Sir George Downing, 1st Baronet

George Downing was born in Dublin around 1623, the eldest son of a Puritan barrister and the sister of the Massachusetts governor. He crossed the Atlantic as a boy, ranked second at Harvard, and returned to lead English spies and ships against the Dutch. Streets in London and New York still carry his name, but the boy who watched Salem storms and learned to outthink larger armies has vanished into the marble and pavement.