Sir Richard Hill, 2nd Baronet

Who was Sir Richard Hill, 2nd Baronet?

Sir Richard Hill, 2nd Baronet of Hawkstone, was a prominent religious revivalist and Tory member of Parliament for Shropshire 1780-1806.

He was the eldest son of Sir Rowland Hill, 1st baronet, who was also a first cousin of Thomas Hill, of Tern,. His mother was Jane, daughter of Sir Brian Broughton, 3rd Baronet, of Broughton, by Elizabeth Delves. The Hills of Hawkstone owed their status and fortune to the 'Great Hill', the Hon. Richard Hill, diplomatist and statesman, great-uncle of Sir Richard Hill. His nephew, Rowland, was a distinguished soldier, created first Viscount Hill of Hawkstone, and his brother was the Evangelical preacher, Rowland Hill.

Richard Hill was educated at Shrewsbury School, Westminster School and Magdalen College, Oxford. Sir Richard Hill was a writer of religious tracts, a patron of Methodists and tolerant of Dissenters, who supported George Whitfield against John Wesley. In Parliament he was a supporter of William Pitt the Younger. Nathaniel Wraxall writes that he was ‘one of the most upright, honest and disinterested men who ever sat in Parliament… but his religious cast of character laid him open to … ridicule. His manners were quaint and puritanical, his address shy and embarrassed. He possessed, however, a most benevolent disposition, together with a great estate, which enabled him to gratify his generous and philanthropic feelings.’