Author: Hill, Charles
Biography:
HILL, Charles (1758-1822: findmypast.com)
He was born at Tawstock, Devon, one of the three sons of the Rector, Charles Hill (d 1801); his mother was probably Elizabeth Kingwell, who married Charles Hill at Pilton, Devon, on 29 Sept. 1756. In May 1776 he matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford (BA 1781, MA 1784); he was ordained a priest in 1781. He was made domestic chaplain to Sir Thomas Sewell, Master of the Rolls, who died in 1784, at which point Hill became Rector of Trentishoe and of Instow in North Devon, livings that he held until his death. His brother William lived at Instow, Charles and his family perhaps at Barnstaple, a substantial town halfway between Charles’s two parishes. It is not clear why he chose to publish first--anonymously or under his initials--at Swansea in Wales, since later works appeared at Barnstaple and he was well known there. On 2 Oct. 1799 he married Hellen (or Helen) Tucker at her home parish of St. Petrox, Dartmouth, Devon. They had at least four children baptised in the same church, of whom two daughters survived both parents and were named as joint beneficiaries in his will. His wife predeceased him but no record of the date has been found; he himself died in Jan. 1822 and was buried at Tawstock on 24 Jan. in accordance with his wishes. (findmypast.com 6 Jun. 2022; ancestry.com 6 Jun. 2022; CCEd 6 Jun. 2022; Alumni Oxonienses; John Roberts Chanter, Sketches of the Literary History of Barnstaple [1866], 36-7; NA PROB 11/1674/73; “The Devon Book Trades . . . Barnstaple” bookhistory.blogspot.com) HJ
Other Names:
- C. H.