HILL, Lord Arthur Marcus Cecil (1798-1863), of 2 Chesham Street, Belgrave Square, London, Mdx.

align="left">Born at Hanover Square, London, Hill’s eldest brother, Arthur Blundell, 3^rd marquess of Downshire owned estates in counties Down, Wicklow and King’s amounting to more than 110,000 acres.1W.A. Maguire, ‘Hill, Arthur Blundell Sandys Trumbull’, Dictionary of Irish Biography, iv. 692-3; idem., The Downshire Estates in Ireland, 1801-1845: The Management of Irish Landed Estates in the Early Nineteenth Century (1974). His grandfather, the 1^st marquess, had been an early proponent of an Anglo-Irish Union and served as president of the board of trade (1763-72) and secretary of state (1779-82).2P.J. Marshall, ‘Hill, Wills, first marquess of Downshire’, Oxford DNB, xxvii. 155-6; J. Kelly, ‘Hill, Wills’, Dictionary of Irish Biography, iv. 702-5. His mother was the niece and heir of Edwin, 2^nd baron Sandys, and was created a baroness in her own right, 19 June 1802. An effective political patroness, she held substantial estates in the counties of Down, King’s, Berkshire, and at Ombersley in Worcestershire.3R. Richey, ‘Hill [nee Sandys], Mary, marchioness of Downshire and suo jure Baroness Sandys of Ombersley’, Oxford DNB, xxvii. 207-11.

Hill entered the diplomatic service in 1816 and was attached to several missions abroad, including the embassies at Verona, Madrid and Paris, before being appointed under-secretary of the legation to the court of Tuscany in June 1824.4Morning Post, 11 Apr. 1863; Examiner, 3 Nov. 1822; Morning Post, 26 May 1824; Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 17 June 1824. He accompanied Sir Charles Stuart to Lisbon in March 1825, and subsequently acted as his special secretary at the embassy to Brazil at Rio de Janeiro.5Morning Post, 10 Feb. 1825; Morning Chronicle, 14 Mar. 1825, 4 Feb. 1826. As secretary to the special embassy at St. Petersburg in 1827, he accompanied the marquis of Hertford on a mission to present the order of the Garter to Czar Nicholas I, and was presented to the king on his return to England.6Morning Post, 1, 9 Aug. 1827, 28 Mar. 1828; Standard, 17 Nov. 1838; The Times, 11 Apr. 1863; W.R. Williams, The Parliamentary History of the County of Worcester (1897), 159. During this time he was also introduced to London society under the auspices of his aunt, the marchioness of Salisbury, a former Pittite hostess.7Morning Post, 1, 5 June, 27 July 1821, 22 Mar., 11 June 1822. He was presented to the court by his father in 1830: Morning Post, 11 Nov. 1830.

Having declined the office of secretary of the embassy at Constantinople in 1830, Hill contested Carrickfergus, coming second in the poll to his younger brother, Lord George Hill.8Belfast News-letter, 13 Aug. 1830; Standard, 13 Aug. 1830; HP Commons, 1820-32, iii. 667-8; B. Hourican, ‘Hill, Lord George’, Dictionary of Irish Biography, iv. 696-8. He was persuaded ‘by some one at the treasury’ to offer himself for Downpatrick at the 1832 general election in opposition to a Conservative, but at his mother’s instigation transferred to Newry to oppose a Catholic repealer.9Lord Downshire to Mr. Reilly, 8 Dec. 1832: PRONI, Downshire papers, D671/C/2/468; Maguire, Downshire Estates, 22; Belfast News-letter, 14 Dec. 1832. He was returned, with strong Orange support, as a supporter of the Whig ministry after a ‘severe and sanguinary contest’, but pledged only to support ‘the real interests of Ireland’.10Belfast News-letter, 28 Dec. 1832, 22 Jan 1833; Morning Chronicle, 1, 3 Jan. 1833; HP Commons, 1820-32, iii. 736. Although a petition committee subsequently decided that many of his electors had received bribes, Hill was cleared of direct involvement and was allowed to retain his seat.11H.J. Perry & J.W. Knapp, Cases of Controverted Elections in the Eleventh Parliament of the United Kingdom (1833), 149-61; Belfast News-letter, 19 Feb. 1833, 14 Oct. 1834; Morning Chronicle, 1 Mar. 1833; Morning Post, 7 Apr. 1834, 26 Jan. 1835; The Times, 23 Jan. 1837. Despite being placed by the Standard amongst the opposition members (presumably because of the trenchant Toryism of his brother Arthur Moyses Hill), he was nevertheless regarded as ‘doubtful, but rather Conservative’. Once in the Commons, however, he largely supported the Whig ministry, voting for the Irish church temporalities and coercion bills, but opposing the removal of Jewish disabilities and the ballot. In 1834 he backed the government on the church rates question, opposed Daniel O’Connell’s repeal motion, and presented a petition for a private bill to provide for the Bainbridge and Belfast roads.12Mirror of Parliament (1834), i. 248. In spite of rumours that he was to receive an official appointment under the provisional Conservative administration in November 1834, he retired at the 1835 general election.13Examiner, 30 Nov. 1834; Morning Chronicle, 6 Jan. 1835; Morning Post, 26 Jan. 1835. An opponent of Lord John Russell’s attempts to appropriate the revenues of the Irish Church, he informed constituents that, having formerly contested the borough ‘for the purpose of supporting a Ministry whom he believed to be conscientiously attached to the interests of their country’, he could not now give his confidence to a Conservative ministry that he was convinced would be compelled by public opinion to bring forward similar measures.14Belfast News-letter, 9 Jan. 1835.

In 1837 Hill married Louisa Blake, a descendant of the celebrated seventeenth-century admiral, Robert Blake, and re-entered politics, coming forward that February for Evesham where he was defeated by a local Whig-Conservative coalition. Despite having defended the Melbourne ministry’s record on ‘peace, reform, and retrenchment’, advocated tithe reform, and offered qualified support for the ballot, there remained some doubt as to the depth of his liberalism, given his family’s frequently espoused Toryism.15The Times, 23 Jan. 1837; Standard, 6 Feb. 1837; Morning Post, 6 Feb. 1837. The Irish liberal press accused him of ‘shamming Whiggery’ so as to gain a seat in parliament: Freeman’s Journal, 9 Feb. 1837. However, professing political opinions that he himself described as ‘decidedly Liberal’, he offered again for Evesham at the ensuing general election, this time ‘at the instigation of the extreme Radicals, and without the sanction of the respectable Whigs’.16Dod MS, ii. 587; Morning Post, 5, 8 July 1837; Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 6, 27 July 1837. He proved ‘an excellent electioneer’ and, though defeated by a Conservative, was seated on petition in March 1838.17Daily News, 5 Dec. 1849; Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 15 Mar. 1838. Now regarded as an ‘uncompromising advocate of liberal principles’, he immediately opposed the ministry by voting to end slave apprenticeships, 30 Mar. 1838. He also urged the equal legislative treatment of Ireland and argued that ‘the ballot was the only thing that could save the country’. Furthermore, he now proved willing to support the appropriation of Irish Church revenues.18Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 14 June 1838. Regarding the corn laws, Hill pledged that if it was established ‘that the interests of the unprotected poor were sacrificed to those of the rich’, he would vote for their repeal, and duly supported Villiers’s motions for inquiry, 19 Feb. and 18 Mar 1839.

By 1841 Hill was regarded as a ‘very zealous and active supporter of the Liberal party’, and voted in 41 of the 119 divisions in that session.19Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 1, 15 July 1841. Shortly prior to his return at the top of the poll at Evesham at the 1841 general election, he was appointed comptroller of the royal household,20It is ‘conceivable’ that he combined this office with a position as one of the government whips at this time: J. Sainty & G.W. Cox, ‘The Identification of Government Whips in the House of Commons 1830-1905’, Parliamentary History, xvi (1997), 339-58 at 348 and 350; Williams, Parliamentary History of Worcester, 159. and became a member of the privy council.21G. May, A Descriptive History of the Town of Evesham (1845), 304. The swearing-in ceremony was enlivened ‘by a suppressed laugh from the ludicrous circumstance of there being no chair for him at the “board,” and his being obliged to sit down at a side table’: Hon. Mrs. Hardcastle, Life of John, Lord Campbell Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain (1881), ii. 145. In 1842 he jointly prepared an abortive bill to amend the laws regulating the administration of barristers in Ireland, which would have obviated the need to spend a part of their terms at English inns of court.22The Times, 21 Apr. 1842; PP 1842 (140) i. 109; Hansard, 5 Apr. 1842, vol. 61, cc. 1294-5. In August 1843 he testified on behalf of the wife of the former Anglo-Indian MP, David Ochterlony Dyce Sombre, at a commission of lunacy hearing.23The Times, 2 Aug. 1843; M.H. Fisher, The Inordinately Strange Life of Dyce Sombre: Victorian Anglo-Indian MP and Chancery ‘Lunatic’ (2010), 192-3. He also gave evidence in July 1838 at the trial of three men charged with conspiring to defame his family: The Times, 11 July, 27 Oct. 1838. Hill made few contributions to parliamentary debate, having opted for ‘the modesty of the quiet career and the unostentatious endurance of a subordinate role’. Yet as an officer of state, he reported at intervals on the sovereign’s answers to Commons’ addresses on issues such as the formation of Peel’s administration in 1841, distress in Ireland, and the design of the new House of Commons in 1847.24Illustrated London News, 13 Aug. 1853; A.C. Benson & Visc. Esher, The Letters of Queen Victoria. A selection from Her Majesty’s correspondence between the years 1837 and 1861 (1907), i. 377; Hansard, 30 Aug. 1841, vol. 59, c. 476; 22 Jan. 1847, vol. 89, c. 269; 21 May 1847, vol. 92, c. 1166; 14 June 1847, vol. 93, c. 471; 23 July 1847, vol. 94, c. 691; 26 Nov. 1847, vol. 95, c. 227; 15 July 1850, vol. 112, c. 1375; 18 July 1850, vol. 112, c. 1453; Freeman’s Journal, 17 July 1850; Hansard, 6 Feb. 1852, vol. 119, c. 196. After the Whig’s resumed office in 1846, Hill became the second government whip, often employing his ingenuity to have the House counted out when the government faced embarrassment. In June 1849 was accused by the earl of Lincoln of getting the House counted out by holding shut the green door behind the speaker’s chair to prevent members entering the chamber.25Sainty & Cox, ‘Identification of Government Whips’, 346; Freeman’s Journal, 4 May 1848, 5 May 1851; Hansard, 20 June 1849, vol. 106, cc. 597-8; Manchester Times, 23 June 1849. He was particularly active in trying to prevent the ‘Irish Brigade’ from disrupting government business in 1851-2, the ‘necromantic operations’ of himself and ? Hayter quickly emptying the government benches in order to prevent the Irish members from prolonging debates.26Preston Guardian, 5 Apr. 1851; Freeman’s Journal, 30 May, 7 Aug. 1851.

Hill participated in the electoral campaigns to return General de Lacy Evans for Westminster in February 1846, and Lord Robert Grosvenor for Middlesex a year later.27The Times, 18 Feb. 1846, 4 Feb. 1847. In July 1846 he attended upon Lord John Russell after the Whig leader was asked to form a government.28The Times, 2 July 1846. Now regarded as a consistent and energetic representative, and ‘a stranger to extreme Radical views’, he was returned unopposed for Evesham after resuming the comptrollership in July 1846, and headed the poll again at the 1847 general election, after which he was appointed treasurer of the household. On his re-election he offered qualified support for state intervention in education, and identified Ireland as the administration’s chief difficulty, defending Whig efforts to alleviate the famine there.29Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 16 July 1846, 5 Aug. 1847. The following year he signed an anti-repeal declaration, and in April 1849 presented a petition for a state-funded railway line from Halifax to Quebec.30Morning Chronicle, 23 May 1848; Morning Post, 30 May 1849. As a party whip, he was amongst the most assiduous attenders at Westminster, voting in 169 of the 219 divisions in 1849: Sheffield and Rotherham Independent, 27 Oct. 1849.

Hill was chairman of the Reform Club for 13 years between 1845 and 1860 and it was to him that the club was indebted for ‘the genuine excellence of its cuisine’.31G. Woodbridge, The Reform Club 1836-1978. A History From the Club’s Records (1978), 42, 44, 126, 159; Illustrated London News, 13 Aug. 1853. He was a founder member of the Fox Club, and regularly attended dinners given at Brooks’s in honour of the late Whig leader.32The Times, 31 Jan. 1846, 25 Jan. 1847. It was said that ‘there was no name better known “about the House” than that of Lord Marcus Hill’ and he was a regular guest at political dinners, parliamentary banquets, and royal visits and levees in the 1840s. Being in such a position at St. Stephen’s ‘as to permit him to develop unchecked his kindly clubbable tendencies’, it was chiefly to him that the House of Commons was ‘indebted for its “comforts” in its club aspect’. He was particularly well-regarded as a gastronomic authority, it being said that there was no part of his duty as a whip ‘which he performed more efficiently or with greater zest’ than that of ordering the white-bait dinners at Greenwich at the conclusion of each session.33Illustrated London News, 13 Aug. 1853; Morning Chronicle, 12 Aug. 1852. Charles Francatelli, the chef at the Reform Club, even produced a soup in his name: C.E. Francatelli, The Cook’s Guide, and Housekeeper’s and Butler’s Assistant (1861), 56. He was also known for his sartorial taste, and was regularly seen sporting ‘his inevitable corduroy combinations’.34Freeman’s Journal, 22 Mar. 1852.

Hill was ‘industrious, but unsuccessful’ in his attempts to secure a parliamentary majority for Russell’s ministry in February 1852, and remained personally popular in a constituency to which he paid annual visits, and where his influence was ‘maintained by acts of personal courtesy and kindness’.35Daily News, 21 Feb. 1852; Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 22 Jan. 1852; Daily News, 5 Dec. 1849. However, he ‘astonished’ the electors of Evesham by announcing his retirement at that year’s general election, citing the duties he now owed ‘to a numerous and youthful family’.36The Times, 15 Apr. 1852; Daily News, 15 Apr. 1852; Morning Chronicle, 16 Apr. 1852. He also later admitted to ‘some warnings of deteriorated health’: Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 23 July 1853. He was approached to stand again for Evesham in 1855 but declined, claiming that ‘he had not the physical power to perform the duties of a Representative’, and took little further part in politics.37Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 14 July 1855; The Times, 11 Apr. 1863.

In 1858 Hill’s eldest daughter, Mary Georgina, married Sir Edmund Filmer, Conservative MP for West and Mid-Kent (1859-65, 1880-4), and in 1860 he inherited his mother’s Irish and English estates from his brother, General Arthur Moyses. The following year he assumed the name of Sandys.38The Times, 20 Dec. 1886; R. Richey, ‘Hill, Mary’, Dictionary of Irish Biography, iv. 700-2. Having been indisposed for a number of weeks, Lord Sandys died at his residence in London in 1863, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Augustus Frederick (1840-1904), a military officer.39Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 11 Apr. 1863.