Hillsborough

Hillsborough was a model village built by the Earl of Hillsborough and 1st Marquess of Downshire. It was incorporated in 1662 by a charter of Charles II granted to Arthur Hill. It was enfranchised as the Manor of Hillsborough and was to encompass 100 acres in the town and lands of Hillsborough, to be a free borough and corporation known as the borough and town of Hillsborough. By the charter the corporation consisted of a sovereign, 12 burgesses and freemen. Throughout its corporate existence as a parliamentary borough it appears to have been completely under the domination of the head of the Hill family, and at the Union the £15,000 compensation for its disfranchisement was awarded to the vehemently anti-Unionist Marquess of Downshire and received by his heir.