Henry Downs, Sr. of England and his wife Lady Jane Douglas of Scotland immigrated to America early in the eighteenth century. In 1728, his son Henry Downs, Jr., was born in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. In 1750, Henry Downs, Jr. married Frances Chew, daughter of Thomas Chew and his wife, Martha Taylor. Frances Chew was kin to James Madison, fourth president of the United States. Henry Downs, Jr. and his wife moved to Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, where they raised a large family. He was Captain of Colonial Militia and fought against the Cherokee Indians in 1763. He also helped Lord Selwin of England survey a layout of the city of Charlotte.

Henry Downs was one of the organizers of the Providence Presbyterian Church on Providence Road, below Providence West. He later served as Justice of the Peace in his district and was one of the 27 signers of the famous Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence on May 20, 1775.

Henry Downs, Jr. died in 1798 and he and his wife are buried in the Providence Presbyterian Churchyard, twelve miles from Charlotte, North Carolina.

Before the revolutionary war, specifically on December 23rd, 1763, the British Crown, King George III, gave Arthur Dobbs, then royal governor of North Carolina, permission to deed Henry Downs 500 acres on the waters of the four mile branch, McAlpine Creek and Sugar Creek. The original grant in 1763 to Henry Downs has become Raintree property and the Cedarwood golf course. In 1795, Henry Downs was granted 500 additional acres in the state of North Carolina. Descendants still owned 10 acres of the original grant until 1991 when a fire destroyed the Downs Homestead on Strawberry Lane. The fairway community was built on his last parcel of land from the original grant. The Downs Grant community was originally to be called Raintree Downs but was later changed to the present name.