Person:William Hills (9)

William Hills emigrated from England in the "Lyon" which departed London on June 22, 1632 and arrived in Boston on September 16, 1632 with 123 passengers. He was a freeman in Massachusetts May 14, 1634. He became an "original proprietor" of Hartford, Connecticut. In 1639, his lot was located on the corner of the highways Front and Sheldon Streets. He was chosen as a constable in 1644. His name appears on a statue which memorialized early settlers of Hartford. Later, William removed to Hockanum, where it is a well accepted tradition that he was one of the first settlers. He was captain of the first trainband on the east side of the river in 1653; made freeman in 1669. According to Colonial Records he was shot by Indians during King Phillips War in 1675: "The enemie having come to Hockanum and shott at William Hill and sorely wounded him, the Councill sent forth a party of soldiers to make search for the enemie," Colonial Records ii, 410. Feb. 18, 1675. The inventory of William Hills's will was 274.3 pounds. The will names wife Mary and children and mentions lands in Farmington that he had a right unto by right of his wife. The name of William Hills appears on a statue erected to the memory of the early settlers of Hartford, CT.

Will & Probate

In William's 1680/1 will, he names the following: ^S4

• "my wife Mary Hills"
• "my son Jonathan Hills;" "my sonn William Hills;" "my son John Hills;" "my son Joseph Hills;" "Benjamin Hills,"
• "my Daughter Mary Hills;" "my Daughter Hanna Kilbern;" "my daughter Sarah Ward, & to my daughter Susannah Kilbourn"
• "& at the death of my sonn William Hills...bequeath to my grand sonn, the eldest sonn of my son William, whoe is of the same name to him"

"desire Major John Talcott, Mr. Jonathan Gilbert & Corporal Gilbert to be my overseers"

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6} William Hills, in Anderson, Robert Charles. The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995)
   2:941-46.

   ORIGIN: Unknown.
   MIGRATION: 1632 on the William & Francis [Hotten 149].
   CHURCH MEMBERSHIP: Roxbury church records: "William Hills, a man servant, he came over in the year 1632. He married Phillice Lyman, the daughter of Richard Liman. He removed to Conecticott, where he lived several years, without giving such good satisfaction to the consciences of the saints" [RChR 77].
   FREEMAN: 14 May 1634 (eleventh in a sequence of twelve Roxbury men [MBCR 1:368]. "Will]ia]m Hills Sen[io]r" was in the October 16569 liste of freemen on the south side of Hartford [CCCR 2:519].
   BIRTH: By about 1607 based on estimated date of marriage. (Jacobus suggested that he may be that William Hills baptized at Upminster, Essex, on 27 December 1598, son of Thomas Hills; the age is not far off and Upminster is near High Ongar, the home of his future wife [Ackley-Bosworth 144].)
   DEATH: Hartford by July 1683 (date of inventory).
   MARRIAGE: (1) By about 1638 Phyllis Lyman, daughter of RICHARD LYMAN. Eliot reports that "she came to the land with her father anno 1631. God wrought upon her heart in this Land, she grew deaf which disease increasing was a great affliction to her, she was married to William Hills & lived with him at Hartford on Conecticot" [RChR 78].
   (2) Late 1648 Mary (_____) Risley, widow of Richard Risley [TAG 25:233; Manwaring 1:31]; she died about 1655, presumably at or shortly after the birth of her son Benoni.
   (3) Late 1655 or early 1656 Mary (Warner) Steele, widow of John Steele (son of JOHN STEELE) and daughter of ANDREW WARNER; she died after February 1680[/1] (when she is named in her husband's will).

2. ↑ William Hills, in Jacobus, Donald Lines, Editor, and N. Grier Parke (Compiler and Publisher). The Ancestry of Lorenzo Ackley & his wife Emma Arabella Bosworth. (Woodstock, Vt.: N.G. Parke, 1960)
   144-46.
3.   Savage, James. A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England: Showing Three Generations of Those Who Came Before May, 1692, on the Basis of Farmer's Register. (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co, 1860-1862)
   2:420.

   WILLIAM, Roxbury, came 1632, as a serv. prob. in the Lion, freem. 14 May 1634, m. Phillis, d. of Richard Lyman, rem. to Hartford, had 2d w. wid. Mary Steele, d. of Andrew Warner of Hadley; and there d. July 1683; in his will names ch. William; John; Joseph, bapt. 17 Mar. 1650; Benjamin; Jonathan; Hannah Kilburn, w. Of Thomas; Susanna Kilburn, w. of John; Sarah Ward; and Mary Hills. Of two of the s. we kn. little; Benjamin liv. and d. at Hartford; Joseph sett. perhaps at Glastonbury. Always this fam. employ. final s.

4. ↑ ^4.0 4.1 William Hills, Sen., in Manwaring, Charles W. A Digest of the Early Connecticut Probate Records. (Hartford, Conn.: R. S. Peck & Co., 1904-06)
   1:321, 322.

   Hills, William sen., Hartford. Died July, 1683. Invt. £274-00-02. Taken August, 1683, by Bevel Waters, Nath. Willett, Townsmen. Will dated 21 February, 1680-1.

5. ↑ William Hills, in Find A Grave.
6. ↑ Perry Streeter, “William Hills of the Great Migration: Probable Origins in Upminster, Essex,” , in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society)
   175 (2021): 174.