Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 26.djvu/415

  in 1834, and a licentiate of the College of Physicians, Edinburgh, in 1859. On passing as a surgeon he commenced practice at Lincoln, and in the same year obtained the appointment of house-surgeon to the General Dispensary there. His energy and determination were conspicuous, and he was elected in July 1835 resident house-surgeon of the Lincoln lunatic asylum. Here for some time he literally lived among the patients, and satisfied himself of the possibility of dispensing with any instruments of restraint. Under his management the number of the patients rapidly increased, and the Lincoln asylum attained much fame and prosperity. In 1839 he published his lecture on the ‘Management of Lunatic Asylums and the Treatment of the Insane.’ He argued that ‘in a properly constructed building, with a sufficient number of suitable attendants, restraint is never necessary, never justifiable, and always injurious in all cases of lunacy whatever.’ He proposed to substitute ‘classification, watchfulness, vigilant and unceasing attendance by day and by night, kindness, occupation, and attendance to health, cleanliness, comfort, and the total abstinence of every description of other occupation by the attendants.’ His efforts contributed to the general adoption of more humane methods. He entered into partnership with Richard Sutton Harvey in 1840, and became proprietor of Eastgate House private asylum, Lincoln. On 29 Oct. 1851 Hill was entertained at a public dinner in Lincoln and presented with a testimonial as the ‘author and originator of the non-restraint system in lunacy.’ The claim to the origination of the non-restraint system has been disputed [see under ], but in any case Hill was the first to carry out the system to a practical result on a large scale. In November 1852 he was chosen mayor of Lincoln, and elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London on 17 Feb. 1853. In October 1863 he removed to London and settled down as resident medical proprietor of Earl's Court House, Old Brompton, a private asylum for ladies, a residence formerly inhabited by John Hunter. He died of apoplexy at Earl's Court House, London, on 30 May 1878, and was buried in Highgate cemetery.

Hill was the author of: 1. ‘Total Abolition of Personal Restraint in the Treatment of the Insane. A Lecture, with Statistical Tables,’ 1839. 2. ‘A Concise History of the entire Abolition of Medical Restraint in the Treatment of the Insane and of the success of the Non-Restraint System,’ 1857. 3. ‘Lunacy, its Past and its Present,’ 1870. He also wrote articles ‘On Total Abolition of Personal Restraint in Treatment of the Insane,’ in the ‘Lancet,’ 11 April 1840, p. 93, and 22 Feb. 1851, pp. 226–7; and ‘Psychological Studies,’ six articles in the ‘Medical Circular,’ 6 Jan. 1858, p. 1 et seq.

 HILL, ROGER (1605–1667), judge, of a family long settled at Houndstone, Somerset, son of William Hill of Poundsford, near Taunton, and Jane, daughter of John Young of Devonshire, was born at Collaton, Devonshire, at the house of Mrs. Sampson, his father's sister, on 1 Dec. 1605. He was admitted a member of the Inner Temple 22 March 1624, was called to the bar 10 Feb. 1632, and became a bencher of his inn 10 June 1649. In March 1644 he was the junior of five counsel against Archbishop Laud (, Athenæ Oxon. iii. 130), and was elected in 1645 to parliament for Bridport, the sitting member having adhered to King Charles (Parl. Hist. ii. 608). In 1646 he received a grant of the chambers in the Temple of Mostyn and Stampe (, Memorials, p. 201), and was named in the commission of judges to try the king, but did not act. In May 1649 he was appointed to assist the attorney-general for the Commonwealth against Lilburne, Walwin, Prince, and Overton, and was again assistant to the attorney-general in the trials in the west in the spring of 1655. On 29 June of that year he became a serjeant-at-law, was a judge of assize in Northamptonshire in August 1656, and is named as a baron of the exchequer in Easter term 1657 in Hardres's ‘Reports.’ He was present at the Protector's investiture in June 1657, and was a judge attendant on the House of Peers in January 1658 (, Diary, ii. 240, 512). In 1658 he went the Oxford circuit (, Athenæ Oxon. iii. 754), and in August 1659, with Chief-baron Wylde, held assizes in Gloucestershire, with instructions to proceed to Monmouth ‘if it be safe, but otherwise to forbear.’ Lambert being on the march from Chester, and the country becoming pacified, the judges were able to proceed (, Cal. State Papers, Dom. August 1659). On the restoration of the Long parliament he resumed his seat, and on 17 Jan. 1660 was