Regency Personalities Series-Arthur Hill 2nd Marquess of Downshire

Regency Personalities Series

In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.

Arthur Hill 2nd Marquess of Downshire
3 March 1753 – 7 September 1801

Arthur Hill

Arthur Hill 2nd Marquess of Downshire was the eldest son of Wills Hill, 1st Earl of Hillsborough (later Marquess of Downshire), he was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, and received his M.A. in 1773. He 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.

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.

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.

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

• Arthur Blundell Sandys Trumbull Hill, 3rd Marquess of Downshire (1788–1845)
• Lt.-Gen. Arthur Moyses William Hill, 2nd Baron Sandys (1792–1860)
• Lady Charlotte Hill (15 July 1794 – 30 September 1821)
• Lady Mary Hill (8 July 1796 – 24 May 1830)
• Arthur Marcus Cecil Sandys, 3rd Baron Sandys (1798–1863)
• Lord Arthur Augustus Edwin Hill (13 Aug 1800 – 10 July 1831)
• Major Lord George Augusta Hill (9 December 1801 – 6 April 1879), married twice and left issue

His last son 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 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, with his mistress Sarah Dore (who later married William Garrow).

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Regency Personalities Series-Other Archer Windsor 6th Earl of Plymouth

Regency Personalities Series

In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.

Other Archer Windsor 6th Earl of Plymouth
2 July 1789 – 20 July 1833

Other Archer Windsor 6th Earl of Plymouth

Other Archer Windsor 6th Earl of Plymouth was born the only son, and had two sisters Lady Mary Windsor, who married Marquess of Downshire and Lady Harriet Windsor, who married the Hon. Robert Clive, a son of the Earl of Powis and grandson of Clive of India.

Styled Lord Windsor from birth, he inherited his titles from his father on 12 June 1799 at the age of ten, along with his father’s land at Tardebigge, the country seat Hewell Grange, and land in Shropshire and Glamorgan. A year later (1800), his mother married Lord Amherst as his first wife, and bore him two sons. It is not clear if young Plymouth grew up with his stepfather (but highly likely); if so, he was exposed to the influences of Amherst’s wide-ranging Court and political connections, culminating in his failed (1816) embassy to China. Plymouth was educated at Harrow.

He married Lady Mary Sackville, elder daughter of John Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset on 5 August 1811. There was no issue of the marriage, and Lady Plymouth later married his stepfather Lord Amherst (after his wife Plymouth’s mother died in 1838). Since Plymouth was richer than his brother-in-law De La Warr, his mother-in-law Arabella, Duchess of Dorset and Countess Whitworth, left Knole in 1825 to her elder daughter Mary, on the grounds that her husband could better afford the annual upkeep of the house. By 1829–30, the Countesses of Plymouth and De La Warr (or rather, their husbands) had partitioned the Sackville family estates between them.

Lord Plymouth was admitted to the House of Lords probably at the usual age of 21, although he was not active in politics. He voted against the first Reform Bill on 8 October 1831 along with the majority of the House of Lords. He was involved in the creation of the Worcester Yeomanry Division which fought in Spain. At his death, he was Colonel of the Worcestershire Yeomanry Cavalry.

Also during his tenure, the Worcester and Birmingham Canal was built through Tardebigge (Tardebeck, Worcestershire) and good taxes were collected from the nailmakers of Redditch. The canal passes very close to Hewell Grange (now a state prison) and was finished ten years after Windsor inherited his father’s title. The canal was finished in 1799; however the reservoirs were built twenty years later, and finished in 1836. Windsor bought Barnt Green House from the tenant Yates family who had resided there for some years.

According to his obituary, Lord Plymouth was fond of hunting and kept a large stud at Hewell Grange Worcestershire and at Melton. In October 1832, he entertained the Duchess of Kent and her young daughter Victoria at Hewell Grange

Plymouth died on board his yacht, aged 44, at Deptford. During the night, he suffered an attack of apoplexy, and despite medical aid, expired in the afternoon. He was buried in the family vault at St Bartholomew’s Church in Tardebigge (then also called Tardebeck), Worcestershire. Lord Plymouth is commemorated by an obelisk bearing his name, situated in the Lickey Hills Country Park and visible from Bromsgrove. His unusual forename ‘Other’ is traditional in the family and derives from a legendary Viking ancestor ‘Otho’ or ‘Othere’.

At his death, Plymouth was succeeded in the earldom by his bachelor uncle the Hon. & Rev. Andrew Windsor (b. 1764) who died unmarried in 1837. The earldom passed to the 7th Earl’s youngest brother (youngest surviving son of the 4th Earl) after which the earldom became extinct in 1843.

The 6th Earl’s death without issue meant that the Windsor barony (1529) fell into abeyance between his two sisters.

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Regency Personalities Series–Arthur Hill 3rd Marquess of Downshire

Regency Personalities Series
In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.

Arthur Hill 3rd Marquess of Downshire
8 October 1778 – 12 September 1845

Hill was an Irish peer, styled Viscount Fairford from 1789 until 1793 and Earl of Hillsborough from 1793 to 1801.
He was born in Hanover Square, the eldest son of Arthur Hill, 2nd Marquess of Downshire and his wife Mary Sandys. He became Marquess of Downshire on the early death of his father in 1801. He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, gaining his MA in 1809 and a DCL in 1810.
In 1811 he married Lady Mary Windsor, daughter of Other Windsor, 5th Earl of Plymouth. They had five children:

• Arthur Wills Blundell Sandys Trumbull Windsor Hill, 4th Marquess of Downshire
• Lady Charlotte Augusta Hill, married Sir George Chetwynd, 3rd Baronet and had issue
• Captain Lord William Frederick Arthur Montagu Hill, Scots Greys, killed in a hunting accident
• Lady Mary Penelope Hill, married Alexander Hood, 1st Viscount Bridport and had issue
• Arthur Edwin Hill-Trevor, 1st Baron Trevor

During his early political career, Downshire was identified with the Whigs and supported the reform of Parliament. After the Grey Ministry came to power, he received a succession of appointments, becoming Colonel of the South Down Militia in 1831, carrying the second sword at the coronation of William IV, appointed a deputy lieutenant of Berkshire, Lord Lieutenant of Down (a new office replacing the Governor of Down), and finally a Knight of the Order of St Patrick. He received an LL.D from Cambridge in 1835.

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