local labour markets. Hill's venture, which was not profitable, diminished his strength and resources; on his retirement a committee of working men managed the paper, and contributed from the profits to Hill's maintenance. From 1877 onwards he also edited 'The Industrial Handbook' and superintended the publication in 1881 of 'The Industrial Index to London,' by H. Llewelyn Williams, as well as 'Business Aspects of Ladies' Work.' These pamphlets were handy guides to employment, for both men and women. He also edited in 1870-1 a series of penny 'Statutes for the People,' which aimed at giving the labouring class cheap legal advice. Hill likewise took a prominent part, from its foundation in 1869, in the work of the Charity Organisation Society, acting as honorary secretary of the council until July 1870, and as an active member of the council until 1880 (see Charity Organisation Review, 1892). Through life Hill continued to write verse, collecting his poems in 'Rhymes with Good Reason' (1870-1), in 'A Scholar's Day Dream' (1870; 2nd edit. 1881), and in 'A Household Queen' (1881). His lyrics are somewhat rough in style, but show earnest sympathy with the labouring classes, with whose interest he identified himself. One of his poems, 'Mrs. Grundy's Sunday,' was widely circulated to further the aims of the National Sunday League for rational Sunday recreation. He was a vice-president of the league from 1876 to 1890, and lectured at its Sunday Evenings for the People. The Working Men's Club and Institute Union also found in Hill a zealous supporter. Hill fell in his last years into ill-health and poverty, living in retirement at Boston, Lincolnshire. He died there unmarried on 2 August 1906, and was buried at Gressonhall. He was elected a member of the Athenæum Club in 1877, and was president of the Cheltonian [Old Boys'] Society (1877-8).
[Burke's Landed Gentry; Foster's Men at the Bar; The Times, 4 Feb. 1910 (letter from Lionel G. Robinson on Hill's work in regard to Labour Exchanges); Cheltenham Coll. Reg. 1911, p, 171; notes from Hill's brother, the Rev. Reginald Hay Hill, Wethersfield Vicarage, Braintree.]
HILL, FRANK HARRISON (1830–1910), journalist, baptised on 4 March 1830 at Boston, Lincolnshire, was younger son of George Hill, merchant of that city, by his wife Betsy, daughter of Pishey Thompson [q. v.]. Educated at the Boston grammar school, Hill in September entered as a divinity student the Unitarian New College, Manchester, where he studied under Dr. James Martineau [q. v. Suppl. I]. In June 1851 he completed the five years' 'course of study for the Christian ministry prescribed by that institution.' There is no evidence that he availed himself of his right to preach. Meanwhile in 1848 he had matriculated at the University of London, and having graduated B.A. in the first class in 1851 acted from 1853 to 1855 as private tutor in the family of Dukinfield Darbishire of Manchester; the elder of his pupils, S. D. Darbishire, was subsequently the famous 'stroke' of the Oxford University boat (1868-70), and afterwards practised as a doctor at Oxford. Somewhat later Hill became tutor in the family of Mrs. Salis Schwabe, also of Manchester.
Hill seems to have owed his introduction to journalism to Henry Dunckley [q. v.], 'Verax' of the 'Manchester Times and Examiner,' and to Richard Holt Hutton [q. v. Suppl. I], editor of the 'Spectator.' He was sufficiently well known in 1861 to become, on the death of James Simms, editor of the 'Northern Whig,' the chief organ of the Ulster liberals. He took up his work at Belfast at the time when the Fenian movement in the south of Ireland was becoming dangerous, and when the civil war in the United States was influencing party politics at Westminster. Alone of Irish journalists he supported the north in the American struggle, and he risked temporary unpopularity in the cause (cf. address presented on resigning editorship, Jan. 1866).
After leaving New College, Manchester, Hill kept up friendly relations with his teacher, Dr. James Martineau, who had officiated at Hill's marriage at Little Portland Chapel, London, in 1862. Through Martineau he made the acquaintance of Harriet Martineau, then on the staff of the 'Daily News' and like himself a staunch supporter of the northern states. He also came to know Crabb Robinson, Robert Browning, and W. J. Fox. At the suggestion of Mr. Frank Finlay, proprietor of the 'Northern Whig' (his wife's brother), Hill was hastily summoned at the end of 1865 to London to become assistant editor of the 'Daily News.' It was a critical moment in parliamentary politics. After the death in 1865 of Lord Palmerston, the liberal prime minister, and the succession of Earl Russell to his office, the party demanded stronger measures and methods than the whig tradition countenanced.
