Matthew Davenport Hill

Matthew Davenport Hill (6 August 1792 – 7 June 1872) was an English lawyer and penologist.

He was born at Birmingham, where his father, Thomas Wright Hill, for long conducted a private school. He was a brother of Sir Rowland Hill. He acted as assistant in his father's school, but in 1819 was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn. In 1832 he was elected one of the Liberal Members of Parliament for Kingston upon Hull, but he lost his seat at the next election in 1834. On the incorporation of Birmingham in 1839 he was chosen recorder; and in 1851 he was appointed commissioner in bankruptcy for the Bristol district. Taking an interest in questions relating to the treatment of criminal offenders, he publicly aired opinions which were the means of introducing many important reforms in the methods of dealing with crime, drawing notably upon the theories of the Scottish penal reformer, Alexander Maconochie. His book Mettray (1855) describes the Mettray Penal Colony with its then new approach to dealing with young delinquents.

One of his principal coadjutors in these reforms was his brother Frederick Hill (1803–1896), whose Amount, Causes and Remedies of Crime, the result of his experience as inspector of prisons for Scotland. marked an era in the methods of prison discipline. Hill was one of the chief promoters of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, and the originator of the Penny Magozine. He died at Stapleton, near Bristol.

His principal works are:

• Practical Suggestions to the Founders of Reformatory Schools (1855)
• Suggestions for the Repression of Crime (1857), consisting of charges addressed to the grand juries of Birmingham
• Mettray (1855)
• Papers on the Penal Servitude Acts (1864)
• Journal of a Third Visit to the Convict Gaols, Refuges and Reformatories of Dublin (1865)
• Addresses delivered at the Birmingham and Midland Institute (1867).

See Memoir of Matthew Davenport Hill, by his daughters Rosamond and Florence Davenport Hill (1878).

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Matthew Davenport Hill

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by George Schonswar William Battie Wrightson	Member of Parliament for Kingston upon Hull 1832 – 1835 With: William Hutt	Succeeded by David Carruthers William Hutt

Persondata
Name	Hill, Matthew Davenport
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Date of birth	6 August 1792
Place of birth
Date of death	7 June 1872
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