1818 [EA] - 1818 [LA] → Sequestrator
L'Enterprise (formerly Graubunderland) [ British Guiana | Berbice ]
1825 [EA] - 1828 [LA] → Owner
Pln Overyssel [ British Guiana | Berbice ]

Relationships (1)

John Downer
Brothers
Richard Clarke Downer
Details
Notes →
This is an inferred relationship from genealogical sources for each man giving parents as Richard and Mary Downer and baptisms at St Botolph Bishopsgate....