RICHARD HILL was educated at Exeter College, Oxford.
His first curacy was at Grade, a village in Cornwall, and later he became perpetual curate at West Alvington, Devon. He very soon became exercised about his position in the Established Church, and, retiring from it, associated himself in its earliest days with the “brethren movement.”
As Mrs. Trotter has well said: “The inspiration came to them at first alone, and not under the influence of large multitudes, neither did it die out, but energized and sustained them in lives of unusual toil and unusual length.”
Mr. Hill lived at Plymstock, and there Mr. Darby stayed with him on coming to Plymouth, Mr. Hill having “gathered simply to the Name” before that time. Passing through the crisis of the divisions which arose among these dear people-described as “the Lord’s grief, the saints’ sorrow, and the devil’s glee “-Mr. Hill took his part, as many of the tracts of that time bearing his name testify. He also wrote sacred poetry.
Mr. Hill married a sister of the well-known Mr. H. W. Soltau, and having been born on December 23, 1799, passed away on March 11, 1880, at Bath, in an honored old age and much respected. One of his sons, also Richard Hill, in happy fellowship with “brethren,” was from its inception and for upwards of thirty years Honorary Secretary of the China Inland Mission. He, together with his brother Henry, a valued teacher at the St. Mary Church Meeting, Torquay, have departed to be with Christ, which is far better.