Rowland Hill (preacher)

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For the coordinator of the Geneva Bible, see Rowland_Hill_(MP).

Rowland Hill
Rowland Hill by Samuel Mountjoy Smith
Born(1744-08-23)23 August 1744
Hawkstone Park, Shropshire, England
Died11 April 1833(1833-04-11) (aged 88)
London, England
NationalityBritish
Occupationpastor
ParentSir Rowland Hill

Rowland Hill A.M. (23 August 1745 – 11 April 1833) was a popular English preacher, enthusiastic evangelical and an influential advocate of

Rowland Hill, is said to have been christened 'Rowland' after him.[citation needed
]

Early life

Rowland Hill was born at

Methodists. For preaching in the open air in and around Cambridge without a license, Rowland Hill was opposed by the authorities and frequently assaulted by mobs. Finally, in 1773, after he had been refused ordination into the Church of England by six bishops, he was ordained by the bishop of Bath and Wells and offered the curacy of Kingston in Somerset, but was subsequently denied priest's orders and continued his vocation as an independent or nonconformist. In 1773 he married Mary Tudway.[2]

Surrey Chapel

Having come into an inheritance through the death of his wealthy father, Sir Rowland Hill, he built his own free chapel,

Congregational
form of management. Nonetheless, Hill provided the 'anchor' and personally preached to immense audiences when he was in London. During the summer months he would visit other parts of the country, preaching in Scotland and Ireland as well as England and Wales, frequently attracting large crowds.

Many benevolent institutions were established at the chapel or in the nearby district, including early

Sunday schools. Enrollment in the latter steadily increased under Hill's successors, James Sherman and Christopher Newman Hall, reaching over 3,000 children by the 1860s. Hill was also one of the founders, and chairman, of the Religious Tract Society; and an active promoter of the interests of the British and Foreign Bible Society and the London Missionary Society.[2]

Smallpox vaccination

Hill was on close terms with

Quaker
physician of the day wrote to Hill commenting:

You have done more good than you imagine;
 and for everyone you may have saved by your actual operation,
 you have saved ten by your example;
 and perhaps, next to Jenner,
 have been the means of saving more lives than any other individual.

[citation needed]

Death and legacy

Frederick Brotherton Meyer in Christ Church, Lambeth

Hill died in London on 11 April 1833 and was initially buried below his pulpit at the Surrey Chapel. He was succeeded at

Surrey Chapel by James Sherman, whose tenure later passed to Christopher Newman Hall. Under Newman Hall, Hill's coffin was removed from Surrey Chapel and laid to rest at the Lincoln Memorial Tower, Westminster Bridge Road – part of a complex of Congregational buildings that included a new premises for the meeting hall named Hawkstone Hall which had been founded by James Sherman
in memory of Hill and his birthplace.

Hill's pulpit was also removed from

Second World War
, and the memorial plaque salvaged, to be re-erected in 1959 in the replacement building for Christ Church which stands today.

A portrait of Hill (Reference NPG 5397) by Samuel Mountjoy Smith in 1828 hangs in the

National Portrait Gallery
, London.

A Southwark Council housing block Rowland Hill House(1955) was named after Hill, whose Surrey Chapel was opposite the site.

Published works

  • Hill, Rowland (1800). Extract from a Journal of a second Tour from London: The Highlands of Scotland and North-western parts of England. London: A. Paris
  • Hill, Rowland (1801; 34th ed. 1839). Village Dialogues. London

References

  1. ^ "Hill, Rowland (HL764R)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  2. ^ a b Hamilton, Thomas (1891). "Hill, Rowland (1744-1833)" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 26. p. 411.

Further reading

  • Broome, E. (1883), Rowland Hill: Preacher and Wit, London.
  • Charlesworth, V.J. (1879), Rowland Hill: His Life, Anecdotes and Pulpit Sayings, London.
  • Hall, Christopher Newman (1868), Sermons and A History of Surrey Chapel and Its Institutions. New York: Sheldon.
  • Jones, W. (1840), Memoir of Rowland Hill, ed. Sherman, London.
  • Sidney, Edwin (1848; reprinted 2007), Life of Rev. Rowland Hill A.M., London (reprint – USA:Kessinger)
  • Sherman, James, (1857), Memorial of Rowland Hill, London.

External links

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Based partly upon an article in the public domain New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge – the owners of the online edition at Christian Classics Ethereal Library have given permission for the online copy of this public domain encyclopaedia to be used in Wikipedia articles.

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