ABRAHAM HILL, F.R.S.
From a Paintiwj in the Possession of W. R. Hill, Esq., of Lymington, Hants.
( 227 )
ABRAHAM HILL, E.U.S.,
OE ST. JOHN'S, SUTTON-AT-HONE, KENT.
BY E. H. ERNEST HILL, A.B.I.B.A.
THE following remarks may serve as a continuation of the
history of St. John's, the earlier portion of which is given in
the interesting Paper by Mr. J. F. Wadmore, in Archceologia
Cantiana, Vol. XXII. , p. 255 ; and also as a memorial of one
whose family, although not natives of the county of Eent,
were in possession of the Manor of St. John's for 120 years.
The original Manor was in the sixteenth century divided
into two moieties, owned by two sisters, Catherine and
Martha Eandall. Martha carried ber moiety in marriage to
Thomas Cranfield, Esq., of London, whose son, Sir Eandall
Cranfield, executed in 7 Charles I. a writ of partition of the
Manor with Sarah, Countess of Leicester, and her son Sir John
Smythe, owner of the other moiety. The Cranfield portion
retained the name of St. John's, and included the ancient
mansion and chapel of the Knights Hospitallers and the
Court Leet. Sir Eandall Cranfield bequeathed his portion
of the estate in 1635 to his son Vincent Cranfield, Esq., who
sold it in 1649 to Thomas Hollis, a merchant of London. He
and his wife Elizabeth sold it in April 1660 to Abraham
Hill, Esq., of Lime Street, London, a Fellow of the Eoyal
Society, which was founded three years later.
Hasted says, "The estate consisted of the scite and 316
acres of arable, 44 acres of coppice, 40 acres of brookland,
and 17 acres of marsh land, a; mill, messuage and cottage,
and 80 acres of land, the whole let at £173 13s. 4d. per
annum. Mr. Hill did not get possession of it till the year
1667 " (History of Kent, 1778, vol. i., p. 237). There was also
a Manor of St. John's Ash in the parish of Wrotham, which
was an appendage to that at Sutton.
. 2
228 ABRAHAM HILL, F.R.S.
Abraham Hill, the owner of this estate for sixty-one
years, was a remarkable man, although not much known to
the public. His father, Eichard Hill, a merchant of Lime
Street, was an ardent Eepublican, and held office under
Cromwell's Government as Treasurer to the Committee for
Sequestrations in 1643, and Joint Commissioner for the sale
of Prize Goods taken in the Dutch War in 1656. He also
sat in the Long Parliament as Member for Truro, and was an
Alderman of London in 1656.
At the time of his death in 1659-60 he had three sons
living, Abraham, Thomas, and Samuel. The second son,
Thomas, was a great friend of Samuel Pepys, who frequently
mentions him in his Diary. The youngest son, Samuel, died
at Amsterdam of the plague, and was buried there in 1665,
aged 19. Abraham was born in London in 1633, and received
a good education. Although he carried on business as a
merchant, he found time to study at Gresham College, and
was able to make the acquaintance of most of the learned
men of his time in England. In this way he became one of
the founders of the Eoyal Society mentioned in the Charter
of April 22nd, 1663. He was elected Treasurer in November
of that year, and held office for two years. Having been
re-elected in 1679, he discharged the duties with great ability
until 1700.
Among his intimate friends were Sir Hans Sloane and
Dr. Isaac Barrow, the eminent theologian and mathematician,
whose executor he was. Hill's life of Barrow was prefixed
to the earlier editions of the latter's works, and is the only
production known to have been published by him.
His reputation was such that he was chosen one of a
small committee appointed hy the Eoyal Society to enquire
into the dispute between Sir Isaac Newton and Leibnitz as
to their discoveries of the Method of Fluxions.
I t was probably through the influence of his friends in
the Society that Hill was appointed in 1696 a Commissioner
of Trade and Plantations, and afterwards from June 1699 to
the year 1702. There is in the British Museum a large
volume of papers relating to trade, imports and exports, etc.,
collected by him in his official capacity, and it would seem
\ 1>I
f*
ABRAHAM HILL, E.R.S. 229
that his ability was very great in this direction. The volume
is numbered Sloane 2902.
In 1691 Archbishop Tillotson of Canterbury appointed
him to the office of his Comptroller, " often expressing the
pleasure he took in Mr. Hill's conversation, and would frequently
term him his learned friend and his instructing
philosopher."
But an enterprise for which Abraham Hill deserves special
mention in the pages of Archceologia Oantiana was an attempt
he made in the latter part of the seventeenth century to
introduce the manufacture of cider into Kent. For this
purpose he planted choice specimens of apples from Devon
and Hereford on his estate, and formed large orchards in the
district. The project, however, was not a success; but the
orchards in time attracted a population from which sprang
the village of Swanley, near by. There are also many beautiful
trees of various sorts now flourishing in the grounds of
St. John's said to have been planted by him.
On his beloved estate of St. John's, Abraham Hill passed
the latter end of his life in studious retirement until his
death there February 5th, 1721.
He was twice married. His first wife was Anne, daughter
of Sir Bulstrode Whitelock, Knight, the well-known Cromwellian
Ambassador to Sweden. She was married in London
in 1656, and died there in 1661, leaving a son Eichard (born
1660) and a daughter Frances (born 1658). The second
wife was Elizabeth, daughter of Michael Pratt of Bromleyby-
Bow, who was married at St. Mary Woolnoth, London, in
1661, and died at St. John's in 1672, leaving no children.
Her tombstone is on the north side of Sutton Church, in
the churchyard, and has the following interesting inscription
:—
Hie jacet ELIZABETHA HILL ABRAHAMI uxor, MICHAELIS
PRATT de Bromley ia Com. Middlesexise Arm: filia. Nata 25
Julii 16M<. Obiit 1 Aprilis 1672. Hsec erat plena operibus bonis
eleemosynis quas faciebat, factum est autem in diebus illis infirmata
moreretur.
Ipse ABRAHAHTJS HILL moriens 5 Peb. 1721, dixit, Spes mea in
solo Jeso Christo, et qui se-suscifcavit, me etiam suscitare potest.
230 ABRAHAM HILL, E.R.S.
Besides the MS. above-mentioned, there is in the British
Museum a large number of Hill's papers (Add. MSS. 5488,
5489), forming part of Hasted's Collections; his commonplace
books hi seven volumes (Sloane 2891—2901); a volume
of philosophical papers by various authors collected by him
(Sloane 2903); and a few letters to Sir Hans Sloane (Sloane
4048). A small collection of letters of various dates, from
1657 to 1798, has been preserved by the present head of the
family, William Eobinson Hill, Esq., of Lymington in Hants,
and it includes the following letter written by Abraham Hill.
I t is the earliest known specimen of his handwriting, and has
never before been printed:—
London, 8 June, 1657.
LOVUTG BROTHER,
Since my last of the 28 past sent to Marselia I have received
yours of tbe 4 cur*, and from Mr Morrell understood of your
departure from Paris, so that I hope this will find you safely arrived
at Livorne. The chiefest news I have to tell you aec* of is the
arrival of the three brothers* at Plymouth, but without Capt"
Parker, hee dyed at Port St. George about October last.
By this shipp I had a letter from M1' Squier, who stayed at
Marsalapatam, taking ashoare there halfe of the general stocke
and all our particular adventure, intending to invest it there against
the shipps returne, but she in her voyage to Bengala is doubted to
be wrackt, no news of her coming in ordinary expectation.
Hee acquaints mee that going aboard with Cap1 Lucas and some
others in a close boat, she was overset and tbey so underset that
they were in water to the necks, and the boats keel over there
heads, having BO much aire inclosed (by the sudden motion of the
vessell) that served to keep them alive. Thus when they had
stayed two hours, the boat driving ashoare they made some strange
shift to get out, but that was to the sand; whereon they bad a mile
and balf to goe, and the sun so bot that the skin peeld of their
bodys, and some more particulars of there danger hee mentions, but
the whole story appears not cleare and the built of those vessells
being unkuowne to us, but hee accompts it for a wonderfull deliverance
At Elorence the person with whom M1' Barrow was
A merchant ship owned by Abraham. Hill and his two brothers.
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