Her father was a prominent attorney in New York City and her grandfather Hercules Mulligan was an Irish immigrant who had served in the Revolutionary War.

[1] From Malta, they proceeded that same day to Smyrna making their way to Tenos,[5] where they would remain until spring due to the ongoing conflict in Athens during the Greek struggle against the Ottoman Empire.

By July 18, they had found suitable accommodations for Hill to establish a school for girls, as Athens was in ruins due to the war.

[1][5] She began with twenty pupils, who studied in the basement of the house she and her husband occupied[5] in Plaka, near the Ancient Agora of Athens.

[8] While the two husbands returned to Smyrna on missionary business, in September, Hill and Mrs. Robertson remained in Athens and taught at the school.

[11] Within eighteen months, Mrs. Robertson withdrew from active participation because of her growing family, leaving Hill, as the only teacher for girls at the facility.

Continuing her supervision of all the female students, Hill also oversaw the boys' education during 1841, when her husband took an extended trip to the United States.

Investigation by an ecclesiastical commission appointed by the Synod of the Kingdom, cleared the Hills of any anti-Greek actions, as were alleged by the paper.

[17] The strain of managing the mission and the subsequent allegations of wrongdoing caused Hill to suspend the school for girls for the remainder of the year, retiring to the countryside to regain her health.

She was sent an official communique from the Secretary of State, of the government's satisfaction with her efforts to educate Greek girls and returned to the school in November[18] with a class of 500 students.