This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Downing Classification: Biography Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/AUT.2ACEB/1192.1.1.1 Message Board Post: Hello Heather, did you receive my ' E' dated 30Jan 2005? I am not sure when your David Downing was born, but I hope the following may be helpful. In 1683 work on the Downing St houses began, and No 10 was No 5, and the house was not renumbered untill 1779. On 23 September 1735 the Right Hon. Sir Robert Walpole and family moved in and the house then became the residence of the Prime Minister/First Lord of the Treasury. As Sir George Downing (d.1684) bequeathed in his will the lease of the houses to his youngest son Charles (not William) it is very possible that family members lived in the houses for a time. In those days families such as the Downings would have had homes in the country and go to London for certain events and because journeys took so long people stayed longer at their destinations. In 1722 Sir George's grandson Charles was handling the letting of the houses, so the houses stayed within the family for definitely 38+ years. Good Luck.