HILL, Arthur (1600-63), of Hillsborough, co. Down.

Arthur Hill claimed descent from the Hills of Hill’s Court – a legal dynasty established in Devon in the fifteenth century – but the fortunes of his immediate family were far more recent. Hill’s father, Moyses Hill, had come to Ireland as a landless soldier in the 1570s, and later became a client of Lord Deputy Chichester, being appointed provost-marshal of Ulster in 1617.25Lodge, Peerage, ii. 233-4. By the time of Moyses Hill’s death in 1630, the family had acquired substantial estates in cos. Down and Antrim, largely at the expense of the financially embarrassed O’Neill and Magennis clans.26Marquess of Downshire ed. Maguire, 10-13. Although a younger son, Arthur Hill was given an interest in the Magennis estate at Kilwarlin, and before 1641 had purchased or leased further lands in Iveagh, thus establishing himself as one of the biggest landowners in co. Down.27CSP Ire. 1633-47, p. 209; Marquess of Downshire ed. Maguire, 10-13. During this period, Hill retained his family’s contacts with the Chichester family, and was on good terms with Viscount Conway and his Ulster agent, George Rawdon*.28CSP Dom. 1634-5, p. 596; CSP Ire. 1633-47, p. 174. His sister’s marriage to Lord Wilmot brought him into contact with the earl of Antrim, who arranged for him to receive the wardship of Lord Iveagh in 1639.29McGrath, Biographical Dict. Hill’s two marriages – to the daughters of Lord Chancellor Bolton and the future lord justice, Sir William Parsons – ensured that he also enjoyed firm ties with the Dublin administration, and the trustees of the marriage settlement of his second wife (drawn up in July 1638) included three prominent landowners from elsewhere in Ireland: Sir William Ussher, Sir Paul Davies* and Sir Philip Percivalle*.30Lodge, Peerage, ii. 237-8; NAI, Lodge’s MSS 1.A.53.55, vol. i. f. 222.

On the outbreak of the Irish Rebellion in October 1641, Hill found himself leading the defence of eastern Ulster, despite his lack of military experience. During the winter of 1641-2 Hill and Arthur Chichester were ‘chief governors’ of Down and Antrim, organising supplies and recruits from their base at Carrickfergus.31Warr in Ire. ed. Hogan, 18; CSP Ire. 1633-47, p. 769. The arrival of the Scottish army in the spring of 1642 relieved some of the immediate pressure on Ulster, and in June Hill travelled to Westminster in an attempt to secure compensation for the Protestant landowners who had funded the war so far. In July Parliament’s Commissioners for Irish Affairs agreed that the Ulster forces should be included in the establishment lists, and Hill was granted a commission as colonel of horse.32PJ iii. 73, 366, 385, 418, 422-3, 436. Following his success at Westminster, in November 1642 Hill joined three other Irish Protestant officers (Sir James Montgomery, Audley Mervyn and Sir Hardress Waller*) in presenting a petition to the king at his Oxford headquarters. Their intention - to urge the royalists to end the English hostilities which continued to drain resources from the Irish war - seems to have been sincere enough; but the king turned them away, suspecting that their petition was secretly sponsored by a Parliament hoping to elicit ‘some answer as might improve the envy of the people’.33Clarendon, Hist. ii. 491-2. Hill soon had another chance. Irish Protestant concerns at the situation in England were heightened by the failure of the Oxford peace negotiations in the spring of 1643, and in late April, Hill, with William Jephson* and Sir Robert King*, once again left London to lobby the king in Oxford.34CJ iii. 57a. The three delegates’ principal mission was to gain the royal assent for a bill enforcing the payment of subscriptions under the adventurers’ act, but they also wanted to investigate allegations about the king’s negotiations with the Confederate Irish. Instead of agreeing to negotiate, the king attacked Parliament’s misuse of the adventurers’ money, and the delegates returned to London empty-handed.35Rushworth, Hist. Collns. v. 318; LJ vi. 35b.

Hill’s second attempt to mediate had been rebuffed by the king, and, like Jephson and King, he may have been tempted to throw in his lot with Parliament once and for all. But such a decision was complicated by the situation which greeted Hill on his return to Ulster in the autumn of 1643. Although the English planters in Ulster could not stomach the cessation of arms agreed between the king and the Irish Confederates that September, they were extremely reluctant to sign up to the religious changes demanded by the Scots under the Solemn League and Covenant. Parliament assumed that, by rejecting the Covenant, the Ulster forces had accepted the cessation, and in November 1643 the Commons ordered that Hill, Mervyn, Montgomery and the other colonels should no longer receive money or provisions from England.36CJ iii. 307a. Throughout the winter of 1643-4 Hill and his colleagues protested their continued loyalty, and warned Parliament that Ulster would fall into Confederate hands without immediate support.37HMC Portland, i. 172. By December 1644 Parliament seems to have conceded the point, and small amounts of money were again finding their way into the coffers of Hill and his fellow colonels.38CSP Dom. 1644-5, p. 201. In the spring of 1645 the arrival of three Ulster commissioners (including Hill’s old associate, Sir Robert King), improved matters further, and Hill’s petition for compensation was recommended to Parliament by the Committee of Both Kingdoms.39CSP Dom. 1644-5, pp. 471, 548.

With the return of relative stability in Ulster, Hill was able to travel to London once more. In August 1645 he was one of the ‘gentlemen of Ireland’ who advised Parliament about the allocation of money and supplies.40Bodl. Nalson XXI, f. 41. In the next few months he became one of the most important agents for the Irish Protestant cause. When the Munster colonel, William Jephson, sought to raise money in England in October, he was advised to contact Hill.41HMC Egmont, i. 262-3. From the autumn of 1645 the new Star Chamber Committee of Irish Affair would repeatedly call on Hill’s expertise in Ulster affairs.42CSP Ire. 1633-47, pp. 526, 553. During 1646 Hill was able to use his influence with the Irish committee to secure supplies and payments to his colleagues in Ulster, as well as nearly £3,000 compensation for himself.43CSP Dom. 1625-49, p. 691; CSP Ire. 1633-47, pp. 433, 436, 464, 496, 513, 531. His success in England was not entirely appreciated by his military colleagues, however: in December 1646 the Irish officers requested that Hill should be returned to his regiment in Ulster; and, according to John Davies*, in January 1647 ‘the whole country is incensed against Arthur Hill and George Rawdon and are inclined to write to the committee to require them to their charges’.44Bodl. Nalson XXI, f. 102; HMC Egmont, i. 353. Yet political developments in England, and the perilous state of Ireland, allowed Hill to ignore such demands. He was brought in to advise the Derby House Committee of Irish Affairs in November 1647, and he was resident at his house in St. Martin’s Lane at least until the autumn of 1648.45CSP Ire. 1647-60, p. 767; HMC Egmont, i. 415, 486.

Hill’s reaction to the execution of the king is unknown, but he was content to collaborate with the commonwealth in Irish affairs, at least. Indeed, during 1649 and 1650 Hill seems to have served the council of state’s Irish committee in an official capacity, as a secretary or agent in charge of provisions and clothing for the army.46Cf. CSP Dom. 1651, p. 43. When the committee was established in March 1649, its members were instructed to ‘advise’ with Sir Robert King, Sir Hardress Waller and Arthur Hill, among other Irish Protestants reconciled to the new regime, but in Hill’s case this was evidently a formal position, with a salary and attendant clerks.47CSP Dom. 1649-50, p. 62; 1654, p. 64. In July 1649 the council of state ordered the payment of £500 to Hill, apparently as remuneration for his attendance on the committee, and he received other sums for his services in the following spring.48SP28/61, f. 400; CSP Dom. 1649-50, pp. 248, 582; 1650, pp. 100-1, 573. By the end of 1649, Hill was involved in administering a fund for distressed Protestants in Ireland, and he arranged maintenance payments to the son of Sir Charles Coote*.49CSP Dom. 1649-50, pp. 372, 458, 597. Hill was also able to secure orders for the repayment of money he had expended earlier in the war: in April 1650 he was promised nearly £8,000 for his expenses during the 1640s, including over £5,000 which he had lent the earl of Antrim before the rebellion; and in July 1650 the Council ordered that £5,000 be paid to Hill in satisfaction for his military arrears.50CSP Dom. 1650, pp. 100-1, 580. He also gained important contacts with the parliamentarian party in Ireland, including the Ulster commander, George Monck*, who used him as an agent in 1649, and told Rawdon that ‘I am so engaged to him, that I will not be unmindful of his favour to me’.51The Rawdon Pprs. ed. E. Berwick (1819), 177. Hill continued to serve the Irish committee until September 1650, when he decided to return to Ireland, and was succeeded as agent to the committee by William Rowe.52CSP Dom. 1650, pp. 350, 353; 1651, p. 43.

Hill set sail for Ireland from Chester at the end of November 1650.53CSP Dom. 1650, p. 566. Despite over five years’ absence, he seems to have lost none of his local influence. By August 1651 he had been appointed as a revenue commissioner in Ulster, working alongside the provincial commander, Colonel Robert Venables*, and local men such as George Rawdon, James Traill* and Tobias Norris, and he continued to be active on this commission in 1652.54SP28/80, ff. 168, 170; SP28/83, f. 3; SP28/84, ff. 296, 300; SP28/85, f. 47. From 1653 Hill seems to have become particularly close to Rawdon, who became a welcome visitor at Hillsborough.55SP63/284, f. 105; SP63/285, ff. 249, 253; SP63/286, ff. 48, 129. Hill was appointed to the commission for settling Ulster in 1653 and to the revenue commission for Belfast precinct before 1654.56Bodl. Firth c.5, ff. 111v-113; NLI, MS 758, f. 30. He was also included in the assessment commissions for Antrim and Down from October 1654.57An Assessment for Ire. Hill was keen to use his favour with the government to protect other Old Protestants: in October 1651 he questioned the parliamentary commissioners’ orders concerning the sequestration of former royalists, and presented the cases of his Ulster neighbours, Viscount Conway, Colonel Edward Conway and Colonel Marcus Trevor, who claimed exemption; in February 1652 he protested to the commissioners that Ulster could not pay the assessments demanded; and in May he joined Sir Charles Coote in supporting the arrears-claim of another Old Protestant, Sir Theophilus Jones*.58Ire. under the Commonwealth, i. 71-3, 131; Bodl. Firth c.5, f. 33. In a tangible sign of his commitment to Ulster, during this period Hill rebuilt his house at Kilwarlin, and began work renovating the fort at Hillsborough.59CSP Ire. 1647-60, p. 383; M. Bence-Jones, Guide to Irish Country Houses (1988), 153.

With his good relationship with the administration and his extensive contacts with the Ulster settlers, Hill was an obvious choice as MP for cos. Antrim, Down and Armagh in the elections of August 1654.60C219/44, unfol.; Mercurius Politicus no. 219 (17-24 Aug. 1654), 3710 (E.809.5). His committee appointments in the early days of this Parliament suggest that he was working closely with his fellow Old Protestant MPs: on 29 September he was named to the committees of Scottish and Irish affairs, and on 5 October to the committee on Irish elections.61CJ vii. 371b, 373b. On 26 September he was named to a committee to consider the future strength of the army and navy, and 5 and 6 October he was also appointed to committees on limiting the court of chancery and regulating trade and customs - all measures with an indirect impact on Ireland.62CJ vii. 370b, 374a-b. Hill played little part in the later months of the session, but on 27 November he was named to a committee to prepare a clause in the new Government Bill concerning the rehabilitation of repentant royalists in Ireland, alongside such prominent Old Protestants as Lord Broghill (Roger Boyle), Daniel Hutchinson, Sir Theophilus Jones and Vincent Gookin.63CJ vii. 390b.

In the three years after the dissolution of the 1654-5 Parliament, Hill maintained his good relations with the English government. In November and December 1655 he was advising the protectorate council on a series of ‘proposals’, probably concerning Irish customs duties; and in January 1656 he was appointed to the trade committee, which promised (among other things) to reduce the customs barriers between England and Ireland.64CSP Ire. 1647-60, p. 818; Henry Cromwell Corresp. 78; CSP Dom. 1655-6, p. 141. In February 1656 he was one of the ‘well-esteemed’ Old Protestants considered as possible additions to the Irish council.65Henry Cromwell Corresp. 108. Although this promotion did not happen, in later months Hill was appointed to a committee which arbitrated land claims, and the Dublin administration came to rely on him to settle disputes in Ulster.66Ire. under the Commonwealth, ii. 655, 658, 670-2. Hill reaped personal benefit from his position: in February 1656 his petition was referred to the Irish committee at Whitehall; in April his son was granted forfeited land adjacent to the family holdings at Kilwarlin; and in August he was awarded £1,000 for his past services.67CSP Dom. 1655-6, p. 182; CSP Ire. 1647-60, pp. 828-9; Lodge, Peerage, ii. 236; NLI, MS 758, f. 101. In 1655-8 Hill also became more closely involved with some of the major players in Irish politics. In July 1654 he had joined Arthur Annesley* as trustee on the marriage of Sir John Skeffington* to the daughter of the Antrim landowner, Sir John Clotworthy*; and in 1655 he and Skeffington witnessed a deed whereby Clotworthy and Broghill assigned money to their nieces, the daughters of Lord Ranelagh (Arthur Jones*).68PRONI, D.207/16/1-2; NLI, D. 22017-22, unfol. In April 1656 the protectoral council agreed to settle Clotworthy’s military arrears, having read a favourable report by Hill and Broghill.69CSP Dom. 1655-6, p. 297. Although he did not sit in the second protectorate Parliament, Hill was clearly an important figure in Irish circles, visiting Dublin on official business regularly in 1656 and 1657.70SP63/286, ff. 197, 240v; SP63/287, ff. 45, 53. In April 1657 Hill, Annesley, Sir Charles Coote, Sir Hardress Waller and the 2nd earl of Cork (Richard Boyle*) attended the Irish council to discuss the apportioning of assessments throughout Ireland.71Chatsworth, CM/29, unfol.: 24 Apr. 1657. In the following December, Hill joined Annesley, Broghill and Cork as a feoffee for the estate of the 17th earl of Kildare.72PRONI, D.3078/1/4/14. Hill was now firmly established in first rank of Old Protestant society, not just in Ulster, but across Ireland.

The death of Oliver Cromwell in September 1658, and the collapse of the protectorate in May 1659, threatened to destroy the settlement which the Old Protestants had spent so long achieving. By November of that year, Hill was hosting meetings at Hillsborough attended by former royalists including Colonel Trevor and Viscount Montgomery of the Ards, and although he was not directly involved in the officers’ coup of December 1659, he was returned as representative for co. Antrim in the General Convention, which met in Dublin in March 1660.73Clarke, Prelude to Restoration, 103, 174-5. George Monck, in his letter to the speaker justifying the actions of the Old Protestants, suggested that Parliament might consider appointing Hill, alongside Broghill, Coote and Waller, as ‘commissioners for the management of their affairs both martial and civil in Ireland’.74Ludlow, Mems. ii. 472. It is also interesting that Dr Morley, one of Sir Edward Hyde’s* agents in England, reported that Hill had great influence in Ireland, although his profile was not as high as that of Broghill or Coote, and added that he thought he could be trusted by Charles II.75CCSP iv. 664.

With his high-level contacts in England and Ireland, and his record of favouring ex-royalists, it was not surprising that Hill survived the Restoration with his position intact. In September 1660, the duke of Ormond recommended that Hill, who had refused a regular commission, should be granted the constableship of Hillsborough Fort, with a ward of 20 soldiers, and this was passed by letters patent the following December.76CSP Ire. 1660-2, pp. 40, 103; Add. 21131, ff. 2-4v. In the same month, Hill was sworn to the Irish privy council, and his official pardon was passed, with the support of Sir Charles Coote (now earl of Mountrath) in January 1661.77CSP Ire. 1660-2, pp. 142, 188. In the elections for the 1661 Irish Parliament, Hill was returned for co. Down.78CJI i. 589. During 1661 he sat on various civil commissions, including that for enforcing the Irish settlement, and he was a trustee for the claims of the 1649 officers.79CSP Ire. 1660-2, pp. 306, 323; NAI, Lodge’s MSS 1.A.53.55, ff. 130, 131-2. He was clearly on good terms with Ormond at this time, and it was on the recommendation of the lord lieutenant that at the end of the year the king ordered that Hillsborough would be raised to the status of a borough, and that Hill was not to be excluded from the settlement of pre-1649 arrears.80Bodl. Carte 31, ff. 117, 534; 42, f. 433; 43, ff. 78-9; CSP Ire. 1660-2, pp. 458-9, 668-9. Hill’s support for Ormond’s regime was matched by his enthusiasm for the Church of Ireland, and after 1660 he was on very friendly terms with the new archbishop of Armagh, John Bramhall.81Rawdon Pprs. ed. Berwick, 123-6. Hill died in April 1663. Moyses Hill, his son and heir by his first marriage, succeeded to the estate, but on his death in the following year, it descended to his half-brother, William Hill.82Marquess of Downshire, 11. William’s grandson, Trevor Hill, created Viscount Hillsborough in 1717, was the father of the 1st marquess of Downshire.83Lodge, Peerage, ii. 239-40; CP.