John Hill (courtier)

Major-General John "Jack" Hill (died 22 June 1735) was a British army officer and courtier during the reign of Queen Anne.

Sarah paid for Hill's education at the St Albans Grammar School from 1690 to 1691, and obtained for him an appointment as a page to Prince George of Denmark in 1692 and then in 1698 as a Groom of the Bedchamber to the Duke of Gloucester.

This rapid rise owed little to military talent; while partly brought about through the patronage of Marlborough, it was increasingly due to the ascent of his sister Abigail, who was now displacing her cousin the Duchess in Anne's favour.

By 1710, Hill's sister, Lady Masham, had supplanted her cousin in the Queen's affections and now joined Robert Harley to weaken Marlborough and advance her brother.

When Henry St John in 1711 revived a plan for the capture of Quebec, Hill was proposed as commander-in-chief to gain the Queen's favor.

In June 1712, Hill became Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance, the Whig Thomas Erle having been turned out, and received the office of Governor of Dunkirk after the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht.

Both he and Lady Masham retained Tory sympathies in their later years, which Hill spent at his seat in Egham and his London house in Jermyn Street, where he died.