HILL, Sir Rowland, 1st Bt. (1705-83), of Hawkstone, Salop.

Sir Rowland Hill, lord mayor of London 1549-50, one of the richest merchants of his time, bought considerable estates in Shropshire, including the manor of Hawkstone, where he was born. He settled the manor on a brother, from whom it descended to the Rev. Richard Hill, an able and important official, deputy paymaster of the forces in Flanders, envoy to Brussels, a lord of the Treasury under William III, and a member of the council of the lord high admiral and envoy to Turin under Anne. A moderate Tory, ‘of the sort who were in earnest for the succession of the House of Hanover,’ Richard Hill remained influential in high circles under George I, though holding no office. He died unmarried in 1727, having settled his estates on his nephews, Rowland, Samuel and Thomas.Salop Arch. Soc. Trans. lv. 143-57.

Rowland Hill was made a baronet by George I, presumably by the influence of his uncle, from whom he inherited an estate of £8,000 p.a., together with stock in the Bank of England worth £30,998.Richard Hill’s will, PCC 141 Farrant. Returned unopposed as a Tory at Lichfield in 1734 with the support of his cousin Samuel Hill,H. Sanders, ’Hist. Shenstone’, printed by J. Nichols in Biblio. Topog. Britannica (1793), ix. 63. he voted with the Opposition but did not stand again. He spent the later years of his life trying to moderate the religious propensities of his eldest son, Richard Hill, M.P., and of his sixth son, the Rev. Rowland Hill, both of whom were ardent Methodists.Rev. Edwin Sidney, Life of Sir Richard Hill and Life of Rowland Hill.

He died 7 Aug. 1783.