Mary Hill, Marchioness of Downshire

Mary Hill, Marchioness of Downshire and 1st Baroness Sandys (19 September 1764 – 1 August 1836) was a landowner and politician.

Early life and marriage

Born Mary Sandys, she was the daughter and heir of Colonel Martin Sandys (c.1729–1768), and his wife, Mary (died 1769). Following the deaths of her parents, her uncle Edwin Sandys, 2nd Baron Sandys, was probably responsible for her upbringing, in collaboration with her maternal grandmother Mary, who in 1762 married Lord Robert Bertie. On 29 June 1786, at her grandmother's house in Mortimer Street, Cavendish Square, London, she married Arthur Hill, then styled Lord Kilwarlin, Earl of Hillsborough from 1789 and was Marquess of Downshire from 1793. Her father-in-law described the 21 year old as "a genteel, agreeable little girl, not a beauty but as nearly being so as a wise man would choose his wife to be, of a cheerful, sweet disposition". As Thomas Orde described to the Duke of Rutland, she brought to the match "a great accession of fortune and interest in the county of Down besides a considerable estate in [Great Britain] ". This included the Trumbull estate of Easthampstead Park, Berkshire and the Blundell estates at Edenderry in King's County (14,000 acres) and Dundrum, County Down (5000 acres) through her paternal grandmother, although until 1799, both Irish properties were in the hands of her maternal grandmother, Lady Robert Bertie. Her husband was an inferior politician to his father, but the Hill family retained their influence in London politics through her sister-in-law Mary Cecil, Marchioness of Salisbury, the Pittite hostess. The couple had five sons and two daughters (the last son delivered three months after the marquess died):

*Lord Arthur Blundell Sandys Trumbull (1788-1865), later 3rd Marquess of Downshire
*Lord Arthur Moyses William (1793-1860), later 2nd Baron Sandys
*Lady Charlotte (1794-?)
*Lady Mary (1796-?)
*Lord Arthur Marcus Cecil (1798-1863), later 3rd Baron Sandys
*Lord Arthur Augustus Edwin (1800-1831)
*Lord George Augustus (1801-1879)

Politics

Lady Downshire attributed her husband's death to the mental strain caused by his dismissal as Governor of County Down, the division of his regiment, the Downshire militia, into two parts, the reduction of his patronage and the dismissal of his friends and supporters from official posts; this was his punishment for refusing to support the Act of Union 1800. Although awarded £55,000 compensation for the family's disenfranchised boroughs (which helped to pay off some of her late husband's debts), Lady Downshire's anger was not suppressed and was focused on the Stewart family, fellow County Down landlords who had first started to challenge the Hills for control of the county electorate in 1790. Their effective head was Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, one of the main protagonists of the Act of Union.

During her son's minority, Lady Downshire administered the family estate, which in 1801 had a gross income of £30,000, and focused her energies on defeating the Stewarts in the County Down polls. In 1802, she agreed to an uncontested election in exchange for a United Kingdom peerage under her uncle's title, becoming Baroness Sandys, of Ombersley, in the County of Worcester, but in 1805, when Castlereagh was compelled to stand for re-election after he was appointed Secretary of State for War and the Colonies in Pitt's administration, she openly opposed him. Notices were placed in the local papers to this effect and the election became the subject of London gossip and newspaper reports. Lady Downshire made a tour of County Down, visiting farmhouses and beseeching wives to urge their menfolk to vote for Colonel John Meade, her chosen candidate. In return, she received an ovation in Downpatrick during the poll. Meade's victory was considered a personal triumph for the marchioness.

From the close of the election until her son's twenty-first birthday, Lady Downshire spent the greater part of each year at Hillsborough Castle, the family's County Down seat. There she gained a reputation as a beneficent landlord. As well as individual acts of kindness, in 1804 she granted land and £50 towards the building of a chapel for the local Roman Catholic population. In order to forward her political influence, she purchased the estate of a Miss Mauleverer at Downpatrick in 1805 for £17,450, and the Lyndon estate at Carrickfergus in 1807 for £29,000. She also instituted a practice of granting direct leases to subtenants on the estate, again to enhance the number of freeholders and potential voters. Between 1805 and 1807, 486 one-life leases were granted by her and by 1809 there were 1510 tenancies, only 880 of which were long term. This amounted to 30,000 freeholders and was famously described by T. H. B. Oldfield in his "Representative History of Great Britain and Ireland" (1816) as "the best specimen of political agronomy to be found in Ireland".

Later life

In 1809, Lady Downshire's eldest son, Arthur Hill, 3rd Marquess of Downshire, attained his majority and made it his priority to clear the estate of his father's and grandfather's debts, as well as the £34,000 in bond and judgement debts accrued by his mother. In order to do so, he agreed in 1812 to share the county seats with the Stewarts, much to Lady Downshire's disgust. Mary retired to England, where she was responsible for renovating the parish church of Ombersley. She retained a two-thirds interest in the Edenderry and Dundrum estates, although her son had their entire management, and received a jointure of £5000. Her son's correspondence also suggests that she continued to take an interest in County Down politics. She died on 1 August 1836, after a long illness, at Downshire House, Roehampton, Surrey. Her barony had been created with a special remainder in favour of her younger sons, and so she was succeeded by her second son, Lord Arthur, who also inherited the Ombersley estate.

ource

*Michael T. Davis, "Oldfield, Thomas Hinton Burley (1755–1822)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/20683, accessed 7 July 2008]