A Dictionary of the Booksellers and Printers who Were at Work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1641 to 1667/Hills (Henry)
HILLS (HENRY), printer in Oxford and London. Oxford: Pennyfarthing Street, 1647. London: (1) sign of Sir John Oldcastle in Fleet yard next door to the Rose & Crown; (2) At the sign of Sir John Old-Castle in Py-Corner; (3) Over against St. Thomas's Hospitall in Southwark. 1641-88. Son of a rope-maker in Maidstone. Sent to London when very young and acted first as postillion to Harrison the regicide, who transferred him to John Lilburne, by whom he was apprenticed to Simmons & Payne, printers. In 1642 he ran away and joined the army, and was present at the battle of Edge Hill. In 1648 he was a Leveller and subsequently an Independent, and offered to print Cromwell's Remonstrance. He was subsequently made printer to the Rebel Army, see Harris (J.). In 1649, in company with Thomas Brewster and Giles Calvert, he was appointed "printer" to the Council of State. After 1653 he held the position alone. He was also appointed one of the "printers" to the Parliament in conjunction with John Field, q.v. a post he held until the Restoration. He was still living in 1684, when a broadside was issued entitled A View of part of the many traiterous, disloyal, and turn-about actions of H. H. senior, sometimes printer to Cromwell, to the Commonwealth, to the Anabaptists Congregation, to Cromwells Army, Committee of Safety, etc., [B.M. 816, m. 2 (60); Solly, E.; Henry Hills, the pirate printer; Antiquary, vol ii. April, 1885, pp. 151-154.] Amongst his publications was Ill-Newes from New England. By John Clark, 1652.