Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 26.djvu/429

 Bvckland,’ Douay, 1634, 12mo, pp. 870; second part, 1637, 12mo, pp. 1270. A manuscript of the work dated 1634, perhaps the original, is preserved in the library of St. Mary's College, Oscott. 

HILL, THOMAS (d. 1653), master of Trinity College, Cambridge, born at Kington, Worcestershire, was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, of which he was scholar and fellow, and where he graduated B.A. in 1622, M.A. in 1626, and B.D. in 1633. He was incorporated B.A. at Oxford on 9 July 1622, resided for some years at Cambridge as a tutor, and having taken holy orders preached regularly at St. Andrews. Subsequently he lived for a time with his friend John Cotton [q. v.] at Boston, Lincolnshire. A strong puritan, he was summoned as assessor by the committee of the House of Lords appointed to consider innovations in religion on 1 March 1640–1. He was also one of the original members of the Westminster Assembly of Divines, which was constituted by ordinance of 12 June 1643, and was a frequent week-day preacher before the assembly in Westminster Abbey. He also preached regularly on Sundays at St. Martin's-in-the-Fields during the sittings of the assembly. About this time he was presented to the rectory of Little Titchmarsh, Northamptonshire, which he held until his death, and was elected to the mastership of Emmanuel College, which he exchanged in 1645, by direction of the parliamentary commissioners, for that of Trinity College. He was appointed vice-chancellor of the university, and took the degree of D.D. (1646). A patent issued by the parliament, 17 March 1647–8, confirmed him in the office. The mode of Hill's appointment and his Calvinistic views made him highly unpopular with the fellows of Trinity, nor was his method of governing calculated to conciliate them. On one occasion he summarily arrested and imprisoned a fellow named Wotton for saying in a tavern that the English parliament were greater rebels than the Irish. He pertinaciously propagated his Calvinistic views, not only in Cambridge, but also in the neighbouring towns and villages. He died of a quartan ague on 18 Dec. 1653. His funeral sermon was preached by Dr. Anthony Tuckney, master of Emmanuel College, on 22 Dec. Hill married Mary Willford, governess of Lady Frances, daughter of Robert, earl of Warwick. She survived him and married Tuckney. Hill published some sermons, and edited the theological tracts of William Fenner [q. v.] 

HILL, THOMAS (1628?–1677?), nonconformist minister, was born at Derby. From the grammar school of Repton, Derbyshire, he entered the service of the first Earl of Chesterfield, but was admitted at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, on 10 Sept. 1645. He graduated B.A., and left the university in 1649, rather than take the ‘engagement’ of loyalty to the Commonwealth; some years later he refused to preach before Cromwell. He became chaplain to the Countess of Chesterfield at Tamworth Castle, Warwickshire, and afterwards preacher at Elvaston, Derbyshire. On 16 Nov. 1652, having received a call from the parishioners of Orton-on-the-Hill with Twycross, Leicestershire, he was ordained at Ashbourne by the presbyterian classis of Wirksworth, Derbyshire, on 15 March 1653. Orton was a sequestrated vicarage; Hill duly paid the fifths to Roger Porter, his predecessor. In 1657 Hill declined an offer of the living of Tamworth. At the Restoration Porter was replaced at Orton by order of the House of Lords, and Hill was presented by the second Earl of Chesterfield to the perpetual curacy of Shuttington, Warwickshire. He did not conform in 1662, but does not appear to have been immediately ejected. His patron, who was the impropriator, gave him the tithe. The Five Mile Act (1665) ‘rendered him incapable of supplying the place himself.’ He removed to Lea Grange, near Orton, where he had a house of his own, and supplied Shuttington by help of ‘a worthy Worcestershire minister.’ He was a man of great learning and judgment, and a good preacher, with a fine voice. He died ‘about the fiftieth year of his age,’ having taken cold after preaching. The dates of his birth and death are conjectural; Samuel Shaw, born in 1635, was his schoolfellow at Repton, ‘tho' considerably junior.’ His widow was living in 1727. He seems to have published nothing. 