John Downame (Downham) (1571–1652) was an English Puritan clergyman and theologian in London, who came to prominence in the 1640s, when he worked closely with the Westminster Assembly.
[3] In 1640 he combined with ministers of the city (Cornelius Burgess, Edmund Calamy, John Goodwin and Arthur Jackson) in presenting a petition to the privy council against William Laud's innovative book of canons.
[4] In 1643 he was appointed one of the licensers of the press, granting imprimatur to theological works, a role in which he took a permissive line, one of the works he approved being Judgement of Martin Bucer Concerning Divorce by John Milton; his licensing of Eikon Basilike in 1649 attracted the attention of the Council of State.
[7] It is presumed that Downame served as the chief editor and compiler for their work: Annotations upon all the Books of the Old and New Testament, London, 1645.
[9] His own writings comprise: He married, after August 1623, Catherine, widow of Thomas Sutton, and daughter of Francis Little, brewer and inn-holder, of Abington, Cambridgeshire, who survived him.