Author: Hill, Philippina Patience
Biography:
HILL, Philippina Patience formerly BURTON (fl 1768-96)
Very little is known for certain about this writer. She may have been Irish; her subscription lists include several men identified as Fellows of Trinity College Dublin. Her Miscellaneous Poems, Written by a Lady, Being her First Attempt was published anonymously in 1768 but her A Rhapsody, a prose work, appeared the following year with her name on the title page. She acted at the Haymarket in London and performed there in her play, Fashion Display’d, on 27 Apr. 1770 (the play was not published) and in others of the same year. Her name must have been well-known: Lord Chesterfield’s New Foundling Hospital for Wit of 1771 includes a stanza describing her as “an am’rous incoherent muse.” Certainly she must have lived by her wits: a newspaper report of 22 May 1772 has her as a bankrupt milliner using the name Patience Yandall. By about 1778 she had married an actor, Robert Hill, but he died young, leaving her a widow by 1785. The preface to her Portraits of 1795 describes her dependency on others for accommodation. In 1796 she was in Dublin and a note in her A Poem to the Memory…of William Burton Conynygham tells us “Through the contrivance of a low malicious jealous woman, Mrs. Hill was arrested a short time after her first coming to Ireland.” A last sighting of her is in the Dublin Evening Post for 2 June 1796 announcing her recovery from illness. Other publications include a series of annuals, The Diadem, or King David, issued from about 1790. The subscription lists in her books indicate that she was acquainted (or claimed to be) with many titled individuals. One of the most puzzling of her books is Mrs. Hill's Apology for Having Been Induced, by Particular Desire…to appear in the character of Scrub, Beaux Stratagem, For One Night Only, At Brighthelmstone, last Year, 1786 which includes letters addressed to the Prince of Wales and Mrs. Fitzherbert. (RPW; WorldCat; Highfill; findmypast.co.uk 23 Mar. 2021; London Gazette 9 May 1772; Dublin Evening Post 2 June 1796)
Other Names:
- Mrs. P. Hill
- Mrs. Robert Hill