Rowland Hill (preacher)

Infobox Person
name = Rowland Hill

---

image_size = 175px
caption =
birth_date = birth date|1744|8|23|mf=y
birth_place = Hawkstone Park, Shropshire, England
death_date = death date and age|1833|4|11|1744|8|23|mf=y
death_place = London, England
education =
occupation = pastor
religion = Christian
spouse =
parents = Sir Rowland Hill
children =
nationality = British

Rowland Hill A.M. (1744-1833), was a popular English preacher, enthusiastic evangelical and an influential advocate of small-pox vaccination. He was founder and resident pastor of a wholly independent chapel, the Surrey Chapel, London; chairman of the Religious Tract Society; and a keen supporter of the British and Foreign Bible Society and the London Missionary Society. The famous instigator of penny postage, Rowland Hill, is said to have been christened 'Rowland' after him.

Early Life

Rowland Hill was born at Hawkstone Park (11 miles from Shrewsbury), Shropshire, August 23, 1744, the sixth son of Sir Rowland Hill (died 1783), he was educated at Shrewsbury, Eton College and at St John's College, Cambridge (B.A., 1769), where he came under the influence of the Methodists. For preaching in the open air in and around Cambridge without a license, Rowland Hill was opposed by the authorities and frequently assaulted by mobs. Finally, in 1773, after he had been refused ordination into the Church of England by six bishops, he was ordained by the bishop of Bath and Wells and offered the curacy of Kingston in Somerset, but was subsequently denied priest's orders and continued his vocation as an independent or nonconformist.

urrey Chapel

Having come into an inheritance through the death of his wealthy father, Sir Rowland Hill, he built his own free chapel, Surrey Chapel, in Blackfriars Road, London, which opened in 1783. The chapel's trust deed ensured it would not subscribe formally to the theological standpoint of any particular denomination. Despite Rowland Hill's own Calvinistic Methodist leanings, and a funding contribution towards his chapel from Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, the chapel was not a formal part of the Countess of Huntingdon's Methodist Connexion. Instead, it operated a relatively "open door" policy, attracting preachers from a wide range of denominations whilst also providing substantial facilities for non-religious meetings, and was operated a Congregational form of management. Nonetheless, Rowland Hill provided the 'anchor' and personally preached to immense audiences when he was in London. During the summer months he would visit other parts of the country, preaching in Scotland and Ireland as well as England and Wales, frequently attracting large crowds.

Many benevolent institutions were established at the chapel or in the nearby district, including early Sunday schools. Enrollment in the latter steadily increased under Rowland Hill's successors, James Sherman and Christopher Newman Hall, reaching over 3,000 children by the 1860s. Rowland Hill was also one of the founders, and chairman, of the Religious Tract Society; and an active promoter of the interests of the British and Foreign Bible Society and the London Missionary Society.

mallpox Vaccination

Rowland Hill was on close terms with Dr Edward Jenner, the pioneer of small-pox vaccination, and prosecuted his own plans to inoculate the congregations he visited or preached to. He published a tract on the subject in 1806 at a time when many medical men refused to sanction it. Later he became a member of the Royal Jennererian Society, which was established once the practice became accepted in Britain, India, the USA and elsewhere. Dr John Coakley Lettsom, an eminent Quaker physician of the day wrote to Rowland Hill commenting: cquote|"You have done more good than you imagine;
"and for everyone you may have saved by your actual operation,
"you have saved ten by your example;
"and perhaps, next to Jenner,
"have been the means of saving more lives than any other individual.

Death and Legacy

Rowland Hill died in London April 11, 1833 and was initially buried below his pulpit at the Surrey Chapel. He was succeeded at Surrey Chapel by James Sherman, whose tenure later passed to Christopher Newman Hall. Under Newman Hall, Rowland Hill's coffin was removed from Surrey Chapel and laid to rest at the Lincoln Memorial Tower, Westminster Bridge Road - part of a complex of Congregational buildings that included a new premises for the meeting hall named "Hawkstone Hall" which had been founded by James Sherman in memory of Rowland Hill and his birthplace.

Rowland Hill's pulpit was also removed from Surrey Chapel when the congregation moved to Christ Church, and in later years a bronze plaque was affixed by Frederick Brotherton Meyer commemorating Rowland Hill and his sucecssor, James Sherman. Christ Church was bombed during the Second World War, and the memorial plaque salvaged, to be re-erected in 1959 in the replacement building for Christ Church which stands today.

A portrait of Rowland Hill (Reference NPG 5397) by Samuel Mountjoy Smith in 1828 hangs in the National Portrait Gallery, London.

ee also

* Rowland Hill (a disambiguation page)

Published Works

Hill, Rowland (1800). "Extract from a Journal of a second Tour from London: The Highlands of Scotland and North-western parts of England'. London: A ParisHill, Rowland (1801; 34th edn 1839). "Village Dialogues". London

Bibliography

* Broome, E. (1883), "Rowland Hill: Preacher and Wit", London.
* Charlesworth, V.J. (1879), "Rowland Hill: His Life, Anecdotes and Pulpit Sayings", London.
* "Dictionary of National Biography", xxvi. 411
* Hall, Christopher Newman (1868), "Sermons and A History of Surrey Chapel and Its Institutions". New York: Sheldon.
* Jones, W. (1840), "Memoir of Rowland Hill", ed. Sherman, London.
* Sidney, Edwin (reprinted 2007;1835), "Life of Rev. Rowland Hill A.M.", London (reprint - USA:Kessinger)
* Sherman, James, (1857), "Memorial of Rowland Hill", London.

"Based partly upon an article in the public domain [http://www.ccel.org/s/schaff/encyc/home.html New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge] - the owners of the online edition at [http://www.ccel.org Christian Classics Ethereal Library] have given permission for the online copy of this public domain encyclopaedia to be used in Wikipedia articles."