Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hill, Edwin
HILL, EDWIN (1793–1876), mechanical inventor and writer on currency, second son of Thomas Wright Hill [q. v.], by Sarah Lea his wife, was born at Birmingham on 25 Nov. 1793. He was an elder brother of Sir Rowland Hill [q. v.], the inventor of penny postage. He showed great mechanical ingenuity in his youth, and entering the Fazeley Street Rolling Mills in Birmingham, rose to be manager. This post he threw up in 1827 to join his brother, Rowland Hill, in establishing a school at Bruce Castle, Tottenham. On the introduction of penny postage in 1840 he was appointed supervisor of stamps at Somerset House. Till his retirement in 1872 he had under his control the manufacture of stamps. By his inventive mechanical skill he greatly improved the machinery. In conjunction with Mr. Warren De la Rue he invented the machine for folding envelopes which was exhibited in the Great Exhibition of 1851. In 1856 he published a work under the title of ‘Principles of Currency: Means of Ensuring Uniformity of Value and Adequacy of Supply.’ In this he proposed ‘that government should prepare and issue under the authority of parliament an adequate amount of interest-bearing securities, almost identical with exchequer bills; and that these be made a legal tender for their principal sum, together with their accumulated interest up to the day of tender, according to a table to be printed upon the face of each bill.’ He published, moreover, pamphlets entitled ‘Criminal Capitalists’ (1870–2), by which he meant those owners of house-property who knowingly provided lodgings for criminals, or shops where stolen goods could be disposed of. He proposed to strike at crime by first striking at these landlords. He died on 6 Nov. 1876 at his residence, No. 1 St. Mark's Square, Regent's Park, and was buried in Highgate cemetery. He married Anne Bucknall, the younger daughter of a Kidderminster brewer, by whom he had ten children, seven of whom survived him.
[Memoir of M. D. Hill, by his Daughters, 1878; Life of Sir Rowland Hill, by G. B. Hill, 1880; Principles of Currency, by Edwin Hill, 1856; Transactions of the Association for the Promotion of Social Science, 1871; Transactions of the International Prison Congress, 1872.]