Wills Hill, 1st Marquess of Downshire, (30 May 1718 – 7 October 1793), known as the 2nd Viscount Hillsborough from 1742 to 1751 and as the 1st Earl of Hillsborough from 1751 to 1789, was a British politician of the

Georgian era The Georgian era was a period in British history from 1714 to , named after the House of Hanover, Hanoverian kings George I of Great Britain, George I, George II of Great Britain, George II, George III and George IV. The definition of the Geor ...

. Best known in North America as the Earl of Hillsborough, he served as

Secretary of State for the Colonies The secretary of state for the colonies or colonial secretary was the Cabinet of the United Kingdom's government minister, minister in charge of managing certain parts of the British Empire. The colonial secretary never had responsibility for t ...

from 1768 to 1772, a critical period leading toward the

American War of Independence The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

Background

Born in Fairford,

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

, Wills Hill was the son of

Trevor Hill, 1st Viscount Hillsborough Trevor Hill, 1st Viscount Hillsborough (1693 – 5 May 1742) was an Anglo-Irish landowner and politician who sat in the Irish House of Commons from 1713 to 1715 and in the British House of Commons from 1715 to 1722. Hill was the eldest son of M ...

, and Mary, daughter of Anthony Rowe. He was named after

General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colone ...

Sir Charles Wills, his godfather.

Political career

Hill, known retrospectively as Downshire, was returned to Parliament for

Warwick Warwick ( ) is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon, Warwickshire, River Avon. It is south of Coventry, and south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined wit ...

in 1741, a seat he held until 1756. He succeeded his father as The 2nd Viscount Hillsborough in May 1742 (as this was an

Irish peerage The peerage of Ireland consists of those Peerage, titles of nobility created by the English monarchs in their capacity as Lordship of Ireland, Lord or Monarchy of Ireland, King of Ireland, or later by monarchs of the United Kingdom of Great B ...

he was able to continue to sit in the

British House of Commons The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 memb ...

). Lord Hillsborough, as he now was, was the same year appointed Lord Lieutenant of County Down and Custos Rotulorum of County Down. In 1751, he was created Earl of Hillsborough in the Peerage of Ireland. In 1754, he was made

Comptroller of the Household The Comptroller of the Household is an ancient position in the British royal household, nominally the second-ranking member of the Lord Steward's department after the Treasurer of the Household. The Comptroller was an ''ex officio'' member of ...

, a post he held until 1756, and appointed a

Privy Counsellor The Privy Council, formally His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the sovereign of the United Kingdom. Its members, known as privy counsellors, are mainly senior politicians who are current or former ...

. In 1756, he was created Baron Harwich, of Harwich in the County of Essex, in the

Peerage of Great Britain The Peerage of Great Britain comprises all extant peerages created in the Kingdom of Great Britain between the Acts of Union 1707 and the Acts of Union 1800. It replaced the Peerage of England and the Peerage of Scotland, but was itself repla ...

, which entitled him to a seat in the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

. For nearly two years, between 1763 and 1765, Lord Hillsborough was President of the Board of Trade and Plantations under

George Grenville George Grenville (14 October 1712 – 13 November 1770) was a British Whig statesman who served as Prime Minister of Great Britain, during the early reign of the young George III. He served for only two years (1763-1765), and attempted to solv ...

, and after a brief period of retirement he filled the same position in 1766, and then that of joint Postmaster General, under the

Earl of Chatham Earl of Chatham, of Chatham in the County of Kent, was a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1766 for William Pitt the Elder on his appointment as Lord Privy Seal, along with the subsidiary title of Viscount Pitt, of Burton ...

. From 1768 to 1772, Hillsborough was

and also President of the Board of Trade. Both in and out of office, Hillsborough opposed all concessions to the American colonists, but he favoured the project for a union between England and the

Kingdom of Ireland The Kingdom of Ireland (; , ) was a dependent territory of Kingdom of England, England and then of Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain from 1542 to the end of 1800. It was ruled by the monarchs of England and then List of British monarchs ...

. On his retirement in 1772, he was created Earl of Hillsborough in the Peerage of Great Britain. In 1779 he served as

Secretary of State for the Southern Department The secretary of state for the Southern Department was a position in the Cabinet (government), cabinet of the government of the Kingdom of Great Britain up to 1782, when the Southern Department (Great Britain), Southern Department became the H ...

, remaining until 1782. He was the last person to serve in this position, because the Secretaries of State were reorganized. In 1789, he was made Marquess of Downshire in the Irish peerage.

Family and legacy

Lord Downshire married firstly Lady Margaretta, daughter of The 19th Earl of Kildare, in 1747. His second daughter and last child by his first marriage was Lady Charlotte Hill, wife of The 1st Earl Talbot. Lady Talbot was the subject of a notable portrait by

Sir Joshua Reynolds Sir Joshua Reynolds (16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792) was an English painter who specialised in portraits. The art critic John Russell (art critic), John Russell called him one of the major European painters of the 18th century, while Lucy P ...

. After her death in 1766, he married secondly Mary Bilson-Legge, 1st Baroness Stawell, daughter of Edward, 4th Baron Stawell, and widow of Henry Bilson-Legge, in 1768. She died in 1780. Lord Downshire died on 7 October 1793, aged 75, and was succeeded by his son from his first marriage,

Arthur Arthur is a masculine given name of uncertain etymology. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. A common spelling variant used in many Slavic, Romance, and Germanic languages is Artur. In Spanish and Ital ...

. In the United States,

Hillsborough County, New Hampshire Hillsborough County is the most populous County (United States), county in the U.S. state of New Hampshire. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 422,937, almost one-third the population of the entire state. Its c ...

, Hillsborough Township, New Jersey, the town of

Hillsborough, New Hampshire Hillsborough, frequently spelled Hillsboro, is a New England town, town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 5,939 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The town is h ...

, within the county, the town of

Hillsborough, North Carolina The town of Hillsborough is the county seat of Orange County, North Carolina, United States, and is located along the Eno River. The population was 6,087 in 2010, but it grew rapidly to 9,660 by 2020. Its name was unofficially shortened to "Hi ...

, and

Hillsborough County, Florida Hillsborough County is located in the west-central portion of the U.S. state of Florida. In the 2020 census, the population was 1,459,762, making it the fourth-most populous county in Florida and the most populous county outside the Miami metro ...

, Hillsboro, Highland, Ohio were named after the Marquess.

Hillsborough, California Hillsborough is an List of municipalities in California, incorporated town in San Mateo County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is located south of San Francisco on the San Francisco Peninsula, bordered by Burlinga ...

, named for Hillsborough, New Hampshire, is an indirect namesake. In Canada, Hillsborough Bay, on

Prince Edward Island Prince Edward Island is an island Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. While it is the smallest province by land area and population, it is the most densely populated. The island has several nicknames: "Garden of the Gulf", ...

, and the village of Hillsborough, New Brunswick, were named in Downshire's honour.

References

Bibliography

* Murdoch, Tessa, ed. ''Great Irish Households: Inventories from the Long Eighteenth Century''. Cambridge: John Adamson, 2022 . See pp. 125–8 and 137–45 for transcripts of the inventories of Wills Hill's house at Hillsborough in 1746 and of his later house, Hillsborough Lodge, in 1777.

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Downshire, Wills Hill, 1st Marquess Of 1718 births 1793 deaths Secretaries of State for the Colonies Members of the Privy Council of Great Britain Members of the Privy Council of Ireland Hereditary peers elected to the House of Commons Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies British MPs 1741–1747 British MPs 1747–1754 British MPs 1754–1761 Peers of Great Britain created by George II Fellows of the Royal Society Postmasters general of the United Kingdom Wills 18th-century Irish landowners Lord-lieutenants of Down Wills People from Fairford Presidents of the Board of Trade