Arthur Hill, 6th Marquess of Downshire

Arthur Wills John Wellington Trumbull Blundell Hill, 6th Marquess of Downshire (2 July 1871, London – 29 May 1918) was an Irish peer, styled Earl of Hillsborough until 31 March 1874.[1] He lived chiefly at the family seat, Easthampstead Park, within 5,000 acres in Berkshire. The marquess also owned 115,000 acres in Hillsborough, County Down, and land in Wicklow and Kildare.[2][3]

Arthur Hill, 6th Marquess of Downshire (left) c.1880
Marquess of Downshire in The Official Baronage of England, v. 2 (1886)

Arthur Hill was son to Arthur Hill, 5th Marquess of Downshire (1844–1874), and Georgiana Elizabeth Balfour (died 12 January 1919), daughter to Colonel John Balfour of Balbirnie (1811–1895) and Lady Georgiana Isabel (Campbell) Balfour (died 3 December 1884). He became Marquess of Downshire in 1874 on the death of his father.[1]

On 22 June 1893 he married Katherine Mary ("Kitty") Hare (1872–1959), a granddaughter to William Hare, 2nd Earl of Listowel, at St Peter's Church, Eaton Square, London. Kitty became the Marchioness of Downshire. They had three children:

During the 1899-1900 hunting season in Leicestershire, his wife Kitty Hare, considered a society beauty, became acquainted with Joseph Frederick (Joe) Laycock, a millionaire soldier from Wiseton in Nottinghamshire. The relationship developed into an adulterous affair which resulted in Arthur Hill obtaining a divorce from his wife in 1902. After the divorce Laycock married Kitty. Laycock was already having an affair with Kitty's married friend Daisy Greville, Countess of Warwick before he met her, which had already produced one child; this affair carried-on after his marriage to Kitty, producing a further child to the Countess. Following his divorce from Kitty Hare, Arthur Hill married Evelyn Grace Mary Foster (died 30 December 1942), daughter to Edmund Benson Foster (died 1 November 1917), and Edith Eleanor Grove (died 29 November 1921) daughter to Sir Thomas Grove, 1st Baronet.[4][5]

Throughout his life Arthur Hill was considered locally as somewhat eccentric but down-to-earth, occasionally dressing down to fit in with and follow the drovers from Easthampstead Park taking livestock to market. He had a keen interest in powered vehicles such as steam engines and motor cars, and was "chief of Wokingham's voluntary fire service"[2]

Arthur Hill, 6th Marquess died at Easthampstead Park on 29 May 1918, and was buried there.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b Doyle, James William Edmund (1886). The Official Baronage of England, v. 2. London: Longmans, Green. p. 199.
  2. ^ a b c "The double life of Arthur Hill, 6th Marquess of Downshire", Wokinghamremembers, quoting Jim Bell, The Wokingham Paper, 24 April 2015
  3. ^ The great landowners of Great Britain and Ireland
  4. ^ Anand, Sushila (2008), Daisy: The Life and Loves of the Countess of Warwick, Piatkus. ISBN 978-0-7499-5169-6
  5. ^ "The Downshire Divorce", The Star, Issue 7423, 9 June 1902
Peerage of Ireland
Preceded by Marquess of Downshire
1874–1918 		Succeeded by