User:Alekksandr/Arthur Hill (died 1663)

Arthur Hill (1601?–1663), was an Anglo-Irish soldier, Member of the First Protectorate Parliament and the Parliament of Ireland and Constable of Hillsborough Fort.

Early life
He was born about 1601, the second son of Sir Moyses Hill, knight, MP. His mother was probably Sir Moyses' second wife, Anne Stafford (née Grogan), widow of Sir Francis Stafford, but may have been his father's first wife, Alice, sister of Sorley Boy MacDonnell. Arthur succeeded his elder brother's son, whose line failed, in the estates. Having become sheriff of County Antrim in 1634, he was returned to the 1634 Irish parliament at a by-election, perhaps for Belfast, and was elected for Carysfort, County Wicklow, in 1640.

English Civil War and Commonwealth
Upon the outbreak of the English Civil War he inclined to the king's side, but eventually took service for the parliament, became a colonel, and acted on the Irish committee. His allegiance, however, was never very warm. With William Jephson, M.P., and Sir Robert King, he obtained a warrant from parliament on 22 April 1643 to go to Oxford on Irish business. In 1651 he invited Robert Child to his Ulster estate; Child remained there until his death in 1654, investigating local natural history and recording enthusiasm for agricultural improvement in the area. On 2 Aug. 1654 he was returned M.P. for Counties Down, Antrim, and Armagh in the First Protectorate Parliament.

Restoration
Some grants which he received during the protectorate in co. Down were formed into the manors of Hillsborough and Growle (now the townland of Growell). There he built a considerable place of strength, which after the Restoration was constituted a royal garrison by the name of Hillsborough Fort, and the office of constable there made hereditary in the family. Hill was created constable on 21 Dec. 1660, and was also sworn of the Privy Council of Ireland. He represented County Down in the 1660 Irish convention and in the parliament elected in 1661. He died in April 1663, aged 62.

Marriages and family
He married first Anne, daughter of Sir Richard Bolton, Lord Chancellor of Ireland; and secondly, Mary, daughter of Sir William Parsons, one of the Lords Justices of Ireland, who was mother of his second son and eventual heir, the Right Hon. William Hill (1641?–1693).

[Commons' Journals, vols. iv. v.; Travels of Sir William Brereton in Ireland (Chetham Soc.), p. 128; 1915 edition of Burke's Peerage under ‘Marquis of Downshire’, page 664]