Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 26.djvu/418

 staff) and C.B. in 1845; and Thomas Noel [q. v.]

Rowland was appointed ensign 21 July 1790 in the 38th (Staffordshire) foot, then in Ireland, and obtained leave to study at the military school at Strasburg until the end of the year. Having brought twelve recruits from home he was promoted lieutenant on 24 Jan. 1791 in the independent company of foot commanded by Captain Broughton (afterwards Lieutenant-general Sir James Delves Broughton, bart.), quartered at Wrotham, Kent, and on 16 March following was transferred to the 53rd (Shropshire) foot, with leave to resume his studies at Strasburg. The threatening state of affairs on the continent drove him home again, and on 18 Jan. 1792 he joined his regiment, and was quartered at Edinburgh and Ayr until the end of 1792. For some months he was in charge of a small detachment at Ballantrae. Having raised men for an independent company Hill was gazetted captain 23 March 1793. His company was passed into the service at Chatham by General Fox, and ordered to Cork, where Hill was directed to hand it over to the 38th foot at Belfast. He next accompanied Mr. Drake, who on 13 July 1793 was appointed minister plenipotentiary to the republic of Genoa, in the capacity of assistant secretary, and while in Genoa obtained leave to accompany the expedition proceeding to Toulon, where he served as aide-de-camp successively to Generals Lord Mulgrave, O'Hara, and David Dundas, from all of whom he won golden opinions. On 13 Dec. 1793 he set out from Toulon with despatches for home, reporting himself on the way to the Duke of York at Ghent. In the meantime Hill had been brought in as captain to the regiment, afterwards known as the 86th (Royal County Down) foot, then being raised at Shrewsbury under the name of Colonel Cornelius Cuyler's Shropshire volunteers (see, Hist. Rec. 86th, Royal County Down). Among those who had been favourably impressed with young Hill's bearing at Toulon was Thomas Graham of Balgowan, afterwards Lord Lynedoch [q. v.], who obtained a majority for him in his new corps of Perthshire volunteers, which became the 90th foot. Hill was appointed major in the 90th foot on 10 Feb., and lieutenant-colonel 13 May 1794. He was with the regiment at Isle Dieu, under General John Doyle [q. v.], in September 1795, and afterwards at Southampton, where the 90th was under orders for St. Domingo. The regiment was counter-ordered to Gibraltar, whither Hill accompanied it, and served in that garrison in 1796–8, and at the reduction of Minorca in 1798. He obtained home leave from Minorca in May 1799, leaving Kenneth Mackenzie, afterwards Sir Kenneth Douglas, bart. [q. v.], in command. Hill, who became a brevet-colonel 1 Jan. 1800, subsequently obtained permission to accompany Drake on a diplomatic mission to Switzerland, intending to rejoin his corps by way of Italy. Hearing, however, that the 90th had been ordered on active service he embarked straight for Gibraltar, rejoined the 90th off Leghorn, and commanded the regiment in the demonstration against Cadiz, in Malta, and in the expedition to Egypt in 1801. On 13 March 1801, during Abercromby's advance from Aboukir towards Alexandria, the 90th and 92nd highlanders, forming the advance of the army, were very hotly engaged in front of Mandora Tower, and greatly distinguished themselves. The 90th was equipped as light infantry, and, according to Hill (, Hist. 90th Light Inf. p. 40), worked by the bugle-horn. Hill was struck down early in the fight by a musket-ball. He was carried on board the Foudroyant flagship, and berthed in the cabin into which Abercromby was brought to die after the action of 21 March. While on board the flagship Hill was visited by the Turkish capitan pasha, who presented him with a jewelled sword and other gifts. He rejoined the 90th at El Hamed 13 April 1801, and commanded the regiment in the advance upon, and at the surrender of Cairo, and at the siege and capitulation of Alexandria. Under his command the 90th left Egypt for Malta 21 Oct. 1801, and returned home early in 1802. After sojourning at Chatham and Chelmsford the 90th was ordered to Fort George, Inverness-shire, to be disbanded. War alarms saved it from that fate, and in March 1803 the regiment was removed to Belfast, where Hill was made a brigadier-general with a command at Loughrea. He held commands at Loughrea and Galway until his promotion to major-general 30 Oct. 1805. Under Hill's strict but always considerate rule the 90th had been a particularly well-ordered corps. Among the improvements introduced in the regiment by him were a regimental school and a separate mess for the sergeants, then a novelty (ib. p. 54). His Connaught command was equally a success. The time was an anxious one; the enemy's fleet, afterwards destroyed at Trafalgar, was yet at large, small invasion panics were incessant, and there was much irregularity among the volunteer corps then existing, and a tendency in some quarters to represent every disturbance at wake or fair as the beginning of a fresh insurrection. Hill's firmness and quiet bonhomie well fitted him for his post, and his public services were