HILL, John (1590-1657), of Dorchester, Dorset; later of London

The Hill family of Poundisford was descended from a merchant of Taunton, Somerset, who died in 1546. Hill’s grandfather was listed as a ‘gospel favourer’ in 1564. His great-uncle and father were sat for Taunton in the 1571 and 1572 Parliaments respectively. Way, 35; Cam. Misc. ix. pt. 3, p. 64; HP Commons, 1558-1603, ii. 315. Hill himself became an ironmonger in Dorchester, importing his materials by sea from South Wales. However, he was also licensed in 1618 to keep an alehouse in Colyton, Devon (probably as trustee for his step-daughter), and engaged in privateering activities against the Spaniards in the late 1620s. A prominent local puritan, he was returned for Dorchester in 1628, but left no trace on the records of Parliament, and never sat again. William Whiteway of Dorchester, 42; Weymouth and Melcombe Regis Min. Bk. ed. M. Weinstock (Dorset Rec. Soc. i), 46; Som. and Dorset N and Q, xv. 85; CSP Dom. 1628-9, pp. 294, 297, 304, 381; D. Underdown, Fire from Heaven, 204.

A defaulter in musters in 1629, Hill was brought before the Privy Council, and promised to conform in future. In the same year he contributed to the costs of obtaining Dorchester’s new charter. His brother Roger represented Taunton in the Short Parliament, while his nephew, another Roger, sat for Bridport in the Long Parliament before becoming a Cromwellian judge. APC, 1629-30, p. 221; Municipal Recs. of Dorchester, 86. Hill himself was an influential member of Dorset’s county committee in the Civil War, and was appointed by Parliament as joint collector of prize money, doubtless at the instance of his brother-in-law Giles Greene*. Dorset Standing Cttee. ed. C.H. Mayo, 30, 56, 128. Defeated at the Weymouth by-election of 1645, he subsequently settled in London. Hill drew up his will on 25 May 1657, bequeathing £100 for a university exhibition to be held by poor scholars from the Dorchester free school. He died later that year, the will being proved on 4 Jan. 1658. His son Richard was also a merchant, but nothing further is known of his descendants. Weymouth and Melcombe Regis Min. Bk. 56; Municipal Recs. of Dorchester, 578; PROB 11/272, ff. 31A-33.