Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 26.djvu/399

 

HILL, EDWIN (1793–1876), mechanical inventor and writer on currency, second son of Thomas Wright Hill [q. v.], by Sarah Lea his wife, was born at Birmingham on 25 Nov. 1793. He was an elder brother of Sir Rowland Hill [q. v.], the inventor of penny postage. He showed great mechanical ingenuity in his youth, and entering the Fazeley Street Rolling Mills in Birmingham, rose to be manager. This post he threw up in 1827 to join his brother, Rowland Hill, in establishing a school at Bruce Castle, Tottenham. On the introduction of penny postage in 1840 he was appointed supervisor of stamps at Somerset House. Till his retirement in 1872 he had under his control the manufacture of stamps. By his inventive mechanical skill he greatly improved the machinery. In conjunction with Mr. Warren De la Rue he invented the machine for folding envelopes which was exhibited in the Great Exhibition of 1851. In 1856 he published a work under the title of ‘Principles of Currency: Means of Ensuring Uniformity of Value and Adequacy of Supply.’ In this he proposed ‘that government should prepare and issue under the authority of parliament an adequate amount of interest-bearing securities, almost identical with exchequer bills; and that these be made a legal tender for their principal sum, together with their accumulated interest up to the day of tender, according to a table to be printed upon the face of each bill.’ He published, moreover, pamphlets entitled ‘Criminal Capitalists’ (1870–2), by which he meant those owners of house-property who knowingly provided lodgings for criminals, or shops where stolen goods could be disposed of. He proposed to strike at crime by first striking at these landlords. He died on 6 Nov. 1876 at his residence, No. 1 St. Mark's Square, Regent's Park, and was buried in Highgate cemetery. He married Anne Bucknall, the younger daughter of a Kidderminster brewer, by whom he had ten children, seven of whom survived him. 

HILL, GEORGE (1716–1808), serjeant-at-law, of an old Northamptonshire family, was born in 1716. He was admitted a member of Lincoln's Inn, and was called to the bar, practising at first as a conveyancer. He joined the midland circuit, and although his practice was small, he soon gained a great reputation for exceptional knowledge of case law. Although he was a scholar and a mathematician of considerable learning and attainments, as a lawyer he was so overwhelmed by his memory for cases that he was unable to extract from them clear general principles, and earned for himself the nickname of Serjeant Labyrinth. On 6 Nov. 1772 he became at once a serjeant and a king's serjeant. Of his absence of mind and abstraction among unpractical points of law many anecdotes are told (see, Law and Lawyers, i. 76; , Life of Lord Eldon, i. 301, 325; , Memoirs, i. 248, iv. 149; Memoirs of Letitia Matilda Hawkins, i. 255; , Lives of the Chief Justices, ii. 571). He died at his house in Bedford Square on 21 Feb. 1808, and was buried in the family vault at Rothwell, Northamptonshire, where there is an epitaph upon him by Bennett, bishop of Cloyne. He married Anna Barbara, daughter and heiress of Thomas Medlycote of Cottingham, Northamptonshire, by whom he had two daughters. His legal manuscripts were purchased of his executors by the Society of Lincoln's Inn, and are in the library there. 

HILL, GEORGE (1750–1819), principal of St. Mary's College, St. Andrews, was born in that city in June 1750. He was the son of John Hill, one of the clergymen of St. Andrews, by his second wife, the daughter of his colleague, Dr. McCormick, and a grand-niece of Principal Carstares [q. v.] He was educated at the grammar school and university of his native city, and graduated at the age of fourteen. His distinction as a student attracted the notice of Lord Kinnoull, then chancellor of the university, who as long as he lived was his constant friend and patron. He entered the divinity hall in his fifteenth year, but, losing his father soon afterwards, he was recommended by Principal Robertson of Edinburgh to Pryse Campbell, esq., M.P., one of the lords of the treasury, as tutor to his eldest son. He resided for some time in Campbell's family in London and Wales, and afterwards spent two years with his pupil in Edinburgh, where he finished his divinity course at the university. In both capitals he saw much of the best literary society of the time. Before he had completed his twenty-second year he was appointed joint professor of Greek in the university of