Roger Hill (1 December 1605 – 21 April 1667), of

Poundisford Park Poundisford Park north of Pitminster, Somerset, England is an English country house that typifies progressive housebuilding on the part of the West Country gentry in the mid-16th century. The main house was built for William Hill around 1550 and ...

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lor ...

, was an English judge and

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...

. Hill was born at Colyton in

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

, the eldest son of William Hill of

, member of a family of Somerset squires who could trace their ancestry back to a Sir John Hill in the reign of

Edward III Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377), also known as Edward of Windsor before his accession, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring r ...

. He was admitted to the

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and W ...

on 22 March 1624, and was called to the bar on 10 February 1632, becoming a

bencher A bencher or Master of the Bench is a senior member of an Inn of Court in England and Wales or the Inns of Court in Northern Ireland, or the Honorable Society of King's Inns in Ireland. Benchers hold office for life once elected. A bencher ca ...

of the Inn in 1649. In March 1644, he was the junior of the five counsel employed against Archbishop Laud, and from 1646 headed a set of Chambers in the Temple. Though named in the commission for the trial of the

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the ...

he never sat on it, but he subsequently served as assistant to the

attorney-general In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

during the

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with " republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from th ...

. He also represented

Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England, with a 2011 population of 69,570. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century monastic foundation, Taunton Castle, which later became a priory. The Normans built a castle owned by t ...

in the

Short Parliament The Short Parliament was a Parliament of England that was summoned by King Charles I of England on the 20th of February 1640 and sat from 13th of April to the 5th of May 1640. It was so called because of its short life of only three weeks. Af ...

and

Bridport Bridport is a market town in Dorset, England, inland from the English Channel near the confluence of the River Brit and its tributary the Asker. Its origins are Saxon and it has a long history as a rope-making centre. On the coast and withi ...

in the

Long Parliament The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In Septem ...

, remaining an active member of the Rump, and served as Recorder of

. Hill was appointed a

serjeant-at-law A Serjeant-at-Law (SL), commonly known simply as a Serjeant, was a member of an order of barristers at the English and Irish Bar. The position of Serjeant-at-Law (''servientes ad legem''), or Sergeant-Counter, was centuries old; there are w ...

in 1655, judge of

assize The courts of assize, or assizes (), were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the quarter sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes ...

in 1656, a

baron of the Exchequer The Barons of the Exchequer, or ''barones scaccarii'', were the judges of the English court known as the Exchequer of Pleas. The Barons consisted of a Chief Baron of the Exchequer and several puisne (''inferior'') barons. When Robert Shute was ...

in 1657. In that capacity, he assisted at the ceremony of investiture of the Lord Protector in June 1657; and as one of the judges attendant on

Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three Ki ...

's House of Peers, he delivered a message from them to the Commons in the following January. In the summer of 1658 he went on the Oxford circuit with Chief Justice Glynne, an account of the proceedings of which, "writ in drolling verse", was published soon afterwards. On 17 January 1660, he was transferred from the Exchequer to the Upper Bench. At the Restoration Hill escaped any serious sanction, but was not confirmed in his rank of serjeant, apparently in disapproval of his membership of the Rump, since most of the other serjeants made during the Commonwealth were allowed to keep their rank. Hill married three times. His first marriage, in 1635, was to Katherine Green (d. 1638), daughter of Giles Green of Allington, by whom he had a son and a daughter. Then, in 1641, he married Abigail Gurdon (died 1658), daughter of Brampton Gurdon of Assington Hall in

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include L ...

, by whom he had one son, Sir Roger Hill, who was knighted by Charles II in 1668. His third marriage, in 1662, to Abigail Barnes, daughter and co-heir of Thomas Barnes, brought him an estate at

Aldborough Hatch Aldborough Hatch is an area in Ilford in east London, England, within the London Borough of Redbridge. It is located east-northeast of Charing Cross. It is a semi-rural locality situated to the east of Barkingside and Newbury Park. Aldboroug ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, where he died on 21 April 1667. He was buried in the

Temple Church The Temple Church is a Royal peculiar church in the City of London located between Fleet Street and the River Thames, built by the Knights Templar as their English headquarters. It was consecrated on 10 February 1185 by Patriarch Heraclius of J ...

References

*D. Brunton & D. H. Pennington, ''Members of the Long Parliament'' (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954) *

Edward Foss Edward Foss (16 October 1787 – 27 July 1870) was an English lawyer and biographer. He became a solicitor, and on his retirement from practice in 1840, devoted himself to the study of legal antiquities. His ''Judges of England'' (9 vols., 1848� ...

, ''The Judges of England'', Volume 6 (London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans & Roberts, 1857

*Concise Dictionary of National Biography (1930) {{DEFAULTSORT:Hill, Roger 1605 births 1667 deaths English MPs 1640 (April) English MPs 1640–1648 Justices of the King's Bench