Richard Hill of Hawkstone

Richard Hill of Hawkstone
Born	23 March 1655 (baptized) Hodnet, Shropshire
Died	11 June 1727 Richmond, Surrey
Education	Shrewsbury School; St John's College, Cambridge
Occupation	diplomatist, statesman, public servant
Parent(s)	Rowland Hill and Margaret Whitehall

The Rev. the Hon. Sir Richard Hill of Hawkstone Hall, Shropshire, was (baptised at Hodnet, Shropshire, 23 March 1655 and died unmarried at Richmond, Surrey, 11 June 1727, aged 72.) He was known as ‘the Great Hill’, diplomatist, public servant and statesman, who accumulated great wealth through a series of profitable appointments and judicious dealings.

He was the second son of Rowland Hill (baptised 1623?) of Hawkstone and his wife, Margaret Whitehall of Doddington, Shropshire. He was educated at Shrewsbury School and admitted to St John's College, Cambridge (BA 1679; MA 1682), and was ordained deacon. In 1675, he worked as a tutor to the sons of Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Burlington, and then to the children of Laurence Hyde, 1st Earl of Rochester. Through Hyde, he became acquainted with Richard Jones, 1st Earl of Ranelagh, paymaster of the forces, by whom he was appointed deputy paymaster of William III to the army in Flanders during the War of the Grand Alliance, 1688–96.

In the 1690s and early 18th century he went on to hold several eminent positions. He served as a diplomat during the War of the Spanish Succession, as envoy to Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria in Brussels, and to the duke of Savoy in Turin, whom he persuaded to join the Grand Alliance. Hill made the allies guarantors for the Vaudois, a medieval heretic sect, later Protestants, who had suffered centuries of persecution by the dukes of Savoy, and they were guaranteed toleration, so that the Vaudois pastors placed him 'at the head of our Nehemiahs' (Diplomatic Correspondence, 2.973).

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