William Downes, 1st Baron Downes

He graduated from Trinity College Dublin, was called to the Bar in 1776 and was elected a member of the Irish House of Commons for Donegal Borough in 1790.

[4] He did enjoy a warm friendship with his colleague Tankerville Chamberlain, whose early death affected him greatly, but he disliked women, and was always uneasy in female company.

[6] On the other hand, Downes did let O'Connell speak in defence of his client at great length, and was severely criticised by the Chief Secretary for Ireland, Sir Robert Peel, for so doing.

In 1803 the author of a series of scurrilous letters attacking the Government, published under the pen name "Juverna" was exposed as Robert Johnson, a justice of the Court of Common Pleas (Ireland).

[5] He retired in 1822; despite his considerable age, and the fact that he had neither wife nor children (his dislike of women was proverbial), he accepted a peerage, and was created Baron Downes, of Aghanville in the King's County,[8] with a special remainder to his cousin Ulysses Burgh.