Arthur Hill, 2nd Marquess of Downshire

Arthur Hill, 2nd Marquess of Downshire PC, FRS (3 March 1753 – 7 September 1801), styled Viscount Fairford until 1789 and Earl of Hillsborough from 1789 to 1793, was a British peer and MP.[1][2]

Arthur Hill

Life

Hill was the eldest son of Wills Hill, 1st Earl of Hillsborough (later Marquess of Downshire). He matriculated at Magdalen College, Oxford in 1771, and received his M.A. in 1773.[3]

Hill sat as a Tory for the rotten borough of Lostwithiel from 1774 to 1780, and then for Malmesbury until 1784. He also represented Down in the Parliament of Ireland from 1776 until succeeding to the peerage in 1793.[4]

Hill enjoyed a number of civil and military appointments in both England and Ireland during this period. He was commissioned a captain in the Hertfordshire Militia on 22 March 1775, and a lieutenant-colonel in the regiment on 4 May 1787, resigning his commission on 4 June 1794. Appointed the deputy governor of County Down on 6 August 1779, he was picked as High Sheriff of the county in 1785. Hillsborough, as he then was, was chosen a Fellow of the Royal Society on 22 January 1790 and a deputy lieutenant of Berkshire on 12 May 1792.[3]

Upon the death of his father on 7 October 1793, he succeeded him as Marquess of Downshire, in the Peerage of Ireland, as well as in his other subsidiary titles, including that of Earl of Hillsborough in the Peerage of Great Britain. He also succeeded his father as Hereditary Constable of Hillsborough Fort, and as Custos Rotulorum of County Down (16 October) and Governor of Down (17 October). On 7 November, he was appointed to the Privy Council of Ireland.

Downshire vigorously exerted himself against the Union of Great Britain and Ireland in 1800, and was punished by the Government for his opposition by being dismissed from the Governorship of Down and the colonelcy of the Downshire Militia, and struck off the roll of the Privy Council, on 12 February 1800.

Family

On 29 June 1786, he married Mary Sandys, by whom he had seven children:

His last son, Lord George Hill, was born posthumously, as Downshire died by suicide on 7 September 1801. His widow, Mary, felt his early death was in part due to his humiliation by the Government, and thereafter was a bitter enemy to Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh. She was the heiress of her uncle, Edwin Sandys, 2nd Baron Sandys, and to the estates of her grandfather, William Trumbull, including Easthampstead Park. In 1802, after Downshire's death, she was created Baroness Sandys, with a special remainder to her younger sons and their heirs male in succession and then to her eldest son and his heirs male.

Hill also had a son, William Arthur Dore-Hill, born in 1778, with his mistress Sarah Dore (who later married William Garrow).

References

  1. Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 1, page 1177.
  2. ThePeerage.com
  3. Doyle, James William Edmund (1886). The Official Baronage of England, v. 2. London: Longmans, Green. pp. 196–197.
  4. "HILL, Arthur, Visct. Fairford (1753-1801)". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 1 November 2017.
Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by
Henry Cavendish
Charles Brett
Member of Parliament for Lostwithiel
17741780
With: Charles Brett 1774–76
Thomas Potter 1776–80
Succeeded by
John St. John
Thomas de Grey
Preceded by
Hon. Charles James Fox
William Strahan
Member of Parliament for Malmesbury
17801784
With: Viscount Lewisham 1780
John Calvert 1780–84
Succeeded by
The Viscount Melbourne
Viscount Maitland
Parliament of Ireland
Preceded by
Roger Hall
Robert Stewart
Member of Parliament for Down
1776–1793
With: Robert Stewart 1776–83
Hon. Edward Ward 1783–90
Hon. Robert Stewart 1790–93
Succeeded by
Francis Savage
Hon. Robert Stewart
Peerage of Great Britain
Preceded by
Wills Hill
Earl of Hillsborough
1793–1801
Succeeded by
Arthur Hill
Peerage of Ireland
Preceded by
Wills Hill
Marquess of Downshire
1793–1801
Succeeded by
Arthur Hill
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