Hill was ed­u­cat­ed at Shrews­bu­ry Gram­mar School, Eton, and St. John’s Coll­ege, Cam­bridge (BA 1769). Tak­ing Ho­ly Or­ders, he was for a time Cur­ate of Kings­ton, near Taun­ton. Leav­ing there, but with­out re­noun­cing his Or­ders or his con­nect­ion with the Church of Eng­land, he served as an itin­er­ant preach­er for some twelve years, mostly in Wilts, Glou­ces­ter­shire, Som­er­set­shire, and Lon­don. At Wot­ton-un­der-Edge, he built a cha­pel where he oft­en preached. He al­so opened the Sur­rey Cha­pel in Lon­don in 1783; it was there he min­is­tered for near­ly 50 years.

Hill took great in­ter­est in evan­gel­ism and mis­sions, and helped found the Lon­don Mis­sion­a­ry So­ci­e­ty. He was al­so on the first com­mit­tee of the Re­li­gious Tract So­ci­e­ty. The au­thor of sev­er­al prose works, Hill com­piled the fol­low­ing hymn­als:

• A Collection of Psalms and Hymns for the Use of the Poor, 1774
• A Collection of Psalms and Hymns, Chief­ly In­tend­ed for Pub­lic Wor­ship, 1783. This was en­larged in 1787, and a Sup­plement add­ed in 1796; other re­vi­sions fol­lowed, the last in 1830.
• Divine Hymns Attempted in Easy Language for the Use of Child­ren, 1790; se­cond edi­tion, 1794; later edi­tions in 1808 & 1819.
• A Collection of Hymns for Child­ren, 1808
• Hymns for Schools, 1832

Except for his 1790 child­ren’s Hymns, his works do not show the au­thor­ship of the in­di­vid­u­al hymns. Those in the list below is gen­er­al­ly at­trib­ut­ed to him.

Sources

Hymns

1. Come, Ho­ly Ghost, the Comforter
2. Cast Thy Burden on the Lord
3. Dear Friend of Friendless Sinners
4. Exalted High at God’s Right Hand
   • Lo! Round the Throne a Glorious Band
   • Lo! Round the Throne at God’s Right Hand
5. Happy the Children Who Betimes
6. Lo, Round the Throne at God’s Right Hand
7. Lord, We Raise Our Feeble Voices
8. My Parents Gave Me, Lord
9. We Sing His Love, Who Once Was Slain
10. When Jesus first at Heaven’s Command
11. With Heavenly Power, O Lord Defend
12. Ye That in His Courts Are Found