HILL, John III

John Hill, born in 1424, was the eldest of four children of the head of a prominent west-country family with a long tradition of parliamentary service. His father, grandfather, and great-grandfather had all sat in Parliament, the former two as knights of the shire for Somerset. Although there were several men of his name active in the south-west during his lifetime, it is likely that it was John of Spaxton, the most prominent of them, who represented Taunton in the Parliament of 1447.

When his father died on 21 Oct. 1434, the younger John was a mere boy aged ten.3 C139/71/36. Two weeks later, his marriage was granted to his grandfather, John Stourton I*, and the future chief justice John Hody*, in return for a payment to be agreed with the treasurer. It seems that no such agreement was reached, for in July 1435 custody of the young heir and his lands was granted to his mother Cecily and Walter Portman* of Taunton, both executors of the boy’s father, for 100 marks a year, while his marriage was now sold for 600 marks to John Horseley and Richard Frokenhale.4 CFR, xvi. 226, 242; CPR, 1429-36, p. 496; 1436-41, p. 420. In his will John’s father had made a number of bequests to him, including his second best diamond ring, the lesser of his two silver chalices, his 12 least valuable silver dishes, a cup made of an ostrich egg and bound with gilt silver, and three silver bowls, including one with a cover. Until John and his brother Thomas should be old enough to marry, the keeping of these bequests was entrusted to their mother,5 Reg. Chichele, ii. 517. who in 1437 took as her second husband the prominent war-captain Sir Thomas Kyriel*.6 CPR, 1436-41, p. 59. There is, however, no evidence that John served with his stepfather overseas.

Hill eventually proved his age on 23 Oct. 1445, and a month later had seisin of his father’s extensive estates stretching across Berkshire, Devon, Cornwall and Somerset, which at the latter’s death had been assessed at over £150 p.a. Nevertheless, his holdings were diminished by the survival of his mother, who not only held a significant jointure in her first husband’s Somerset lands, but in addition had been assigned one third of his landed possessions in dower, giving her a stake in all of the younger John’s manors.7 CCR, 1441-7, p. 322; C139/71/36, m. 6. Even so, the income Hill inherited was substantial, and it may be that it was this wealth which persuaded him to contract a marriage that promised social advancement, rather than a landed inheritance. His wife, Margaret Rodney, provided him with valuable connexions among the gentry of the south-west. Her brother Sir Walter* was married to the daughter of Walter, Lord Hungerford†, giving Hill access to the influential group of west-country landholders closely associated with Hungerford and dominated by Philip Courtenay* of Powderham and Sir William Bonville*. Hill was already indirectly linked with Bonville, as his father’s first cousin Elizabeth Harington had married Bonville’s son.8 SC6/1119/11. It was probably these family ties, forged over three generations, rather than Hill’s otherwise unremarkable career, marred by a long minority and an early death, which led to his return to Parliament as representative of the borough of Taunton in 1447. It is also possible that his early association with the prominent Taunton burgess Walter Portman had given him an insight into the affairs of the town, as well as introducing him to the governing elites.

Hill was present at Ilchester for the Somerset elections to the same Parliament, then attesting the indenture recording the return of his brother-in-law, Sir Walter Rodney, whom he accompanied to Bury St. Edmunds.9 C219/15/4. Thereafter, he sinks into obscurity. He is not known to have held any other public office and may have suddenly fallen ill in the mid 1450s, as he died on 12 Oct. 1455 at the age of only 31. His widow Margaret was pregnant and three months after his death, on 9 Jan. 1456, gave birth to a daughter, Genevieve, who became his sole heiress.10 C139/162/17. Margaret was assigned dower the following April and had licence to remarry in October of that year. She chose as a second husband the Warwickshire esquire Thomas Burdet*, and later took a third, Thomas Wodehull, before she died in 1497.11 CCR, 1454-61, p. 96; CPR, 1452-61, p. 327; CIPM Hen. VII, ii. 66. Margaret and Burdet encountered some difficulty in establishing their control over part of the Hill estates which had been settled on feoffees, and even in the 1470s were still suing John’s sole surviving feoffee, the judge Sir Richard Chokke in Chancery.12 C1/48/268. The keeping of the bulk of the Hill lands, along with the heiress’s marriage, was sold four months after her birth to a group of prominent men from Essex – Henry Bourgchier (son of the treasurer, Viscount Bourgchier), (Sir) Thomas Tyrell*, William Tyrell II* and John Green III* – for £220.13 CPR, 1452-61, pp. 285, 288. Genevieve eventually married William Say†, by whom she had a single surviving son, John, who died without issue.14 CPR, 1467-77, p. 594; Hylle Cart. p. xxvii; E210/4131. Say continued to hold the Hill lands by courtesy after his wife’s death, but they ultimately reverted to Joan, wife of Richard Pudsey†, and Isabel, wife of Edward Waldegrave, the daughters and coheiresses of Hill’s sister Elizabeth, by her husband John Cheyne of Pinhoe.15 CIPM Hen. VII, ii. 66; C1/594/64.