Family and Education

3rd s. of Roger Hill (d.1546) of Taunton by his w. Margery. m. (1) Alice, da. of one Clark, 1da.; (2) Eleanor, da. of John Marvyn, 3s. 2da.

Offices Held

J.p. Som. from c.1562,, q. by 1574.

Biography

Hill was, like his father, a Taunton merchant. Born during the first few years of Henry VIII’s reign, he inherited a house in Bagborough, some seven miles from the borough, where he was living by the beginning of Mary’s reign. Returned to Parliament once for Taunton, no mention of him has been found in its extant records. In May 1579 he was one of three magistrates ordered to prevent the Taunton clothiers from evading the statutes, and to see that weavers and tuckers were not exploited. He died 28 May 1581. His will, made in April and proved on 15 June, gives details of the division of his property, which included four houses in Taunton itself, among his widow and children. The poor of St. James in Taunton received £1, and there were other small charitable bequests. Hill’s two daughters, Jane and Margaret, were to have £200 each at marriage, or on their 20th birthdays. The widow was executrix, and the five overseers included James Marvyn, Nicholas Wadham, and Hill’s eldest son James, aged 21.

E150/936/8; Vis. Som. (Harl. Soc. xi), 51; CPR, 1553-4, p. 427; APC, xi. 125; C142/197/59; PCC 7 Alen, 26 Darcy.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: N. M. Fuidge

Notes