Born: Feb­ru­a­ry 12, 1818, Pul­ver­batch, Shrop­shire, Eng­land.

Died: June 8, 1885, Hop­ton, Suf­folk, Eng­land.

Downton was ed­u­cat­ed at Trin­i­ty Coll­ege, Cam­bridge (BA 1840, MA 1843). Tak­ing Ho­ly Or­ders in 1843, he be­came Cur­ate of Bem­bridge, Isle of Wight (1843), and of Ho­ly Trin­i­ty, Cam­bridge (1847). In 1849, he be­came the in­cum­bent at St. John’s in Chat­ham. He went to Ge­ne­va, Switz­er­land, as Eng­lish Chap­lain in 1847, and was ap­point­ed Rec­tor of Hop­ton in 1873. He was al­so for some time Do­mes­tic Chap­lain to Lord Mon­son.

Downtown’s hymns were main­ly con­trib­ut­ed to the Church of Eng­land mag­a­zine, A. T. 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:

• A trans­la­tion of Pro­fess­or Er­nest Na­ville’s Lec­tures on Mo­dern Athe­ism, 1865
• Ho­ly Script­ure and the Tem­per­ance Quest­ion, 1878

Sources

Lyrics

1. Another Year, Another Year
2. For Thy Mer­cy and Thy Grace
3. Harp, Awake, Tell Out the Story
4. Lord, Her Watch Thy Church Is Keep­ing