He was educated at Shrewsbury School and admitted to St John's College, Cambridge (BA 1679; MA 1682), and was ordained deacon.

He served as a diplomat during the War of the Spanish Succession, as envoy to Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria in Brussels, and to the duke of Savoy in Turin, whom he persuaded to join the Grand Alliance.

Hill made the allies guarantors for the Vaudois, a medieval heretic sect, later Protestants, who had suffered centuries of persecution by the dukes of Savoy, and they were guaranteed toleration, so that the Vaudois pastors placed him 'at the head of our Nehemiahs' (Diplomatic Correspondence, 2.973).

He was given a final appointment to Brussels, but he retired in 1710 due to ill-health, entering holy orders in the Church of England.

With the fortune he made from his paymastership (subsequently augmented by loans, investments and mortgages), he extended his estates at Tern Hall, Atcham, near Shrewsbury (today Attingham Park), and at Shenstone, Staffordshire, and systematically purchased estates in many counties, including Shropshire, Staffordshire and Warwickshire, thus adding to his already substantial inheritance with the aim of founding an enduring dynasty.