page_title: Richard Hill (priest)
section_title: Death and estate
hierarchical_section_title: Richard Hill (priest) / Death and estate
caption_attribution_description: English: Memorial plaque to the Reverend Richard Hill (died 1836) in St James' Church, Sydney
context_page_description: Richard Hill was a London-born Church of England priest who was appointed as a chaplain to the colony of New South Wales in 1818. He became the first minister of St James' Church, Sydney, after its consecration in 1824, serving there until he died suddenly in 1836 while on duty in the church. Described as a "charitable man, industrious and a good organiser", Hill was active in philanthropy and humanitarian organisations and after his sudden death was much mourned. He was succeeded at St James by William Grant Broughton.
context_section_description: Richard Hill died on duty in the vestry of St James, reportedly of apoplexy. A tombstone commemorating him is at Camperdown. His sudden death shocked his contemporaries and inspired earnest original poetry in tribute to his memory. At least two multi-stanza original poems were published in the Sydney press, one of which self-consciously referenced a recent poem by Lord Byron by beginning with "There was a sound of revelry by night", borrowed from Childe Harold (Canto the Third, Stanza XXI), and attempting to copy that poem's versification throughout. The poem in tribute to Hill revealed his reputation in the lines at the end of its Stanza III: "... he did most kindly feel For all others' woes, and laboured for their weal." 
  
  Speaking of him in St James' Church on 5 June 1836 after Hill's death, the Bishop of Australia, William Grant Broughton, said: 
  You know his works: his unwearied labours in the discharge of his public ministry; his serene resignation under no ordinary trials; his blameless and useful life; his prompt attention to every call of distress; his faithful and fearless reproof of the sinner; his disregard of personal ease when any work of charity required his services; his peculiar ability in engaging the attention and affection of the young and in imbuing them with a deep reverence for the words of everlasting salvation.
  The printer J. G. Austin, responsible for a lithograph of St James in the year of Hill's death, also printed in the same year, "a very correct likeness of this lamented gentleman, drawn on stone by Mr. Rodius, from a painting by Mr. Reid, the artist". This lithograph was lauded as "one of the best colonial attempts in the Lithographic line of art ... yet witnessed. A more striking resemblance it would not be easy to pourtray".
  Property in the colony owned by Hill included suburban lots near Darlinghurst and hundreds of acres in the counties of Hunter and Northumberland, as well as land granted to him. 
  Hill's theological library, described as "the most extensive ... ever submitted to the community of New South Wales" was sold at auction on 25 and 26 July 1836 in King Street, Sydney.
caption: Memorial plaque to Hill in St James' Church, Sydney
exif: {"Image Make": "Panasonic", "Image Model": "DMC-FS15", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Elements 9.0 Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2013:09:27 18:57:41", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 14, 0, 1, 0, 22, 0, ... ]", "Image Tag 0xC6D2": "[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, ... ]", "Image Tag 0xC6D3": "[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, ... ]", "Image ExifOffset": "664", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1246", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5727", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/30", "EXIF FNumber": "37/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2010:12:12 12:18:52", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2010:12:12 12:18:52", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "-33/100", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "86/25", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Flash", "EXIF Flash": "Flash fired, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "63/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3230", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2825", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "36", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}