natural science. His ingenuity was first manifested in the invention of minor improvements in the details of domestic con-
struction: he built his garden-walls on a plan fitted to increase the capability of the walls for retaining heat; he devised a new method of warming hothouses by means of iron cylinders; and introduced an ingenious contrivance for the heating of dwelling-houses. In a pamphlet 'On the Danger of a Paper Currency,' printed for private circulation in 1796, he incidentally and somewhat irrelevantly recommended the use of iron tanks for preserving water on shipboard, a plan which was afterwards followed with great benefit in the navy. On the introduction of gas for lighting houses and streets he joined one of the London companies, to whom he gave the advantage of his chemical and mechanical knowledge in erecting the apparatus and regulating its use; but he afterwards retired from the concern on account of some disagreement among the
proprietors. He expended much time and money in promoting the introduction of Massey's logs for measuring a ship's way at sea, printing and circulating on this subject in 1806 'A short Account of Massey's Patent Log and Sounding Machine, with the opinions of certain captains in the navy, merchant service, and pilots who have made practical use or experimental trials with them.' He also exerted himself to promote the adoption of elastic springs in pianofortes, so as to keep them in tune for an indefinite time. In 1820 he took out a patent for making ship's masts of iron, but on trial they were not considered sufficiently strong, a defect he attributed to the fact that his instructions were not properly carried out. In his later years he was engaged in experiments for rendering inferior timber — such as elm, ash, beech, and poplar — harder and more durable than any other species of wood. He obtained permission from government to carry his experiment into practical effect in the construction of a ship at Deptford dockyard, but did not live to witness the result. He died on 23 Sept. 1827. By his marriage to Sarah Perks, the daughter of a solicitor, he left three daughters.
[Gent. Mag. xcvii. pt. ii. 466-8; Burke's History of the Landed Gentry, i. 128.]
BILL, WILLIAM (d. 1501), dean of Westminster, son of John Bill of Ashwell, Hertfordshire, and brother of Thomas Bill, M.D., of the same place, and of St. Bartholomew's, London, physician to Henry VIII and Edward YI, was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1532-3, was elected fellow 7 Nov. 1535, took the degree of M.A. in 1530, that of B.D. in 1544, and that of D.D. in 1547, havings (10 March 1546-7) been admitted master of the college. While an undergraduate he was a pupil of both Cheke and Smith, from whom
he learned a more accurate mode of pronouncing Greek than that which was then in vogue. Strype (Life of Cheke, p. 8) says that it was only through the influence of Cheke and Parker, then (1535) one of the queen's chaplains, that Bill was able to raise sufficient funds to qualify himself for election to a fellowship by discharging his debts to the college. By an act passed in the year preceding Bill's elect ion (26 Hen. VIII, cap. 3) the first year's income of a fellowship was payable to the crown as 'first-fruits;' but (s. 23) in the case of fellowships of the annual value of not more than eight marks not until the fourth year from election, security being given in the meantime. Bill's fellowship was only of the annual value of five marks, and John Bill of Ashwell, presumably his father, gave security for the payment of the first-fruits. Probably the amount was never paid, as an act (27 Hen. VIII, cap.42) exempting the universities from the tax, which appears to have been retrospective, was passed in 1535-6. As fellow of St. John's, Bill was a contemporary of Ascham, in whose letters he is sometimes mentioned. At the date of his election to the mastership he held the Linacre lectureship in physic, which he retained for two years after. One of his first acts after his election was to give away two of the college leases, one to Cheke in consideration of his services
to the college, the other to one Thomas Bill, doubtless his brother the physician, as a pure gratuity. In 1548-9, a year marked by the visit of a royal commission, he held the office of vice-chancellor. In November 1551 he resigned the mastership of St. John's to be elected master of Trinity, and in the following December he was appointed one of the king's itinerary chaplains, whose duty it was 'to preach sound doctrine in all the remotest parts of the kingdom for the instruction of the ignorant in right religion to God and obedience to the king.' For this service he seems to have received 40l. per annum. Next year (2 Oct.) he was placed on the committee to which the articles of religion were referred for consideration. Soon after her accession Queen Mary thought fit to deprive Bill of the mastership of Trinity. Her commands appear to have been executed in a rather brutal i fashion, the master being forcibly removed from his stall in the chapel by two of the fellows, Boys and Gray. It is curious that we find him mentioned as chief almoner
