Wills Hill, the first Marquess of Downshire and second Viscount Hillsborough, an Irish peerage, is best remembered as secretary of state for the American colonies and a fervent opponent of American independence. He was, later on, secretary of state for the Northern Department at the end of the ministry of Lord North, but his reputation was that of a courtier rather than a statesman.
Background
Wills Hill was born on 20 May 1718, at Fairford, Gloucestershire, England, the son of Trevor, first Viscount Hillsborough, and his wife, Mary. Privately educated, he was first elected to Parliament for Warwick at the May 1741 general election and continued to represent that constituency until he was made an English peer in 1756. He succeeded to his father’s Irish peerage in May 1742, as second Viscount Hillsborough.
Career
In July 1742 he was appointed lord lieutenant of county Down, and in November 1743 he took up his seat in the Irish House of Lords, becoming a member of the Irish Privy Council in 1746. In 1751 he was created Viscount Kilwarlin and Earl of Hillsborough. In 1754 he was appointed comptroller to the household of George II, as a result of which he became a member of the English Privy Council. He gave up that post to become treasurer of the chamber between 1755 and 1756.
Harwich’s political career moved up a notch when he became president of the Board of Trade and Foreign Plantations in George Grenville’s administration, in September 1763. He resigned from this post in 1765, when the Marquess of Rockingham became prime minister at the head of a Whig ministry. This was a trying period for Harwich, as his wife died in 1765. Nevertheless, he returned to office the following year, when William Pitt, the Elder, formed a ministry that Harwich led as Lord Privy Seal. Harwich became president of the Board of Trade again in August 1766, but resigned from the position in December 1767 to serve as secretary of state for the American colonies—the third secretary of state, after those for the Northern and Southern departments—from January 1768 until August 1772.
Lord North asked him to be secretary of state for the Southern Department (home secretary) in 1779. Even in this post Harwich continued to express the view that “the independence of America would never be admitted in that house” (the House of Lords).
Harwich resigned this post with the fall of the North administration in March 1782. His political influence, which was never great, subsequently waned. He was created the Marquess of Downshire, in the Irish peerage, in August 1789. He died on 7 October 1793, at the age of 75.
Views
As secretary of state for the American colonies, Harwich was a firm opponent of American independence. In 1768 he instructed Francis Bernard, the governor of Massachusetts Bay, to rescind the resolution of the Massachusetts Assembly to oppose the “obnoxious taxes” imposed by the British and ordered him to dissolve the Assembly if this were not done. In June 1768, he arranged for a regiment to be sent to Boston. In December he had eight motions passed through the House of Lords condemning the actions of the House of Representatives in Massachusetts Bay and at Boston. When in May 1769 the British cabinet resolved to remove all the “obnoxious taxes” except for the one on tea, he circulated a harsh and ungracious circular to the governors of the American colonies. In August 1772 he resigned his office because he could not agree to a plan of settlement on the Ohio. Almost immediately he was raised to the title of Viscount Fairford and the Earl of Hillsborough. He continued to oppose any concession to the American colonies, vehemently speaking out against the American Conciliatory Bill in 1778.
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
His lack of political understanding led George III to comment that he did “not know a man of less judgment than Lord Hillsborough” .
Connections
He married Lady Margaret Fitzgerald, sister of James, first Duke of Leinster, in 1748, thereby consolidating his position in Irish politics.
In October 1768 he was married for the second time, to Mary, Baroness Stawell, heiress of Edward, fourth Baron Stawell, and widow of Henry Bilson Legge, a former chancellor of the exchequer.