In March 1989 Hill succeeded his uncle in his eight peerages: five of Ireland and three of Great Britain. The need to satisfy the Treasury immediately led Downshire, as he was now known, into a mild controversy. The 2nd Marquess had married the heir of the last Trumbull. This inheritance included the Easthampstead estate, near Bracknell, west of Windsor, and with it the Trumbull papers. These comprised 388 volumes of manuscripts collected by Sir William Trumbull (1639–1716), British Ambassador to Paris, and to Constantinople, and his grandson William Trumbull, British Resident in Brussels. The archive – featuring letters by Stuart kings, Philip II of Spain, Marie de' Medici, Bacon, Donne, Dryden, Fenton, Alexander Pope and Georg Rudolf Weckherlin – had been on loan to Berkshire Record Office. In the summer of 1989 the collection was sent to Sotheby's in London, divided into 63 lots and prepared for sale, with an estimate of £2.5m. Breakup was avoided as on the eve of the November sale the auction was cancelled and the British Library took the papers. (The 388 volumes are now catalogued as Add MS 72242–72621.)