Sir Rowland Hill (1492-1561)

British (English) School. Oil painting on canvas, Sir Rowland Hill (1492-1561), British (English) School. A half-length portrait in a black cap with brown robes. Latin inscription. Sir Rowland Hill was the first Protestant Lord Mayor of London and founder of the Hill family fortunes which in later generations became the foundation of the Egerton wealth via Samuel Hill of Shenstone. Sir Rowland Hill (1492-1561). A wealthy merchant and an ancestor of the Berwick family. Warden of Mercers’ Company, 1536 and four times master sheriff, 1541. He was knighted and made Alderman of the Castle Barnard ward, 1542; Alderman of Walbrook, 1545 and first Protestant Lord Mayor of London, 1549-50. In 1557 he was appointed commissioner against heretics and built Hodnet and Stoke churches, Shropshire; devoted his great fortune to charity including the endowment of a school at Drayton and exhibitions to universities. National Trust, Attingham Park, 2000, p.40: “THE NOEL-HILLS OF ATTINGHAM SIR ROWLAND HILL. The Hill family had been established in Shropshire as members of the gentry for several generations by the time Noel Hill set about building his great new house in 1783. Their ancestor in Tudor times, Sir Rowland Hill, was Lord Mayor of London in 1549 and took advantage of the Dissolution of the Monasteries to acquire land belonging to several abbeys in the area; Shrewsbury, Lilleshall and Haughmond. His fortune derived from trading in textiles, particularly abroad, and as increased by money-lending, not least to his monarch. In 1556 he purchased the property of Hawkstone, north of Shrewsbury, which was to remain the chief seat of the family until sold in 1906. A contemporary said of Sir Rowland: “Wheresoever a good dede was to be done for the common weal of his countrymen, he was ready to further the cause.’ His benefactions included founding Shrewsbury’s grammar school (now the town library).” Tatton Park, Cheshire (Accredited Museum)