Robert Downes (politician)

Robert Downes (1708 – 24 June 1754) was an Irish politician, who is chiefly remembered as father of William Downes,  Lord Chief Justice of Ireland and the  1st Baron Downes.

He was the only son of Dive Downes, Bishop of Cork and Ross, and his fourth  wife  Catherine Fitzgerald, daughter of  Honorable Robert FitzGerald and his wife Mary Clotworthy, and  sister of  Robert  FitzGerald, 19th Earl of Kildare. His father had come to Ireland from Thornby, Northamptonshire in the 1670s.

Robert married Elizabeth Twigge, daughter of  Thomas  Twigge of Donnybrook,  and had two sons, Dive (died 1798), a clergyman, and William Downes, 1st Baron  Downes (1751-1826),  Lord Chief Justice of Ireland.

Downes sat in the Irish House of Commons as the Member of Parliament for Kildare Borough from 1735 to his death in 1754.

He lived at Donnybrook  Castle,  County Dublin.

References

Category:1691 births
Category:1754 deaths
Category:Irish MPs 1727–1760
Category:Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) for County Kildare constituencies