James Hill
| James Hill | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1798 Peterborough |
| C1872C1872 | |
| 💼 Occupation | Banker, merchant, ship owner, school owner and theatre owner. |
| 👩 Spouse(s) | 1. Ann Jecks (1797-1823) 2. Elizabeth Jecks (1802-1832) 3. Caroline Southwood Smith (1810-1902) |
| 👶 Children | Julia Hill, Frederick Hill, Louisa Hill, Margaret Hill, Arthur Hill, Ida Eliza Hill, Katherine Hill, Miranda Hill, Gertrude Hill, Octavia Hill, Emily Southwood Hill and Florence Hill. |
James Hill (banker) (1798-1872) a Unitarian, banker, corn merchant, newspaper owner and ship owner in Wisbech, Isle of Ely, was a follower of Richard Owen.
James was the eldest son (and third child of eleven) of James Hill (c1771-1825) a banker of Uppingham and Elizabeth (nee Judkins).[1]
He married Ann Jecks, fourth daughter of Isaac Jecks on 1 June, 1818 in Stamford. In the same paper was reported the death the previous week of an infant child of Everard Hill, woolstapler.[2] On Saturday 30th November, 1823 after a long and severe illness Hill's wife Ann aged 26 died in Wisbech.[3][4]
Hill was announced elected as one of Capital Burgess of Wisbech on 9 November 1824.[5]
James Hill married Eliza, youngest daughter of Isaac Jecks on 31st May, 1825 at Hastings.[6] At this time it wasn't legal to marry a sibling of a spouse. It was reported that the Hill & Son bank had stopped payment, owing to the failure of their London bankers, on 14 December 1825.[7] A Commission of Bankrupt was awarded and issued against James Hill the elder and James Hill the younger, both of Wisbech, Bankers and copartners, dealers and trading under the name, style, or firm of James Hill and son in February, 1826.[8] John Peck of Parson Drove in his diary states 'The bankruptcy proceedings were to take two years, and the final settlement to creditors was only 1/11 in the pound, in Peck's case on a debt of £56/16/11.
On 15th April, 1826 an auction at the White Hart Inn was held to sell their estates. This included bankers and merchants offices, Granaries, warehouses, drying kilns and coal-yard in the town and farmhouses and land in the villages. Part ownership of ships :- The Liberty, The Eagle, The Rambler, The Thurleston and The Exchange.[9]
Their estates near Uppingham were sold separately at an auction held in the Falcon Inn in Uppingham.[10]
He married three times, his third wife was his children's governess Caroline Southwood Smith (died 31 December 1903), the daughter of Dr. Thomas Southwood Smith. He had been widowed twice, and already had six surviving children (a son James Hill Junior and five daughters from his earlier marriages). Hill married Caroline Southwood Smith on 21st July 1835.[11]
In the 1830s he became a leader of a working class socialist movement in the Fens. He built an infant school, a night school for adults, a co-operative store and farm and a mechanics institute. In part as a result of the reduction in stamp duty, he became the publisher of a radical weekly newspaper ‘’The Star in the East’’, with Neil Walker as editor, launched in 1836.[12] He soon gained notice nationally, such that Robert Owen visited the town in 1837 and 1838.[13] Caroline had worked as the governess to his children from 1832, and they married in 1835. He purchased the Georgian Theatre (now the Angles Theatre), Deadman's Lane (later renamed Great Church street, now Alexandra Road), Wisbech the same year.[14]
A daughter Miranda Hill was born in 1836. In June William Macready performed in Wisbech and accepted an invitation to dine with Mrs Hill, her father, Dr Southwood-Smith and family.[15] The same year he purchased a 131 ton two-mast schooner Para Packet built at Fishbourn in 1825, followed by the Boston built 156 ton two-mast schooner Ellenin 1837 and the Leith built 123 ton two-mast schooner Nymph in 1837.[16] The Star in the East printed in Gaol Lane ran until May 1840.[17]
In 1837 James and Caroline built a school in front of the theatre in Deadman's Lane. In the evenings the school was used for education classes.[18]
The theatre and school were sold when he became bankrupt for the second time in 1840.[19] Hill's sloop Rover was sold at Lloyd's room, no 80 Bishopsgate-street on April 28th 1840.[20] Octavia Hill was his eighth daughter and ninth child. She was aged two when his bankruptcy forced the family to leave the town. Their former Wisbech home Bank House, on the South Brink, is now the Octavia Hill Birthplace House.[21]
Caroline, aged 94, died on 31 December 1903 at 6 Cambridge-Terrace, Regents Park.[22]
Publications[edit]
The Nature and Evil of Schism (1821). Pub James Hill.[23]
Legacy[edit]
His former home 'Bank House', South Brink, Wisbech was purchased in two parts (1994 and 2017) and reunited as the 'Octavia Hill Birthplace House'.[24]
The Georgian Wisbech Theatre was leased and reopened as the Angles Theatre and the former infants School he built in front of theatre was later bought and joined with the old theatre as an enlarged Angles theatre. The old school building is the box office, bar and offices and the old theatre forms the auditorium.
References[edit]
- ↑ "Deaths". Northampton Mercury. 23 November 1811. Retrieved 3 January 2019.
- ↑ "Married". Stamford Mercury. 5 June 1818. p. 3.
- ↑ "Died". Norwich Mercury. 6 December 1823. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Died". Ipswich Journal. 6 December 1823.
- ↑ "Cambridge". Norwich Mercury. 13 November 1824. p. 3.
- ↑ "Married". Stamford Mercury. 24 June 1825.
- ↑ "Country Banks". Morning Post. 24 December 1825. p. 3.
- ↑ "Commission of Bankupt". Stamford Mercury. 13 January 1826.
- ↑ "Estates". Stamford Mercury. 26 May 1826.
- ↑ "Auction". Stamford Mercury. 23 June 1826. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
- ↑ "Married". Bury Post. 29 July 1835. p. 3.
- ↑ "THE LIBERAL NEWSPAPERS — EFFECTS OF THE REDUCTION OF STAMP-DUTY". The Scotsman. 29 October 1836. p. 4.
- ↑ Mansfield, Nick (1985). "James Hill and the Owenites". Annual Report. Wisbech Society. 46: 10-14.
- ↑ Neil R Wright (2016). Treading the Boards. SLHA. ISBN 9-780903-582551. Search this book on
- ↑ FJ Gardiner (1898). History of Wisbech & Neighbourhood, during the last fifty years, 1848-1898. Gardiner & Co. Search this book on
- ↑ Arthur A. Oldham (1833). A History of Wisbech River. Arthur Artis Oldham. Search this book on
- ↑ FJ Gardiner (1898). History of Wisbech & Neighbourhood during the last fifty years, 1848-1898. Gardiner & Co. Search this book on
- ↑ "About Octavia". www.octaviahill.org. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
- ↑ "Stamford Mercury". Retrieved 27 November 2019 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ↑ "Public Sales". Public Ledger. 27 April 1840. p. 1.
- ↑ "Octavia Hill". www.octaviahill.org. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
- ↑ "Deaths". Leeds Mercury. 3 January 1903. p. 4.
- ↑ "Jusr published". Cambridge Chronicle. 5 October 1821. p. 3.
- ↑ "About us". www.octaviahill.org. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
Further Reading[edit]
- Mansfield, Nick (1985). "James Hill and the Owenites". The Wisbech Society 46th Annual Report. 46: 10–14.
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