DOWNING, Clement. 16?? — at sea 1736. British Engineer in India 1715-23. In Mughal service. Birth and early years unknown, to India perhaps in 1715. According to his title page he was “Midshipman on board the Salisbury; afterwards Lieutenant of the Victory Frigate, Fame Gally, and Revenge Grab, part of the Squadron employ’d by the East-India Company to attack [the pirate] Angria; and sometime Engineer in the Service of the Great Mogul.” His book contains famous descriptions of pirates.
Publications: A History of the Indian Wars: with an account of the rise, progress, strength, and forces of Angria the Pyrate. Also the transactions of a squadron of men of war under Commodore Matthews, sent to the East-Indies to suppress the pyrates. To which is annex’d, a additional history of the wars between the Great Mogul, Angria, and his Allies. With an account of the life and Actions of John Plantain, a notorious pyrate at Madagascar; his Wars with the Natives on that Island, where having continued eight Years, he join’d Angria, and was made his chief Admiral. L. 1737, new ed. by W. Foster. 32+266 p. L. 1924.
Sources: Stray notes, full title in worldcat.org.
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