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Arthur Robin Ian Hill, 8th Marquess of Downshire

Sunday February 29th 2004

THE 8th Marquess of Downshire, the 12th Hereditary Constable of Hillsborough Fort who has died aged 74, successfully re-established his once great Ulster landowning family in North Yorkshire after the Irish Land Acts and Bracknell New Town had largely deprived them of their original estates.

Robin Hill, as he was before he succeeded to his uncle's seven peerages in 1989, lived life with his pedal to the metal.  From cars to the Cresta, he loved anything that went fast and was a fearless competitor.

For his first run in the two-man bob at St Moritz, Hill acted as brakeman to his good friend John Bingham, later Lord Lucan, who was an expert driver.  Getting out of the bob at the bottom of the run, an ashen-faced Bingham demanded: "Didn't you hear me shout brake?"  Hill, dazed and grinning from ear to ear, was nonplussed; the combination had just posted the fastest time of the week.

As a young man, Hill was a cornerstone of many a party, known to have driven from Kelso to London for an evening, and later straight back, albeit in an Alvis.  He was regularly stopped by police for speeding, prompting one magistrate to inquire whether he regarded the M1 as his private race track.

Arthur Robin Ian Hill was born on May 10, 1929, at Brompton Square, London, the only son of Lord Arthur Francis Hill, the younger son of the 6th Marquess of Downshire.  His family descended from Moyses Hill, a Devon man who arrived in Ireland in 1573 as a landless adventurer in Essex's army sent to subdue the rebellious O'Neill.  In 1607 Hill bought his family's first manor in Co Down.  His descendants became numbered among the richest, most powerful and most benevolent landowners in Ireland.

Wills Hill, created the 1st Marquess of Downshire in 1789, was a prominent member of Lord North's cabinet at the time of the American (Revolutionary) War, and collected land and peerages with aplomb.

By 1883 the Hills had the eighth-highest landed income in the United Kingdom, with 115,000 acres in Ireland and 5,000 in Berkshire.  In the mid-19th century one could go from Larne in Co Antrim, to Blessington, Co Wicklow without losing sight of Hill land.

The core was the Kilwarlin estate around Hillsborough in Co Down.  This was built around the old Hill seat of Hillsborough Castle, after 1922 Government House and subsequently the official residence of the Secretary of State.  Then there is Hillsborough Fort, still a treasured Downshire heirloom.   He did his National Service with the Royal Scots Greys in Germany from 1948 to 1950.  After qualifying as a chartered accountant, he worked as a discount banker at Gerrards before founding Ritchey Tagg.  In 1963 he took up farming.

When he succeeded his uncle in 1989, the need to satisfy the Treasury led Downshire to contemplate selling the Trumbull papers, which had been in his family since the 2nd Marquess married the heir of the last Trumbull.

The Trumbull inheritance included the Easthampstead estate, near Bracknell, and with it 380 volumes of manuscripts collected by Sir William Trumbull (1639-1716).  The archive, which features letters by Stuart kings, Philip II of Spain, Maria de Medici, Bacon, Donne, Dryden, Fenton, Pope and Weckherlin, had been on loan to Berkshire county records office.  In the summer of 1989 the collection was sent to Sotheby's in London, with an estimate of £2.5m.  But on the eve of the November sale a deal was done with the Inland Revenue, the auction was cancelled and the British Library took the papers.

Taking his seat in the House of Lords in November 1989, Downshire joined the Conservative benches.  He was a rare speaker, but by the time of his expulsion in 1999 he was the most attentive of the seven Irish Marquesses.  His maiden speech, in 1994, taking note of recent developments in Northern Ireland, was praised by Lord Williams of Mostyn as being "of interest and of great content".

In 1957 he married Juliet Weld-Forester, a daughter of the 7th Baron Forester.  She died in 1986.  In 1989 he married Diana Hibbert, a daughter of Sir Ronald Hibbert Cross, Bt.  She died in 1998, and he married, thirdly, Tessa Prain in 2002.

He is survived by the two sons and daughter of his first marriage, and by his third wife.  His elder son, Nicholas, who till now used the courtesy title of Earl of Hillsborough, succeeds him, and also becomes heir presumptive to the 7th Baron Sandys.

Survived By

  • Hill, Arthur Francis Nicholas Wills, 9th Marquess of Downshire, b. 4 FEB 1959
    • Hill, Isabella Diana Juliet, Lady, b. 1991
    • Hill, Beatrice Hannah Georgina, Lady, b. 1994
    • Hill, Edmund Robin Arthur, Earl of Hillsborough, b. 21 MAY 1996
    • Hill, Claudia Lucy Helena, Lady, b. 1998
  • Hill, Anthony Ian, Lord, b. 1961
  • Hill, Georgina Mary, Lady, b. 1964

Wills Hill, Earl of Hillsborough, 1st Marquess of Downshire

Wills HillSucceeded his father, Trevor Hill, 1st Viscount Hillsborough (1693-1742) in 1742, was the most distinguished public figure in the family's history. Like his father Governor of the county and an Irish Privy Councilor, he exercised his talents as courtier and politician on a wider stage, serving in several of George III's early ministries, notably - if unfortunately for his reputation - as the secretary of state for the colonies - at the Colonial Office during a crucial period in relations between the king and his American subjects. Successive steps in the peerages of Great Britain and Ireland were crowned in 1789 by the title of Marquess of Downshire in the Irish peerage. Apart from the estates at Blessington and Loughbrickland which came to him by inheritance, he established the nucleus of the Banbridge estate by purchasing four townlands in 1749 from Richard Whyte. The subsequent growth of Banbridge as a center of the linen trade was greatly fostered by the new landlord's encouragement, an encouragement also exercised on a national scale as a member of the Linen Board. A man of some taste and culture, Wills Hill was responsible for rebuilding the mansion at Hillsborough, along with the parish church and most of the village. He died in 1793.

Properties and Holdings on Record

Fort Hillsborough Castle Hillsborough

  • The Banbridge estate is represented by title deeds which in cant the following properties: Annaghmackeonan, 1631-late 19th century; Ballygown, Bavan and Ballydulany, 1636-1842; and the Fortescue estate, 1610-1873.
  • Title deeds relating to the Blessington estate run from 1700-c.1900.
  • The documentation of the Carrickfergus estate includes the following properties: Carrickfergus, 1610-1874; manor of Glynn etc., 1637-1684; Bryantang, 1743-1887; Gideon's Land, 1804-1831; Slievetrue, 1723-1873; Straid, 1709-1873.
  • The Castlereagh estate includes the following properties: Castlereagh, c.1607-c.1710; Kilmood advowson, 1759-1819; Killaney tithes, 1770-1812; Besagh and Tullyard, 1811-1842; Lisnastrean, 1839-1873; Ballykinler, 1523-1880.
  • The Edenderry estate includes the following properties: Edenderry, 1597-1894; Ballynowlan and Kilcumber, 1666-1842; Carbury tithes, 1735-1834.
  • The Hilltown estate includes the following properties: Hilltown, 1622-1846; Clonduff, 1767-1879: Ballynagappoge, 1610-1792.
  • The Kilwarlin estate includes the following properties: Kilwarlin, 1610-1747, with over a hundred 17th century deeds; Ballyhomra and Magheradartin, 1699-1790; Ravernet, 1692-1875; Bracknabullagh, 1664-1745; Cluntagh and Tullynore, 1683-1786; Listullycurran, 1681-1824; Magherahinch, 1666-1839; Hillsborough town, 1701-1953.
  • The Newry estate includes various properties, early 17th century-1856.
  • There are also a large quantity of family settlements, testamentary papers etc., with some title deeds to properties in Co. Kilkenny, 1703-1872, in Clonderalaw, Co. Clare, 1720-late 19th century, and in Carlow town, c.1763-1833


The Earl's of Hillsborough Marquess of Downshire

Moyses Hill (d.1630)
The founder of the family's fortunes was Moyses Hill, who came to Ireland as a landless adventurer in the following of the 1st Earl of Essex, during the reign of Elizabeth I.  After service under the 2nd Earl of Essex and then under Mountjoy in the wars against Hugh O'Neill, he attached himself to Sir Arthur Chichester.  The first land he acquired - a grant from the crown in 1592 - was in the vicinity of Larne in Co. Antrim.  In 1608 the corporation of Carrickfergus granted him some land within the liberties of the town, and he had an interest in the customs of the port until 1619.  In addition, he leased land from Chichester in Islandmagee and at Malone on the river Lagan, building forts in both places.  The Carrickfergus property, augmented by two substantial purchases in the early nineteenth century, became an estate of just over 5,000 acres.

The family's connection with Co. Down began in 1607 when Moyses Hill bought the manor of Castlereagh and eight townlands from the unfortunate Con O'Neill.  Later, Hill and Sir James Hamilton acquired a larger tract in the same area from O'Neill; and in 1622 he was one of the parties in a legal conflict over O'Neill's property.  The lands thus obtained, with some small additions at a much later date, formed an estate of some 13,000 acres.  Hillhall was the site of the bawn which marked its southern extremity.  From another native family, the Magennises, Hill acquired in similar fashion the beginnings of the Kilwarlin estate, which was to be the largest and most important of the family's possessions.  Brian Oge Magennis in 1611 sold seven of his forty-three townlands to his new neighbour.  By the time of his death in 1630 Moyses Hill had achieved the ambition of every landless younger son.

Arthur Hill (d.1664)
Arthur Hill's achievement was consolidated by his son Moyses, who prudently married his cousin Anne Hill of Hillhall and thus united the Castlereagh and Kilwarlin estates.  He survived his father by only a year, however, and was succeeded by a half-brother, William, the child of Arthur Hill's second marriage to Mary Parsons, daughter of one of the Lords Justices appointed in 1640 to govern Ireland when Lord Deputy Wentworth was summoned to London.
Child of Arthur Hill and Mary Parsons:

  • William Hill (M)
    b. before 1656, William Hill was born before 1656.
    The connections formed by William Hill through his two marriages eventually resulted in considerable additions to the family estates.  The first, to the daughter of Michael Boyle, Archbishop of Armagh, brought the lordship of Blessington in Co. Wicklow (but not until a century later, in 1778); the second, to Mary Trevor, daughter of the 1st Viscount Dungannon, brought a smaller estate at Loughbrickland in Co. Down.  A son by the first marriage, Michael, inherited in 1693 and purchased a townland at Newry.
    Child of William Hill and Eleanor Boyle:
  • Michael Hill
    b. circa 1672, d. 1699,
  • Trevor Hill, 1st Viscount Hillsborough b. 1693, d. 3 May 1742
    Most of the early Hills were members of the Irish parliament and privy council, and the family had become well established by the end of the seventeenth century. It entered the ranks of the peerage in 1717, when Trevor Hill was created Baron Hill of Kilwarlin and Viscount Hillsborough in the peerage of Ireland.
    Children of Trevor Hill, 1st Viscount Hillsborough and Mary Rowe:
  • Wills Hill, 1st Marquess of Downshire was the son of Trevor Hill, 1st Viscount Hillsborough and Mary Rowe. He was born on 30 May 1718. He married Margaret FitzGerald, daughter of Robert FitzGerald, 19th Earl of Kildare and Mary O'Brien, on 1 March 1747. He married Mary Stawell, daughter of Edward Stawell, 1st Baron Stawell, in September 1768. He died on 19 January 1766 at age 47.
    Children of Wills Hill, 1st Marquess of Downshire and Margaret FitzGerald:
  • Lady Emily Mary Hill b. 1750, d. 27 Nov 1835
  • Arthur Hill, 2nd Marquess of Downshire b. 3 Mar 1753, d. 7 Sep 1801
    Arthur Hill, 2nd Marquess of Downshire was the son of Wills Hill, 1st Marquess of Downshire and Margaret FitzGerald. He was born on 3 March 1753. He married Mary Sandys, Baroness Sandys, daughter of Hon. Martyn Sandys and Mary Trumbull, on 29 June 1786. He died on 7 September 1801 at age 48. Children of Arthur Hill, 2nd Marquess of Downshire and Mary Sandys, Baroness Sandys:
  • Arthur Blundell Sandys Trumbell Hill, 3rd Marquess of Downshire b. 8 Oct 1788, d. 12 Apr 1845
    Arthur Blundell Sandys Trumbell Hill, 3rd Marquess of Downshire was the son of Arthur Hill, 2nd Marquess of Downshire and Mary Sandys, Baroness Sandys. He was born on 8 October 1788. He married Maria Hickman, daughter of Other Hickman Hickman, 5th Earl of Plymouth and Hon. Sarah Archer, on 25 October 1811. He died on 12 April 1845 at age 56. Children of Arthur Blundell Sandys Trumbell Hill, 3rd Marquess of Downshire and Maria Hickman:
  • Lady Mary Hill d. 15 Jul 1884
  • Charlotte Augusta Hill d. 24 Nov 1861
  • Arthur Wills Blundell Sandys Trumbull Windsor Hill, 4th Marquess of Downshire b. 6 Aug 1812, d. 6 Aug 1868 Arthur Wills Blundell Sandys Trumbull Windsor Hill, 4th Marquess of Downshire was the son of Arthur Blundell Sandys Trumbell Hill, 3rd Marquess of Downshire and Maria Hickman. He was born on 6 August 1812. He married Caroline Frances Cotton, daughter of Field Marshal Sir Stapleton Cotton, 1st Viscount Combermere and Caroline Greville, on 23 August 1837. He died on 6 August 1868 at age 56. Children of Arthur Wills Blundell Sandys Trumbull Windsor Hill, 4th Marquess of Downshire and Caroline Frances Cotton:
  • Lady Alice Maria Hill d. 25 Feb 1928
  • Arthur Wills Blundell Sandys Roden Hill, 5th Marquess of Downshire b. 24 Dec 1844, d. 31 Mar 1874
    Arthur Wills Blundell Sandys Roden Hill, 5th Marquess of Downshire was the son of Arthur Wills Blundell Sandys Trumbull Windsor Hill, 4th Marquess of Downshire and Caroline Frances Cotton. He was born on 24 December 1844. He married Georgiana Elizabeth Balfour, daughter of John Balfour and Georgiana Campbell, on 26 July 1870. He died on 31 March 1874 at age 29. Child of Arthur Wills Blundell Sandys Roden Hill, 5th Marquess of Downshire and Georgiana Elizabeth Balfour:
  • Arthur Wills John Wellington Trumbell Hill, 6th Marquess of Downshire b. 2 Jul 1871, d. 29 May 1918
    Arthur Wills John Wellington Trumbell Hill, 6th Marquess of Downshire was the son of Arthur Wills Blundell Sandys Roden Hill, 5th Marquess of Downshire and Georgiana Elizabeth Balfour. He was born on 2 July 1871. He married, firstly, Katherine Mary Hare, daughter of Hon. Hugh Henry Hare and Georgiana Caroline Browne, on 22 June 1893. He and Katherine Mary Hare were divorced in 1902. He married, secondly, Evelyn Grace Mary Foster, daughter of Edmund Benson Foster, on 16 May 1907. He died on 29 May 1918 at age 46.
    Child of Arthur Wills John Wellington Trumbell Hill, 6th Marquess of Downshire and Katherine Mary Hare:
  • Arthur Wills Percy Wellington Blundell Trumbull Hill, 7th Marquess of Downshire (1894-1989)
  • Captain Lord Arthur Francis Henry Hill b. 28 Aug 1895, d. 25 Dec 1953
    Captain Lord Arthur Francis Henry Hill was the son of Arthur Wills John Wellington Trumbell Hill, 6th Marquess of Downshire and Katherine Mary Hare. He was born on 28 August 1895. He married Ishabel Wilhelmina Sheila MacDougall, daughter of Lt-Col. Stewart MacDougall, on 15 October 1927. He died on 25 December 1953 at age 58. Children of Captain Lord Arthur Francis Henry Hill and Ishabel Wilhelmina Sheila MacDougall:
  • Arthur Robin Ian Hill, 8th Marquess of Downshire b. 10 May 1929
    Arthur Robin Ian Hill, 8th Marquess of Downshire was the son of Captain Lord Arthur Francis Henry Hill and Ishabel Wilhelmina Sheila MacDougall. He was born on 10 May 1929. He married, firstly, Hon. Juliet Mary Weld-Forester, daughter of Cecil George Wilfred Weld-Forester, 7th Baron Forester and Marie Louise Priscilla Perrott, on 5 October 1957. He married, secondly, Diana (?) on 18 September 1989.
    Children of Arthur Robin Ian Hill, 8th Marquess of Downshire and Hon. Juliet Mary Weld-Forester:
  • Arthur Francis Nicholas Wills Ian Hill, 9th Marquess of Downshire b. 4 Feb 1959
  • Lady, Isabella Diana Juliet Hill, b. 1991
  • Lady Beatrice Hannah Georgina Hill, b. 1994
  • Edmund Robin Arthur Hill, Earl of Hillsborough, b. 21 MAY 1996
  • Lady Claudia Lucy Helena Hill, b. 1998