Rowland Hill (MP)

Sir Rowland Hill (Hyll or Hylle or Hull or Hall) of Soulton (c. 1495–1561), was the publisher of the Geneva Bible, thereby earning the title "The First Protestant Lord Mayor of London", having held that office in 1549. He was a statesman, polymath, merchant and patron of art and philanthropist active through the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I. He is associated with the recovery and development of Tudor English drama a generation before Shakespeare, and events that Hill was involved in may have shaped one or more Shakespearean characters.
As a political operator, he has been said to have been "influential at the highest level".
Rowland Hill was born of an ancient Shropshire family (first recorded as 'de Hull' and 'de la Hull'), with connections to Court of Hill near Hope Bagot and Burford.
He was born at Hodnet, Shropshire about 1495. He was the eldest son of Thomas Hill and Margaret Wilbraham, daughter of Thomas Wilbraham of Woodhey, Cheshire. He had a younger brother, William (a priest), and four sisters, Agnes, Joan, Jane and Elizabeth.
Hill was born around the same time as George Vernon of Hodnet (died 1555) whose grand daughter Elizabeth married Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, who have both been suggested as muses for Shakespeare's sonnets.
He was apprenticed to a London mercer, Thomas Kitson, obtaining his freedom of the Company in 1519.
In 1538, Hill, along with Sir Ralph Waryn and Mr Lock (likely William Lock) invested in cargo in the George Mody; she never reached her port of destination, because Norwegian pirates pillaged her, with correspondence between Thomas Thacker to Cromwell recording:
Complaint was made to Thomas Cromwell was invoked to obtain letters from Henry VIII to the kings of Denmark, France and Scotland that search might be made. The loss to Hill and his coventurers was £10,000. The ship was recovered but not the cargo.
Hill was prominent in the affairs of the Mercers' Company. He was warden between 1535–6, and between 1543–4 and 1550–51 and 1555–6. His membership of the Mercers overlapped with Francis Wren, grandfather of Christopher Wren.
In 1560 the Geneva Bible was published by Sir Rowland Hill, and he has subsequently been culturally associated with it. He was involved with the network of Marian exiles.
This is the bible that was used by William Shakespeare, Oliver Cromwell, John Knox, John Donne, and others. It was also one of the Bibles taken to America on the Mayflower. The frontispiece is understood to have been the inspiration for Benjamin Franklin's design for the Great Seal of the United States.
This Bible was the first to be mechanically printed. The project of preparing this Bible during the reign of Mary was extremely dangerous, and the forward highlights the perils attaching to those engaged in the project:
Royal permission was obtained from Queen Elizabeth for its printing in England. In the eighty-four years of its publication, some 140 editions of the Geneva Bible or New Testament were produced.
This Bible's frontispiece is understood to have been the inspiration for Benjamin Franklin's design for the Great Seal of the United States.
Hill was responsible for publishing of 26 other books between 1559 and 1562. These were on diverse and esoteric topics ranging from Rithmomachia to statcraft to theology to the New World and medicen, including:
Some of his publishing work carried a badge of a half eagle and a key. Curiously, this same device features on the front page of the second quarto edition of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
It has been suggested that Hill's statecraft involved the accumulation of state papers and culturally important texts at Soulton, which then passed via the Alkington Cotton into the Cotton Library (which goes on to hold the Beowulf manuscript and copies of Magna Carta) and this, alongside the repeated traditional memorialization of Sir Rowland Hill with Magna Carta offers a potential explanation for the battle of Wem in the English Civil War during which Soulton was ransacked.
As Lord Mayor of London Hill was noted in contemporary records for relaxing the regulation of theatre in the city.
Hill was involved, with his friend and fellow lord mayor Sir Thomas Gresham, in revival of the Marching Watch or Mid Summer Watches in London. In these pageants 15,000 citizens all in bright harness, with coats of white silk or cloth, and chains of gold, passed through London to Westminster, and round St. James's Park, and on to Holborn.
Hill's involvement is recorded in Lady Long's household-book at Hengrave, Suffolk, which notes that Henry VIII watched these marches from Mercers Hall with Jane Seymour; "the presence of more than 300 demi lunces and light horsemen" were a particular highlight.
Hill was a cousin by marriage to Mary Arden, Shakespeare's mother. He was a friend of Thomas Lodge, who witnessed his purchase of the manor of Soulton in 1556. It is possible that "To Rowland" (an alias also used by Michael Drayton) in Lodge's A fig for Momus (Eclogue 3) is addressed to Hill. It has also been speculated that Rowland Hill is inspiration for Rowland de Bois in As You Like It and his house at Soulton was conceived of as a theatre.
In 1541–42, he was elected sheriff of the City of London, and is recorded as being hosted by the incumbent Lord Mayor and provided with "a great stagge and tow fatt buckes". by the king as he entered this office.
From 28–30 March 1542, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London on the orders of the House of Commons, as a result of his 'abuse' of the Sergeant of Parliament sent to secure the release of George Ferrers, a member of parliament imprisoned for debt in the Bread Street Counter. A Victorian account of this incident put is as follows:
King Henry VIII, took the side of the House of Commons in this case of member's privilege; however, he showed favour to Hill shortly after the affair by knighting him on 18 May 1542. He witnessed the surrender of St Bartholomew's to Sir Richard Rich in 1539.
In the wake of the coup d'état against Protector Somerset, Hill took over as Lord Mayor for the year beginning in November 1549. This was a period of substantial religious uncertainty, but he oversaw some of the critical changes in the direction of godly Protestantism, including the removal of altars. Nevertheless, in 1549, as mayor at the height of the iconoclasm of the reformation, he adjusted the route his Lord Mayors day procession and said a de profundis at the tomb of Bishop William.
He was a close friend of Sir Thomas Bromley (a member of the Regency Council appointed for the minority or Edward VI) and was given a token under the will of that statesman. Of his conduct in office as Lord Mayor it was said "this mayor was a good minister of justice".
His mayoralty witnessed a determined campaign against moral offences, the wardmote inquests being required in April 1550 to make fresh presentments of ill rule, 'upon which indictments the lord mayor sat many times'.
In the summer of 1553 John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland (a colleague of Hill's on the Council of Wales and the Marches) had attempted to place Jane Grey on the throne and was defeated by a rebellion in favour of Mary, and the executed as a traitor.
Hill was one of the city's representatives in the first parliament of Queen Mary's reign (October–December 1553), temporarily replacing Sir Martin Bowe (a Catholic); with Hill being regraded as a Protestant by many, this made Sir Robert Broke SL the only Catholic MP from London.
The London delegation to that Parliament was said to have attended the parliament with an entirely commercial agenda: toiling at legislation to regulate London's physicians, chandlers in both wax and tallow, leather tanners and bowling alleys, as well as a measure to deregulate the sale of wine.
Hill endured a short spell of disfavour under Mary and was dropped from the commissions of the peace for Middlesex and Shropshire in 1554.
He recovered the regime's confidence, however, and in March 1556, when the Henry Dudley conspiracy to depose Mary was discovered (leading to a series of trials for high treason at the Guildhall) he was commissioned as a justice for oyer and terminer (an assize judge), along with Sir William Garrard (that year's Lord Mayor) presiding), along with Sir Roger Cholmeley, and Mr Recorder Sir Ralph Cholmley. In June Sir John Gresham of Titsey took the place of Hill on the bench for the indictment of Silvestra Butler, in the same matter.
Hill received, from Queen Mary two bucks of the season out of the great park at Nonesuch, on behalf of the city of London, in 1557.
In 1557, when he was appointed a Commissioner Against Heretics the command for which gave:
Intriguingly, this commission to collect such materials overlaps with the Geneva Bible project in which Hill was also involved. Nevertheless, later in the same year hearing the indictment of Sir Ralph Bagnall for treason.
Nevertheless, after the accession of Elizabeth he helped put into execution the Act of Supremacy and the Act of Uniformity.
It is remarkable and unique that Hill had commissions to seize prohibited books under both the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation.
Rowland Hill's protegee, Thomas Leigh, led the coronation procession and escorted the newly crowned Queen Elizabeth I through the streets of London on the day of her coronation, and he continued as a Privy Councillor to the young Elizabeth I in the early years of the reign, to the extent he was appointed a Commissioner for Ecclesiastical Cases in 1559, alongside Matthew Parker, newly appointed Archbishop of Canterbury. The warrant established the commission stated;
A curious account survives of a rent payment ritual in London for the Merchant Taylors School in which Hill presided shortly before he died:
Hill's roots in Hodnet put him in the orbit of the Vernon family and the Stanley family which included Elizabeth Vernon who married Shakespeare's patron Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton.
Hill was a close friend of Sir John Gresham, who provided him with a black gown to attend his funeral and whose executor he was.
Hill was a "trusty friend" of Sir Thomas Seymour, and was given land at Hoxten for life under his will. It was said Hill "knew much of the intent and purpose" of Sir Thomas Seymour.
Bishop Ridley refers to Hill in his farewell his friendes in generall before his execution.
He was a member of the company of Merchant Adventurers.
Rowland Hill was a guest of the family at the burial of Sir Thomas Wriothesley.
He was left a piece of gold in the 1552 will of Chief Justice Sir Thomas Bromley (died 1555) ‘for a token of a remembrance for the old love and amity between him and me now by this my decease ended’. Hill was chief overseer to the Will of William Lok (ancestor of the philosopher John Locke).
He was an overseer for the will of Sir George Barne, who was Lord Mayor at the death of Edward VI.
Hill had a reputation for charitable virtue. In 1555 he established a school at Market Drayton in Shropshire. He was also closely involved with the establishment of the London hospitals. He was the first president of Bridewell and Bethlehem Hospitals from 1557 to 1558 and again between 1559 and 1561, and he held the post of surveyor-general of the London hospitals from 1559 until his death. Along with Sir Martin Bowes, he prepared, in 1557, The Order of the Hospitals of King Henry the viijth, and King Edward the vjth, viz. St. Bartholomew, Christ's, Bridewell, St. Thomas's. By the Maior, Commonaltie, and Citizens of LONDON; Governours of the Possessions, Revenues, and Goods of the sayd Hospitals, Anno 1557."
Among Sir Rowland's civic and charitable works are to be found, with a focus in Shropshire in particular:
He also supported schools, the Bethlem asylum and the new Bridewell hospital. In 1557 the administration of Bethlem Royal Hospital became the responsibility of the Bridewell Governors. The post of President was established, with first occupant being Hill.
Hill shared his prominent role in the establishment of hospitals with Richard Grafton, who also had Shropshire heritage, and who was instrumental in printing the Great Bible.
Hill was also involved in the establishment of early labour exchanges and poverty relief.
He was founded exhibitions, and educated many students at both Oxford and Cambridge Universities, and supported scholars at the Inns of Court.
Hill engaged in building during his life. The buildings he constructed were conceptually sophisticated. The surviving Soulton Hall corps de logistics is understood to be constructed in elaborate codes, and is thought to have been copied by Francis Bacon when he built Verulam House. It is further thought that the construction of Soulton Hall (with its lost pyramidal roof) is done to represent a Holy Almandal.
As part of his activities in London he bought a mansion house in Frederick's place in 1546, which he interconnected with Mercers Hall and its chapel. Within these buildings, during this period, an important statue of Christ was secretly hidden - it is likely this was done with Hill's knowledge.
A contemporary said of Sir Rowland:
Thomas Fuller recorded that on his death he "Forg[ave] his Tenants a years Rent. Also enjoyning his Heirs, to make them new Leases of one and twenty years, for two years Rent" and concluded of him:
Hill's charity had a stern edge, with the epitaph on his monument stating that he also enjoyed a reputation as 'a foe to vice and a vehement corrector',
Archer credits Rowland Hill among a series of mid-century mayors who were "stern moralists," Hill's credentials as an "anti-corruption campaigner" themes which were noted in the 2021 North Shropshire by-election, on account of his manor being used extensively during that campaign.
He died 28 October 1561 of strangury, according to the diary of Henry Machyn, and was buried at St Stephen Walbrook on 5 November. Sir Thomas Offley was among the leading mourners at the funeral.
An at least life size statue of him was put up in the church with him holding Magna Carta, a document signed for King John (a document which was negotiated by a forebear of Sir Rowland’s in the office of Lord Mayor, Serlo the Mercer, third Lord Mayor of London).
A contemporary account of his funeral was as follows:
There is a sixteenth century bust of him in the building occupied by the school he founded in Market Drayton.
There is a statue of him on a pillar in Hawkstone Park in Shropshire. This monument, known as "The Obelisk" is on a column of 110 feet, and was :
The text originally on the Hawkstone pillar read as follows:
The identity of Hill's wife, whom he had married by 1542, is unknown. She died during the year of his mayoralty, and since there were no children of the marriage, his heir was his brother, William, parson of Stoke on Tern; however he left property to the children of his four sisters:
Another of his heiresses being Alice Barker alias Coverdale wife of Sir Thomas Leigh (who had been Hill's business junior and was also Lord Mayor of London), descendents of whom are Dukes of Marlborough, Viscount Melbourne (the Premier) and later Dukes of Leeds. Hill has a new grant of arms issued to him, despite his family having an ancient right to arms which as, and these arms were specially granted to his hiers who were not issue of his body. The new arms specially created for him have a noticeable likenes to the arms of the Adren family, but the new arms repeated the castle device used on the arms of the family from at least the reign of Richard II.
Within All Souls, Oxford University the arms of Hill appear in the colonnade of the Great Quadrangle, opposite the arms of Robert Boyle.
There are 16th-century portraits of Hill in the Museum of London and in the Mercers' Hall in Ironmongers' Lane, as well as at Attingham Park and Tatton Park. The last of these was exhibited in 1897 at Manchester City Art Gallery in a show called "The royal house of Tudor".
These portraits have French texts Inscribed as follows, at the top:
and are inscribed below in Latin:
Of the many lands Hill secured at the dissolution, it is noteworthy that they secured those included St Chad’s Church Norton-in-Hales, The Cotton family originated at Alkington near Wem and William Cotton, a citizen and draper of London eas Sir Roland Hill’s agent in Shropshire, and their proximity to Hill would facilitate their rise, with one of their family, Allan Cotton, serving as Lord Mayor in 1625.
Sir Robert Cotton, 1st Baronet, of Connington was also of this family: he held the Cotton Library prior to it being acquired by the British Museum, and then the British Library.
Jane Austen is related to Hill via one of his heiresses, Alice Barker and his protégée Sir Thomas Leigh of Stoneleigh. In this same line is Catherine Leigh, wife of the Gunpowder Plot conspirator Robert Catesby.
This line also links Hill by family to the Arden Family of Mary Shakespeare née Arden, mother of William Shakespeare; this happens when Elizabeth Corbett (born 1551), Hill's great niece and heiress, marries Robert Arden of Park Hall, West Bromwich (born 1553) in the 1580s; Robert was a second cousin of Mary's. Robert was the son of Edward Arden.
Via his cousin Thomas Bromley, the Tudor Lord Chancellor, he is related to Sir Oliver Cromwell, uncle of the Lord Protector.
A charity in Hill's name is still in operation.