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Downshire Papers	Public Record Office of Northern Ireland
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Collection
Identifier	D/607, D/671
Description	Family, political and general correspondence, 1707-1868, and estate correspondence, legal and financial records, 1523-c.1953, relating to all the Irish estates and some of the English estates of the Downshire family which were managed from the Irish seat and estate office at Hillsborough Castle, Co. Down. The founder of the family fortunes, Moyses Hill, came to Ireland as a landless adventurer during the reign of Elizabeth I. He received a grant of land from the crown in 1592; subsequently, by judicious marriages and the constant acquisition of land, by 1845 the Downshire estates were at their greatest extent comprising property and extensive land in Newry, Hillsborough (the Kilwarlin estate), Carrickfergus, Islandmagee, Malone, Castlereagh, Dundrum, Loughbrickland, Banbridge, Hilltown, Edenderry (King's County), Blessington (Wicklow), Kilkenny, Hertford Castle (Hertfordshire) and Easthampstead Park in Berkshire. In the 1820s, when a parliamentary enquiry established the ownership of the country's land, Lord Downshire's property, amounting to some 115,000 acres in Ireland and a further 5,000 in England, was among the most extensive in the United Kingdom. There was little change in the composition of estates until their dissolution under the land purchase acts at the beginning of the 20th century. Hillsborough Castle was sold to the Northern Ireland Government in 1924 for use as the official residence of the Governor. The archive comprises: title deeds; family settlements; testamentary papers; leases; maps; surveys; plans of both private houses and civic buildings (the Downshire family were possibly the greatest landlord town planners in Ireland); account books; corporation books; roll books; correspondence of the first Marquess and his successors and their wives and families; and that of the Downshire agents.
Strengths	Of interest to those researching the management of large estates and connections of the landed gentry; as the 2nd Marquess, Arthur Hill, was probably the most active county magistrate in pursuing counter-insurrectionary measures during the 1790s, his correspondence is of the widest significance.
Physical Characteristics	Approx. 50,000 documents and volumes, occupying c. 300 PRONI boxes.
Languages	English
Contents Date Range	1523 - 1953
Collection Type	Collection. Archive. Text. Image
Accrual	Policy: Closed Method: Purchase Periodicity: Closed
Access	The collection is stored in secure, closed accommodation and can be requested for on-site consultation using an in-house document ordering system. Access is supervised and for research and/or reference purposes.
Description or Catalogue	See PRONI references D/607 and D/671 for catalogues of the papers. The catalogues are available for consultation in PRONI's Public Search room. See http://www.proni.gov.uk/records/private/dnshire.htm" target="new_window">http://www.proni.gov.uk/records/private/dnshire.htm for a more detailed introduction to the collection.
Publications Note	Archive Collection

Collector
Name	Marquesses of Downshire
History	The Hills had become well established by the end of the 17th century, and most of them were eminent public figures, members of the Irish parliament and Privy Council. Wills Hill, who succeeded his father Trevor Hill, 1st Viscount Hillsborough in 1742, was the most distinguished public figure in the family's history. Like his father Governor of the county and an Irish Privy Councillor, he was known as courtier and politician on a wider stage, serving in several of George III's early ministries, notably at the Colonial Office during a crucial period in relations between the king and his American subjects. Successive steps in the peerages of Great Britain and Ireland were crowned in 1789 by the title of Marquess of Downshire in the Irish peerage. Apart from the estates at Blessington and Loughbrickland which came to him by inheritance, he established the nucleus of the Banbridge estate by purchasing four townlands in 1749 from Richard Whyte. The subsequent growth of Banbridge as a centre of the linen trade was greatly fostered by the new landlord's encouragement, an encouragement also exercised on a national scale as a member of the Linen Board. A man of some taste and culture, Wills Hill was responsible for rebuilding the mansion at Hillsborough, along with the parish church and most of the village. He died in 1793. Family fortunes declined after 1845, rents were reduced after application of the Land Act in 1881 and the estates were largely dissolved under the later land acts at the beginning of the 20th century.

Collector

Name

Marquesses of Downshire

History

The Hills had become well established by the end of the 17th century, and most of them were eminent public figures, members of the Irish parliament and Privy Council. Wills Hill, who succeeded his father Trevor Hill, 1st Viscount Hillsborough in 1742, was the most distinguished public figure in the family's history. Like his father Governor of the county and an Irish Privy Councillor, he was known as courtier and politician on a wider stage, serving in several of George III's early ministries, notably at the Colonial Office during a crucial period in relations between the king and his American subjects. Successive steps in the peerages of Great Britain and Ireland were crowned in 1789 by the title of Marquess of Downshire in the Irish peerage. Apart from the estates at Blessington and Loughbrickland which came to him by inheritance, he established the nucleus of the Banbridge estate by purchasing four townlands in 1749 from Richard Whyte. The subsequent growth of Banbridge as a centre of the linen trade was greatly fostered by the new landlord's encouragement, an encouragement also exercised on a national scale as a member of the Linen Board. A man of some taste and culture, Wills Hill was responsible for rebuilding the mansion at Hillsborough, along with the parish church and most of the village. He died in 1793. Family fortunes declined after 1845, rents were reduced after application of the Land Act in 1881 and the estates were largely dissolved under the later land acts at the beginning of the 20th century.

Owner
Organisation	Public Record Office of Northern Ireland
Role	Government agency with responsibility for official and private records
Telephone	+44 (0)28 9025 5905
Fax	+44 (0)28 9025 5999
Email	proni@dcalni.gov.uk
History	The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI), is the official place of deposit for all public records in Northern Ireland and was established by Act of Parliament in 1923 following the creation of Northern Ireland in 1921. PRONI is also the main repository in Northern Ireland for private records.

Location
Name	Public Record Office of Northern Ireland
Address	2 Titanic Boulevard Belfast United Kingdom BT3 9HQ
Website	http://www.proni.gov.uk
Access Control	The Record Office is open to the general public on weekdays between 9.15 am and 4.45 pm, with late night opening until 8.45 pm on Thursday evenings. The Office is closed on the main public holidays and is closed annually for two weeks late November/early December. All readers are required to register their membership on their first visit to the office for which some form of identification will be asked. Registration and admission to the office is free of charge to the public, although certain commercial users (i.e. solicitors, journalists, television reporters and professional genealogists) are subject to a fee. Disabled access facilities, self-service microfilm and a chargeable copying service are provided.
Role	Government agency with responsibility for official and private records
Phone	0442890534800
Email	proni@dcalni.gov.uk

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