Downshire

Downshire, title of the Hill family, major landowners in Co. Down, with smaller properties at Blessington, Co. Wicklow, and Edenderry, King's County. Moyses Hill (d. 1630), a landless west country gentleman who came to Ireland with Essex and later attached himself to Sir Arthur Chichester, acquired the nucleus of the Ulster estate through grants and by purchase from the O'Neill family. His second son, Arthur Hill (d. 1663), bought or leased other lands from the Magennisses, securing his estate in the Confederate War by supporting first parliament then the Restoration. The two branches of the Hill estate were united by the marriage of his son Arthur (d. 1664) to a cousin. The family's rising status was recognized when Trevor Hill (1693–1742) became Viscount Hillsborough in 1717. His son Wills Hill (1718–93), a successful courtier and office holder in several English ministries, became marquis of Downshire in 1789. Arthur, the 2nd marquis (1753–1801), lived almost constantly in England, but opposed the Act of Union, and was stripped of his local offices. This treatment, and her own Whig inclinations, led the marchioness, Mary, Baroness Sandys (1764–1836), to pursue, during her son's minority, a political vendetta against the Stewart (see castlereagh) family in Co. Down and Carrickfergus. The feud was ended by the 3rd marquis, Arthur (1788–1845), more concerned with efficient estate management than the pursuit of electoral advantage, but a strong Tory who hosted a major Protestant demonstration against Whig reforms (see lichfield house compact) at the family residence at Hillsborough on 30 October 1834. For the rest of the 19th century the Hill and Stewart families dominated Co. Down politics in the Conservative interest. In 1925 Hills‐borough Castle became the official residence of the governor of Northern Ireland.