George DOWNING [26293]

  General Notes:

George Downing Matric. pens. from QUEENS', Michs. 1569. S. of George, of Beccles, Suffolk. B.A. 1573-4; M.A. from Corpus Christi, 1577. Master of Ipswich Grammar School, 1589-1610. Will proved, 1610. Father of Emmanuel (1602) and perhaps of Joseph (1610). (Suff. Man. Fam., I. 99.)
Cambridge Alumni.

  Other Records

1. St Lawrence Church Yard Ipswich: 1928.
Liveing Archive
A number of family in this Tree were buried in St Lawrence Church Yard - are they still there ?

SKELETONS DUG UP.
DESECRATION IN A CHURCHYARD.
CHANCERY DIV: Mr. Justice Romer.
A story relating to the finding of ten skeletons was told in an action in which the Rev. W. J. F. Whelan, vicar of St. Lawrence, Ipswich, and the Church Council asked for a declaration that a passage, or footway, formed part of the churchyard and for a mandatory order upon Mr. Arthur Joseph Ridley to remove buildings he had erected on the footway. Mr. Vaisey, K.C. for the vicar and the council, stated that they relied on the fact that a coffin-shaped brick vault projected from the churchyard into the footway, and that ten skeletons found were partly buried in the footway and partly in the churchyard. It was suggested by the defence that bones were very prevalent in the sub-soil of Ipswich, for in the 10th and 11th centuries there were three invasions by the Danes who sacked the town and massacred the inhabitants. But those bones were not found in the regular manner of the burial of the skeletons. It was further said that Mr. Ridley's house, which was built before the Reformation, might have been a monastery at one time, but his answer to that was that the house had once been a tavern. John Smith a gardener, stated that in October 1926 he was told by a member of the Church Council to make excavations in the churchyard for the purposes of this action, and that he found a skeleton. Mr. Justice Romer: It seems monstrous to me that a gardener should be instructed to disturb the remains in this churchyard. From the photographs it looks as if a pick-axe had gone through the skull.
CUT IN HALF.
Mr. Arthur John Smith, who was a churchwarden when nine skeletons were found 17 years ago, said the churchwardens sanctioned alterations to a cafe abutting on the churchyard. He did not realise excavations were to be made under the footway until the builder's foreman told him that he had broken into a vault, and had cut through two layers of skeletons.
Mr. Justice Romer: Six parishioners were cut in half. Are any steps to be taken by the council with regard to that work.
Mr. Vaisey: It would now only make bad worse. The desecration is very regrettable.
Bertie Butcher, a bricklayer, employed on the excavating work in 1910, spoke of the finding of the nine- skeletons.
Mr. Justice Romer: Who was responsible for the unhappy idea of cutting these unfortunate skeletons in half ? - I cannot say. You were told to dig down and you did it ? - Yes.
Butcher added that they also cut through a third layer of skeletons. The bones were placed in bags and buried under the concrete floor of the store-room they were building. The hearing was adjourned until Mon-day, when he reserved his decision which was in favour of the defendant.
Ref: Daily Mail 21 Jan 1928

George married Dorcas Blois BELLAMY [26294] [MRIN: 9446] in 1576 in Ipswich, SFK. (Dorcas Blois BELLAMY [26294] was born in 1556 in Berkshire and died on 21 Dec 1610 in Ipswich, SFK.)