William Hilton (Irish politician)

George is recorded as leasing an estate at Lifford in 1616 from the original proprietor, the London-born builder and architect Peter Benson, who built the Walls of Derry and played a prominent role in the Plantation of Ulster.

[1] He entered politics, and flourished as a client of the formidable and almost all-powerful Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, who became a friend of William's brother-in-law the Archbishop.

[1] Stafford's downfall and execution for treason in 1641 does not seem to have affected William's career, but by 1642 conditions in Ireland had become so disturbed that he complained that he was the only Baron still sitting in the Court of Exchequer, and applied for an increase in salary to take account of the extra workload.

[1] He was a conscientious judge, who like his predecessor Dr Cooke continued to hear cases in the Admiralty Court in Dublin, even during the gravely disturbed conditions of the 1640s.

Costello states that a salvage case, Macredie v Staples, in which he gave judgment in the plaintiff's favour in 1647, gives a useful glimpse of the routine work of the Irish Admiralty.

[1] He appears to have been a lawyer of some ability and was a very conscientious judge, but historians agree that his rise to eminence was due entirely to his marriage into the Ussher family, and later to Strafford's patronage.