Author: DOWNES, Joseph
Biography:
DOWNES, Joseph (b c. 1791: ancestry.co.uk)
Although the title page of The Proud Shepherd’s Tragedy (1823) identifies the editor as Joseph Downes, he was in fact the author. O’Donoghue states that Downes also wrote both The Mountain Decameron, a three-volume novel set in Wales, and Observations on the Speech of the Right Honourable John Foster (1799). The latter, issued as “by a Gentleman at the Bar” (that is, a barrister), was printed and sold by Joseph Downes (fl 1789-1830) who had a print shop at Temple Bar, London. Downes the printer seems to have had no connection with Downes the author of The Proud Shepherd’s Tragedy and The Mountain Decameron. Reliable evidence for the author’s biography is in short supply but in census records he gave the year and place of his birth as 1791 in London. In 1841 and 1861 he was lodging in premises in Builth, Beconshire, Wales, and the preface to The Mountain Decameron is dated from there. In 1841 he gave his occupation as surgeon but in 1861 he claimed to be a physician in general practice in Edinburgh. No birth, marriage, or death records have yet been located. Downes also contributed to periodicals and his “The Gipsies’ Tragedy: a Tale of Welsh Hamlet History” was printed in 1844 by W. Harrison Ainsworth in Ainsworth’s Magazine. The Proud Shepherd’s Tragedy baffled critics who found it nonsensical and The Mountain Decameron fared little better. (ancestry.co.uk 16 June 2025; findmypast.co.uk 16 June 2025; O'Donoghue; QR 57 [1836], 162-68; Literary Chronicle [1823], 762) SR