He was a statesman, polymath, merchant and patron of art and philanthropist active through the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I.

He is associated with the recovery and development of Tudor English drama[2] a generation before Shakespeare, and events that Hill was involved in may have shaped one or more Shakespearean characters.

[12][13] Hill was born around the same time as George Vernon of Hodnet (died 1555)[14] whose grand daughter Elizabeth married Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton,[15] who have both been suggested as muses for Shakespeare's sonnets.

In 1538, Hill, along with Sir Ralph Waryn and Mr Lock (likely William Lock) invested in cargo in the George Mody; she never reached her port of destination, because Norwegian pirates pillaged her, with correspondence between Thomas Thacker to Cromwell recording: One Mody's ship, with goods of merchants of London, "from the mart," is taken by pirates of Norway, to the loss to Sir Ralph Waryn, good Mr.

These were on diverse and esoteric topics ranging from Rithmomachia to statcraft to theology to the New World and medicen, including: Some of his publishing work carried a badge of a half eagle and a key.

[55] It has been suggested that Hill's statecraft involved the accumulation of state papers and culturally important texts at Soulton, which then passed via the Alkington Cotton into the Cotton Library (which goes on to hold the Beowulf manuscript and copies of Magna Carta) and this, alongside the repeated traditional memorialization of Sir Rowland Hill with Magna Carta offers a potential explanation for the battle of Wem in the English Civil War during which Soulton was ransacked.

In these pageants 15,000 citizens all in bright harness, with coats of white silk or cloth, and chains of gold, passed through London to Westminster, and round St. James's Park, and on to Holborn.

[59] Hill's involvement is recorded in Lady Long's household-book at Hengrave, Suffolk, which notes that Henry VIII watched these marches from Mercers Hall with Jane Seymour; "the presence of more than 300 demi lunces and light horsemen" were a particular highlight.

[70][71][72] In 1541–42, he was elected sheriff of the City of London, and is recorded as being hosted by the incumbent Lord Mayor and provided with "a great stagge and tow fatt buckes".

King Henry VIII, took the side of the House of Commons in this case of member's privilege; however, he showed favour to Hill shortly after the affair by knighting him on 18 May 1542.

[75] He was a close friend of Sir Thomas Bromley (a member of the Regency Council appointed for the minority or Edward VI) and was given a token under the will of that statesman.

[77] His mayoralty witnessed a determined campaign against moral offences, the wardmote inquests being required in April 1550 to make fresh presentments of ill rule, 'upon which indictments the lord mayor sat many times'.

[78] In the summer of 1553 John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland (a colleague of Hill's on the Council of Wales and the Marches) had attempted to place Jane Grey on the throne and was defeated by a rebellion in favour of Mary, and the executed as a traitor.

[84] Hill received, from Queen Mary two bucks of the season out of the great park at Nonesuch, on behalf of the city of London, in 1557.

Rowland Hill's protegee, Thomas Leigh, led the coronation procession and escorted the newly crowned Queen Elizabeth I through the streets of London on the day of her coronation, and he continued as a Privy Councillor to the young Elizabeth I in the early years of the reign, to the extent he was appointed a Commissioner for Ecclesiastical Cases in 1559, alongside Matthew Parker,[88] newly appointed Archbishop of Canterbury.

The warrant established the commission stated; having especial trust and confidence in your wisdoms and discretions, [We] have authorized, assigned, and appointed you to be our commissioners;[2] and by these presents do give our full power... from time to time hereafter during our pleasure to inquire,... for all offences, misdoers, and misdemeanours done and committed and hereafter to be committed or done contrary to the tenor and effect of the said several acts and statutes and either of them, and also of all and singular heretical opinions, seditious books A curious account survives of a rent payment ritual in London for the Merchant Taylors School in which Hill presided shortly before he died: The xxx day of September my lord mayre and the althermen and the new shreyffes took ther barges at the iij cranes in the Vintre and so to Westmynster, and so into the Cheker, and ther took ther hoythe; and ser Rowland Hyll whent up, and master Hoggys toke ser Rowland Hyll a choppyng kneyf, and one dyd hold a whyt rod, and he with the kneyf cute the rod in sunder a-for all the pepull; and after to London to ther plases to dener, my lord mayre and all the althermen and mony worshiphulle men.

[91] Hill was a close friend of Sir John Gresham, who provided him with a black gown to attend his funeral[92] and whose executor he was.

[99] He was left a piece of gold in the 1552 will of Chief Justice Sir Thomas Bromley (died 1555) ‘for a token of a remembrance for the old love and amity between him and me now by this my decease ended’.

"[103] Among Sir Rowland's civic and charitable works are to be found, with a focus in Shropshire in particular:[104] He also supported schools, the Bethlem asylum and the new Bridewell hospital.

[106] Hill shared his prominent role in the establishment of hospitals with Richard Grafton, who also had Shropshire heritage,[107] and who was instrumental in printing the Great Bible.

The surviving Soulton Hall corps de logistics is understood to be constructed in elaborate codes,[111] and is thought to have been copied by Francis Bacon when he built Verulam House.

It is further thought that the construction of Soulton Hall (with its lost pyramidal roof) is done to represent a Holy Almandal[clarification needed].

[116]Hill's charity had a stern edge, with the epitaph on his monument stating that he also enjoyed a reputation as 'a foe to vice and a vehement corrector', A friend to virtue, a lover of learning, A foe to vice and vehement corrector, A prudent person, all truth supporting, A citizen sage, and worthy counsellor, A love of wisdom, of justice a furtherer, Lo here his corps lieth, Sir Rowland Hill by name,

who was born at the family mansion of Hawkstone, in the reign of King Henry the Seventh, and being bred to trade, and free of the city of London, became one of the most considerable and opulent merchants of his time, and was Lord Mayor of the same, in the second and third years of Edward the Sixth, anno 1549 and 1550, and was the first Protestant who filled that high office.

Having embraced the principles of the Reformation, he zealously exerted himself in behalf of the Protestant cause, and having been diligent in the use of all religious exercises, prayerful, conscientious, and watchful (as a writer of his character expresses it), yet trusting only in the merits of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, he exchanged his life for a better, a short while after the death of that pious young monarch, being aged nearly seventy years.

For a considerable time previous to his decease, he gave up his mercantile occupations, that he might with more devotedness of heart attend to the great concerns of another world.

His lands, possessions, and church patronage, were im-mense; particularly in the counties of Salop and Chester; the number of his tenants (none of whom he ever raised or fined) amounting to one thousand one hundred and eighty-one, as appears from his own handwriting.

But his private virtues, good deeds, and munificent spirit, were quite unlimited, and extended-like the prospect before us, East, West, North, and South, far surpassing all bounds.

She died during the year of his mayoralty, and since there were no children of the marriage, his heir was his brother, William, parson of Stoke on Tern; however he left property to the children of his four sisters:[12][13] Another of his heiresses being Alice Barker alias Coverdale wife of Sir Thomas Leigh (who had been Hill's business junior and was also Lord Mayor of London), descendents of whom are Dukes of Marlborough, Viscount Melbourne (the Premier) and later Dukes of Leeds.

Multa preferia preclara / magna u..bat fanillia Bona que acquifiuifs et Liberaliter impendil Pauperib dedii, Scotafticis in vtrag academia exhibuit Leguleos aluit atq inalios pios vfus erogaui… / liberos fufcepit nullos ideog terras poffesionefq fuas inter cognates ac confang vinios diuifet Breuiter tanta pictate claruit quod fama faeta extendebat / reliquamq vitam fuani vigiliis timare ac contemplatione contenuit, ad honorem fummi dei ac in perpetuam lui nomins gloriam.