JOHN HILL 



1716 1775 



By T, G. hill 



Narrative chequered career ^journalism attack on the Royal Society 

 literary activities Botanical works structure of Timber the sleep 

 of Plants Mimosa and Abrus views on Pollen Hill's Herbal his 

 admiration of Linnaeus with qualifications Hill's Vegetable System " 

 an ambitious work financial losses estimate of Hill's character. 



It has recently been remarked that the number of the 

 biographies of eminent men is inversely proportional to the 

 known facts concerning them. Although this generalisation is 

 probably incorrect, it is, to a certain extent, true of John Hill; 

 for, although he finds a place in biographical dictionaries, 

 apparently no extended account of his life has appeared. This 

 is a little surprising since, apart from his scientific work, he 

 occupied a prominent position in the middle of the eighteenth 

 century. 



John Hill was the second son of the Rev. Theophilous Hill, 

 and was born either at Spalding or at Peterborough in the year 

 1 7 16 or 17 1 7. Nothing appears to be known regarding his 

 early education ; according to Hawkins^ he did not receive an 

 academical education, but there is no doubt that, as was usual 

 for those who desired to practise medicine at that and at much 

 later times, he served his apprenticeship to an apothecary, it is 

 said, at Westminster ; also he attended the lectures on Botany 

 given under the auspices of the Apothecaries' Company at the 

 Chelsea Physic Garden. He first practised in St Martin's Lane 



1 Sir John Hawkins, Life of Samuel Johnson, London, 1787. 



