![Portrait Of Thomas Wright Hill](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/Portrait_Of_Thomas_Wright_Hill.jpg)
Thomas Wright Hill (24 April 1763 in
Kidderminster
Kidderminster is a large market and historic minster town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, south-west of Birmingham and north of Worcester. Located north of the River Stour and east of the River Severn, in the 2011 census, it ha ...
– 13 June 1851 in
Tottenham
Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Wal ...
) was a mathematician and schoolmaster. He is credited as inventing the
single transferable vote
Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate ...
in 1819. His son,
Rowland Hill
Sir Rowland Hill, KCB, FRS (3 December 1795 – 27 August 1879) was an English teacher, inventor and social reformer. He campaigned for a comprehensive reform of the postal system, based on the concept of Uniform Penny Post and his soluti ...
, famous as the originator of the modern postal system, introduced STV in 1840 into the world's first public election, for the
Adelaide
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
City Council
A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...
, in which the principle of proportional representation was applied.
In 1791, Thomas Wright Hill courageously tried to save the apparatus of Dr
Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley (; 24 March 1733 – 6 February 1804) was an English chemist, natural philosopher, separatist theologian, grammarian, multi-subject educator, and liberal political theorist. He published over 150 works, and conducted exp ...
from a mob in the
Birmingham 'Church and King' riots of 1791—the offer was declined.
He was interested in astronomy, being a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, and in computers, as is shown by a letter of his to
Charles Babbage, dated 23 March 1836, among the Babbage manuscripts at the British Library, returning some logarithm tables that he had borrowed and adding "How happy I shall be when I can see such a work verified and enlarged by your divine machine".
Parentage and background
Hill was the sixth child of James Hill, of
Kidderminster
Kidderminster is a large market and historic minster town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, south-west of Birmingham and north of Worcester. Located north of the River Stour and east of the River Severn, in the 2011 census, it ha ...
,
Worcestershire
Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...
, a baker and dealer in corn for horses, and his second wife, Sarah, daughter of John Symonds, of Kidderminster, who was in business as an
apothecary
''Apothecary'' () is a mostly archaic term for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses '' materia medica'' (medicine) to physicians, surgeons, and patients. The modern chemist (British English) or pharmacist (British and North Amer ...
and
drysalter
Drysalters were dealers in a range of chemical products, including glue, varnish, dye and colourings. They might supply salt or chemicals for preserving food and sometimes also sold pickles, dried meat or related items. The name ''drysalter'' or '' ...
. The Hill family had been
freehold
Freehold may refer to:
In real estate
*Freehold (law), the tenure of property in fee simple
* Customary freehold, a form of feudal tenure of land in England
* Parson's freehold, where a Church of England rector or vicar of holds title to benefice ...
ers and tradesmen for the past three generations, descendants of Walter Hill (d. 1693), a "considerable landowner" of
Abberley
Abberley is a village and civil parish in north west Worcestershire, England.
It is situated on the northern slopes of Abberley Hill, which is tall, between the River Severn and River Teme. The village had a population of 830 in 2001.
Locati ...
,
Worcestershire
Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...
(although the Dictionary of National Biography gives him the name Walter and places him at Abberley, per Hill's own recollection, this man -- whose first name he did not specify -- was of "the neighbourhood of
Cleobury Mortimer
Cleobury Mortimer (, ) is a market town and civil parish in southeast Shropshire, England, which had a population of 3,036 at the 2011 census. It was granted a market charter by Henry III in 1226.''Rotuli Litterarum Clausarum in Turri Londinensi ...
",
Shropshire
Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...
). Favouring the issue of his second marriage, the children of the first marriage were left to fend for themselves. One son, also Walter Hill, settled at Kidderminster, entering business as a hatter; Walter's son John, also of Kidderminster, a tailor, was father of James Hill. Hill believed his family to be related to the poet and satirist
Samuel Butler.
Hill and education
Hill started work as a brassfounder, but was more interested in intellectual pursuits, so in 1802 he bought a boys' school on Lionel Street,
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...
moving it to Hill Top, Gough Street. In 1819, it moved again to a new purpose-built school designed by Rowland at Hazelbrook called
Hazelwood on Hagley Road in
Edgbaston
Edgbaston () is an affluent suburban area of central Birmingham, England, historically in Warwickshire, and curved around the southwest of the city centre.
In the 19th century, the area was under the control of the Gough-Calthorpe family a ...
.
From the start the school seems to have been out of the ordinary. In its original prospectus Hill says that "he will make it his study to excite
is pupils'reasoning powers, and to induce in them habits of voluntary application ... he will always endeavour, by kindness and patience, to secure for himself their affection and esteem"; perhaps not revolutionary aims nowadays, but this was more than 25 years before
Thomas Arnold became headmaster of
Rugby
Rugby may refer to:
Sport
* Rugby football in many forms:
** Rugby league: 13 players per side
*** Masters Rugby League
*** Mod league
*** Rugby league nines
*** Rugby league sevens
*** Touch (sport)
*** Wheelchair rugby league
** Rugby union: 1 ...
or
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
wrote
Nicholas Nickleby
''Nicholas Nickleby'' or ''The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby'' (or also ''The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Containing a Faithful Account of the Fortunes, Misfortunes, Uprisings, Downfallings, and Complete Career of the ...
. It is also noteworthy that he was offering "instruction in art and science". How many schools at that date would have thought of including science in their curriculum?
At Hazelwood School, with his sons now bearing a full share in its running, it became a school in which the rules were formed by a committee of the boys, elected by the boys, and enforced by the boys' own law court. Whether or not that is a good way to run a school, the amazing thing is that it existed at all at that time.
In 1827 a London branch of the school was opened at
Bruce Castle
Bruce Castle (formerly the Lordship House) is a Grade I listed 16th-century manor house in Lordship Lane, Tottenham, London. It is named after the House of Bruce who formerly owned the land on which it is built. Believed to stand on the site ...
, Tottenham, and within a few years all the Hazelwood students had transferred to Bruce Castle, which had been taken over almost entirely by his sons. Hazelwood then became the home of
Francis Clark and his wife Caroline (daughter of Thomas Wright Hill) and their large and growing family. They remained there for fifteen years before emigrating to
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
.
Political views and activities
Thomas Hill and his sons had strong political views which, at that time, were certainly radical, but always with the conviction that reforms had to come by persuasion, and constitutionally, not by violence. During the agitation leading up to the
Great Reform Act of 1832
The Representation of the People Act 1832 (also known as the 1832 Reform Act, Great Reform Act or First Reform Act) was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom (indexed as 2 & 3 Will. IV c. 45) that introduced major changes to the electo ...
, the fifth son Frederic Hill was freed from duties at the school to devote his time to an active part in the struggle as part of the Birmingham Union. A letter to his son Edwin, dated 15 May 1832, says "These my dear boy are stirring times ... the enthusiasm and unanimity of the mass who form the Birmingham Union is at once delightful and astonishing. I hope that it will be kept quite within the law. Let the honour of a vigour surmounting that boundary belong to our adversaries; they will not find such forbearance as they may have met with in days past". As his contribution to the cause "I am abstaining from tea, coffee, sugar etc., as taxed articles. Would that the massive unions would concur. The revenue then would soon require parliamentary help, and funds would be reserved for useful purposes. But this kind of passive procedure is too much to hope for as a general procedure".
He does not seem to have disapproved of a little political trickery, provided the right side was doing it. Writing to his wife, dated 11 May 1831, about the "patriotic fellows of Haddington" including her brother, he says "Their district has five boroughs which choose a member of parliament by one
elegatefrom each borough. Haddington was firm and Jedburgh was firm in the good cause. Dunbar was Rotten and the same was North Berwick. Lauder had seven good men in the council out of sixteen. By excellent management the men of Haddington brought away two councilmen from Lauder and entertained them until the business was accomplished, so that now three delegates out of the five are sound reformers ... It is a glorious victory and a proud thing for us to have so near a relative bearing such a part in it".
In spite of radical views, he evidently thought well of
King George III
George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...
, for in a letter dated 9 February 1820, just after
George IV
George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...
's accession, he wrote to his son Matthew "How did your taste accord with bell-ringing and huzzas at the King's proclamation? To me, connected as it was with the death of our late aged and virtuous monarch it was revolting, even to hear of; I saw nothing of the pageantry".
Hill and the single transferable vote
In 1819, Thomas and Rowland were instrumental in founding the ''Society for Literary and Scientific Improvement'' of Birmingham. The Society's bylaws include a description of Hill's method of proportional representation, the earliest known version of the
single transferable vote
Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate ...
:
:X. At the first meeting in April, and also in October, a Committee shall be elected, which shall consist of at least one fifth of the members of the society. The mode of election shall be as follows. A ticket shall be delivered to each member present, with his own name at the head of it, immediately under which he shall write the name of the member whom he may wish to represent him in the Committee. The votes thus given shall be delivered to the president, who, after having assorted them, shall report to the meeting the number of votes given for each nominee. Every one who has five votes shall be declared a member of the committee; if there are more than five votes given to any one person, the surplus votes, (to be selected by lot) shall be returned to the electors whose names they bear, for the purpose of making other nominations, and this process shall be repeated till no surplus votes remain, when all the inefficient votes shall be returned to the respective electors, and the same routine shall be gone through a second time, and also a third time if necessary; when if a number is elected, equal in all to one half of the number of which the committee should consist, they shall be a committee; and if at the close of the meeting the number is not filled up, by unanimous votes of five for each member of the committee, given by those persons whose votes were returned to them at the end of the third election, then this committee shall have the power, and shall be required, to choose persons to fill up their number; and the constituents of each member so elected shall, if necessary, be determined by lot. …
According to Hill's great-great-great grandson David Hill (also a reform activist) the first STV election actually took place on 18 December 1819 one month after the establishment of the society.
Hill's grandson (and Rowland's nephew)
George Birkbeck Norman Hill wrote, "The plan of election had been devised by his
owland'sfather who … was strongly in favour of the representation of minorities."
In 1821, Hill used an informal version of proportional representation in his school.
:…
ill'spupils were asked to elect a committee by standing beside the boy they liked best. This first produced a number of unequal groups, but soon the boys in the largest groups came to the conclusion that not all of them were actually necessary for the election of their favourite and some moved on to help another candidate, while on the other hand the few supporters of an unpopular boy gave him up as hopeless and transferred themselves to the candidate they considered the next best. The final result was that a number of candidates equal to the number required for the committee were each surrounded by the same number of supporters, with only two or three boys left over who were dissatisfied with all those elected. This is an admirable example of the use of STV.
Although this seems likely to be true, when Enid Lakeman was asked for the source of it she could not remember it. It would be wise to regard it with caution until an original reference can be found.
Posthumous publications
Following his death various papers that he had left behind were published in two booklets.
The first has contents:
# Notes of Mr. Hill's Ancestors (by himself, unfinished)
# Autobiography (unfinished)
# Continuation of Mr. Hill's Life, by his Son, Matthew Davenport Hill
# Selections from a Diary kept by Mr. Frederic Hill
# Brief Memoirs
# Lines written in an Album
The second
[''Selections from the papers of the late Thomas Wright Hill, Esq'', John W. Parker and Son, 1860.] has contents:
# Brief Memoir
# Lecture on the Articulation of Speech
# Phonotypy by Modification
# Phonotypy. Another plan
# Short-hand
# Definition of a Straight Line
# Numerical Nomenclature
# Scheme for conducting elections
# Easy Calculations for Matching the Days of the Month with the Days of the Week in Dates
Family
Thomas Wright Hill married Sarah Lea (1765–1842) on 29 July 1791 at
St. Martin's Church, Birmingham and had 8 children:
#
Matthew Davenport Hill
Matthew Davenport Hill (6 August 1792 – 7 June 1872) was an English lawyer and prison reform campaigner and MP.
Life
Hill was born at Birmingham, where his father, Thomas Wright Hill, for long conducted the private schools Hazelwood and Bruce ...
(1792–1872), the criminal law reformer
#
Edwin Hill (1793–1876), mechanical inventor and writer on currency
#
Rowland Hill
Sir Rowland Hill, KCB, FRS (3 December 1795 – 27 August 1879) was an English teacher, inventor and social reformer. He campaigned for a comprehensive reform of the postal system, based on the concept of Uniform Penny Post and his soluti ...
(1795–1879), the postal reformer
#Arthur Hill (1798–1885), headmaster of
Bruce Castle School
Bruce Castle School, at Bruce Castle, Tottenham, was a progressive school for boys established in 1827 as an extension of Rowland Hill's Hazelwood School at Edgbaston. It closed in 1891.
Origins
In 1819, Rowland Hill moved his father's Hill To ...
#Caroline Hill (1800–1877), married
Francis Clark and in 1850 emigrated to Adelaide, South Australia
#
Frederic Hill (1803–1896), inspector of prisons, assistant secretary of Post Office
#William Howard Hill (1805–1830)
#Sarah Hill (1807–1840)
References
Sources
* ''Science and Education: A Note'' - W. H. G. Armytage, Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 12, No. 2 (Dec., 1957), pp. 226–229
JSTOR - British Journal of Educational Studies February 1980 (first page)* Originals of the letters quoted (other than that in the British Library) are in the possession of I. D. Hill (great-great-great grandson of T. W. Hill)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hill, Thomas Wright
1763 births
1851 deaths
19th-century English mathematicians
Single transferable vote
Fellows of the Royal Astronomical Society
People from Kidderminster