Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hill, Thomas (d.1653)
HILL, THOMAS (d. 1653), master of Trinity College, Cambridge, born at Kington, Worcestershire, was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, of which he was scholar and fellow, and where he graduated B.A. in 1622, M.A. in 1626, and B.D. in 1633. He was incorporated B.A. at Oxford on 9 July 1622, resided for some years at Cambridge as a tutor, and having taken holy orders preached regularly at St. Andrews. Subsequently he lived for a time with his friend John Cotton [q. v.] at Boston, Lincolnshire. A strong puritan, he was summoned as assessor by the committee of the House of Lords appointed to consider innovations in religion on 1 March 1640–1. He was also one of the original members of the Westminster Assembly of Divines, which was constituted by ordinance of 12 June 1643, and was a frequent week-day preacher before the assembly in Westminster Abbey. He also preached regularly on Sundays at St. Martin's-in-the-Fields during the sittings of the assembly. About this time he was presented to the rectory of Little Titchmarsh, Northamptonshire, which he held until his death, and was elected to the mastership of Emmanuel College, which he exchanged in 1645, by direction of the parliamentary commissioners, for that of Trinity College. He was appointed vice-chancellor of the university, and took the degree of D.D. (1646). A patent issued by the parliament, 17 March 1647–8, confirmed him in the office. The mode of Hill's appointment and his Calvinistic views made him highly unpopular with the fellows of Trinity, nor was his method of governing calculated to conciliate them. On one occasion he summarily arrested and imprisoned a fellow named Wotton for saying in a tavern that the English parliament were greater rebels than the Irish. He pertinaciously propagated his Calvinistic views, not only in Cambridge, but also in the neighbouring towns and villages. He died of a quartan ague on 18 Dec. 1653. His funeral sermon was preached by Dr. Anthony Tuckney, master of Emmanuel College, on 22 Dec. Hill married Mary Willford, governess of Lady Frances, daughter of Robert, earl of Warwick. She survived him and married Tuckney. Hill published some sermons, and edited the theological tracts of William Fenner [q. v.]
[Θανατοκτασια. Or Death disarmed and the Grave swallowed up in Victory (the funeral sermon referred to in the text); Clarke's Lives of Ten Eminent Divines; Cole MSS. xlv. 225, 1. 7; Wood's Fasti Oxon. (Bliss), i. 408; Le Neve's Fasti Eccl. Angl. iii. 699; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1660–1, p. 438; Lords' Journ. iv. 174, ix. 664; Commons' Journ. v. 503; Rushworth's Hist. Coll. v. 337–8; Hist. MSS. Comm. 6th Rep. App., 7th Rep. App.; Baker's Hist. of St. John's Coll. ed. Mayor, 229 n., 642; Brook's Lives of the Puritans.]