John Dawnay, 1st Viscount Downe

Dawnay was the son of John Dawnay of Womersley, Yorkshire and his wife Elizabeth Hutton, daughter of Sir Richard Hutton, a Judge of the King's Bench.

As this was an Irish peerage he could remain a member of the House of Commons and he was re-elected in 1681, 1685 and 1689.

[2] He commissioned the building of Cowick Hall in East Yorkshire in the late 17th century.

Dawnay died in October 1695, aged 70, and was succeeded in the viscountcy by his son Henry.

After her death in February 1662 he married secondly Dorothy Wickham, daughter of William Johnson, of Wickham, Lancashire, in 1663[1] Sir Christopher Dawnay, 1st Baronet, was his brother.