Hill's connection with the admiralty ceased. In 1710 he was appointed envoy extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the Hague and Brussels (ib. vi. 665, 668, 676), but ill-health forced him to refuse the appointment (Lord Bolingbroke, Works, 1798, vi. 31). During the latter part of his life Hill lived at Richmond in Surrey, where he died on 11 June 1727 in his seventy-third year. He was buried in Hodnet Church, Shropshire, where there is a monument to his memory. According to Speaker Onslow (Burnet, History of his own Time, iv. 318), Hill ‘took deacon's orders, which he laid aside while employed in civil affairs; but upon his withdrawing from them he resumed his clerical character, took priest's orders,’ and became a fellow of Eton College on 22 Dec. 1714 (Harwood, Alumni Etonenses, 1797, p. 84). Hill appears to have been strongly pressed to accept a bishopric, but though he refused this preferment he is said to have aspired to the post of provost of Eton. He was an able man of business, and though a tory greatly admired William's foreign policy, and staunchly supported the Hanoverian succession. Macky, in describing Hill, says: ‘He is a gentleman of very clear parts, and affects plainness and simplicity in his dress and conversation especially. He is a favourite to both parties, and is beloved for his easy access and affable way by those he has business to do with’ (Memoirs of the Secret Services, 1733, p. 148). Hill was not married, and died exceedingly rich. He left a considerable portion of his property by his will to his nephews, Samuel Barbour and Thomas Harwood, both of whom assumed the surname of Hill. Thomas, by his second wife, Susanna Maria, the eldest daughter of William Noel, a justice of the common pleas, was father of Noel Hill, who was created Baron Berwick on 19 May 1784. The Hawkstone estate passed to Rowland Hill, another nephew, who was created a baronet in consideration of his uncle's services on 20 Jan. 1727, and was father of Sir Richard Hill [q. v.] and of Rowland Hill, the preacher (1744–1833) [q. v.] Hill left the advowsons of several livings to St. John's College, Cambridge. He was a fellow of the Royal Society, and was created an honorary D.C.L. of Oxford University on 13 July 1708. He does not appear to have been knighted, or to have been admitted to the privy council. His correspondence while envoy to the Duke of Savoy, which was discovered about 1840 at Attingham Hall, near Shrewsbury, was edited in 1845 by the Rev. William Blackley, and throws valuable light upon the policy of Victor Amadeus, duke of Savoy, afterwards king of Sardinia.
[Preface to the Diplomatic Correspondence of the Right Hon. Richard Hill, 1845, pp. v–xiv; Luttrell's Brief Hist. Relation of State Affairs, 1857, vols. iv. v. vi.; Burnet's History of his own Time, 1833, iv. 317–18, 386, vi. 77, 120; Historical Register, 1727, Chron. Diary, p. 25; Hist. MSS. Comm. 11th Rep. pt. v. p. 306; Blakeway's Sheriffs of Shropshire, 1831, pp. 179–82; Betham's English Baronetage, 1803, iii. 209–10; Wotton's English Baronetage, 1741, iv. 215–16; Burke's Peerage, &c., 1889, pp. 131, 713; Foster's Peerage, 1883, p. 364; Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. xi. 456, 4th ser. iii. 161.]
HILL, Sir RICHARD (1732–1808), controversialist, was eldest son of Sir Rowland Hill, who was created a baronet in 1727 as nephew of Richard Hill (1655–1727) [q. v.] Richard's mother was Jane, daughter of Sir Brian Broughton; and Rowland Hill, the preacher (1744–1833) [q. v.], was a younger brother. He was born at Hawkstone, the family seat, near Shrewsbury, on 6 June 1732. He was educated at Westminster School and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he matriculated 8 Dec. 1750, and was created M.A. on 2 July 1754. He travelled on the continent for two years with the Earl of Elgin, and on his return to England in 1757 distinguished himself as a champion of George Whitefield and the Calvinistic methodists. In 1768 six undergraduates were expelled from St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, for adopting methodism. Hill violently attacked the university authorities in a pamphlet called ‘Pietas Oxoniensis’ (Oxford, 1768). Dr. Thomas Nowell, principal of St. Mary Hall, and public orator, replied to Hill, who rejoined with much vigour in ‘Goliath Slain.’ Hill defended Calvinistic methodism against John Wesley, Fletcher of Madeley, and other methodist leaders in 1770. Towards the latter end of 1780 he was returned to parliament, unopposed, to represent Shropshire. His maiden speech was delivered on 19 May 1781, upon a ‘Bill for the better Regulation of the Sabbath.’ Throughout his parliamentary career Hill was an able and telling speaker. The ‘Public Advertiser’ characterised his speeches as uttered ‘with much wit and good humour.’ His habit of referring to the authority of holy writ excited much ridicule, and he was called ‘the Scriptural Killigrew.’
In the autumn of 1783 Hill succeeded to the baronetcy and estates of his father, who had died on 7 Aug. in that year. In 1798 Archdeacon Charles Daubeny [q. v.] published his ‘Guide to the Church.’ Hill attacked Daubeny in ‘An Apology for Brotherly Love and for the Doctrines of the Church of England.’ Daubeny replied in ‘An Appendix to the Guide to the Church,’
