Hill

The Hill family have a long history in Chewton Mendip in its own right but the name was probably interchangeable with Heal and Hale and may have been confused with Fillis.  The earliest record for the Hill family discovered so far is when William Hill junior was buried in Chewton Mendip on 31/9/1623.  William Hill and  Joan Hill were buried in Chewton Mendip on 16/10/1623. She was described as a widow so it is assumed that William Hill junior was her husband and the William buried with her was her son. Despite this triple tragedy, A William and Mary Hill were listed in the Protestation and Lay Subsidy rolls for 1641 and were paying tax based on their land holdings as was George Hill. However, the Hills were one of several families who were substantial people in the 17th century who suffered economics decline in the 18th century.

A George Hill was listed as a recipient of poor relief in 1670 but a Widow Hill and Samuel Hill were listed as a rate payers in the churchwardens accounts in the early 18th century. The difficulty in reading the 18th century script means that some references to names like Hillier or Filer or even Fillis may be mistaken for Hill. Other sources of confusion are the tendency they had to list rate payers on when they lived rather than the property they were paying for an estates to be split as some people died or suffered some other misfortune whilst other people prospered. Taking all of these factors into consideration, the Hills estate was based in the Middlesex or West End tithing. Some, or all, of it was owned by the Kingsmills in the 18th century but may have been acquired by  the Goldfinch family by 1848.

Most of the references for Hills in the poor books starting  1730 list how members of the Hill family were in receipt of poor relief but a widow Hill was paying poor rates for ‘Ye Inn’ in 1744. This may have been an example of a previously prosperous farmers wife making a living running a pub after her husband had died or she may have been the Widdow Hills who was also paying rates for another estate in the 1750s.

Mr Joseph Hill conducted the auction of the Kingsmill properties in 1848.

Members of the Hill family continued to live n the village and at last one served in World War One. Members of the family still live in the village. Michael Hill was a member of the parish council untill 2011 and Jacky Hill is one of the contributors to this website.