# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hill, Abraham

​HILL, ABRAHAM (1635–1721), man of science, baptised on 16 June 1635 at St. Dionis Backchurch, London (Parish Register, Harl. Soc., p. 104), came of an old family seated at Shilstone in Devonshire. His father, Richard Hill, a merchant and alderman of London, was appointed by the Long parliament treasurer of sequestrations in the summer of 1642, and acted in that capacity until 1649. Hill entered his father's business, in which he was very successful, but by private study he contrived to master several languages, and to gain some knowledge of natural and moral philosophy. He was besides an ardent book and coin collector. On his father's death in January 1659–60 he inherited an ample fortune, and that he might study with less interruption, he hired chambers in Gresham College, where he had frequent opportunities of conversing with learned men. He was one of the council of the Royal Society named in the king's charter, dated 22 April 1663 (Thomson, Hist. of Roy. Soc., Append. iv. p. xxi). On 30 Nov. of that year he was elected treasurer of the society, an office which he held until 30 Nov. 1665. On being re-elected on 1 Dec. 1679 he discharged the ​duties with great ability until 30 Nov. 1700 (Weld, Hist. of Roy. Soc. ii. 560). At the accession of William and Mary, Hill became a commissioner of trade, and when Tillotson was promoted to the see of Canterbury in 1691 he appointed Hill his comptroller. In the next reign Hill resigned his seat at the board of trade, and retired to his estate of St. John's in Sutton-at-Hone, Kent, which he had purchased in 1665. He died on 5 Feb. 1721, and was buried in the chancel of Sutton Church. He married first, Anne (d. 1661), daughter of Sir Bulstrode Whitelocke, knt., by whom he had a son, Richard (1660–1721), and a daughter, Frances (1658–1736), a spinster. His second wife, Elizabeth (1644–1672), daughter of Michael Pratt of Bromley-by-Bow, Middlesex, brought him no issue. Hill wrote a life of Isaac Barrow, prefixed to the first volume of the latter's ‘Works,’ published in 1683, and reissued in subsequent editions. A selection from Hill's correspondence was edited by Thomas Astle from the manuscript in his possession, and published as ‘Familiar Letters which passed between A. Hill and several eminent and ingenious persons of the last century,’ 8vo, London, 1767. The manuscript of this correspondence, together with many other papers of Hill and his father, is now preserved among the Additional Manuscripts in the British Museum (Index to Addit. MSS. 1783–1835, pp. 232–3), where are also ten volumes of Hill's commonplace books (Addit. MSS. 2891–2901), his official memoranda as commissioner of trade (ib. 2902), and his letters to Sir Hans Sloane, 1697–1720 (ib. 4048). Hill was also the friend and correspondent of Evelyn and Pepys, and a kinsman of Abigail Hill, afterwards Lady Masham [q. v.]
[Life prefixed to ‘Familiar Letters;’ Register of St. Dionis Backchurch (Harl. Soc.), pp. 115, 116, 232, 233; Ayscough's Cat. of MSS. in Brit. Mus.; Evelyn's Diary; Pepys's Diary; Hunter's Chorus Vatum, vi. 352–3 (Addit. MS. 24492); Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. viii. 10.]
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