William Hill was Scottish a blacksmith and fabricator of works in iron for

James V of Scotland James V (10 April 1512 – 14 December 1542) was King of Scotland from 9 September 1513 until his death in 1542. He was crowned on 21 September 1513 at the age of seventeen months. James was the son of King James IV and Margaret Tudor, and du ...

Hill had a forge in Edinburgh Castle. He made many iron gates and windows grills called

yett A yett (from the Old English and Scots language word for "gate") is a gate or grille of latticed wrought iron bars used for defensive purposes in castles and tower houses. Unlike a portcullis, which is raised and lowered vertically using mecha ...

s. Examples can be seen at Stirling Castle and

Blackness Castle Blackness Castle is a 15th-century fortress, near the village of Blackness, Scotland, on the south shore of the Firth of Forth. It was built, probably on the site of an earlier fort, by Sir George Crichton in the 1440s. At this time, Blackne ...

. In several other locations fixing holes in the masonry window surrounds can still be seen, especially around the central window of the ruined East Quarter of

Falkland Palace Falkland Palace, in Falkland, Fife, Scotland, is a royal palace of the Scottish Kings. It was one of the favourite places of Mary, Queen of Scots, providing an escape from political and religious turmoil. Today it is under the stewardship of ...

, where Hill made a window for the bedchamber "where the king lies". The accounts mention that this yett had 6 upright standards and 14 horizontal "thortouris". These iron window grills were painted with

red lead Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

and finished with

vermilion Vermilion (sometimes vermillion) is a color, color family, and pigment most often made, since antiquity until the 19th century, from the powdered mineral cinnabar (a form of mercury sulfide, which is toxic) and its corresponding color. It i ...

. Hill made locks for doors and furniture, and draw bars for security, and hinges and bands for window shutters. He would often to ride to Falkland Palace to measure newly made windows in the palace and return to his forge in Edinburgh to make yetts and other items. Another smith who worked at Falkland, Alexander, made iron bars used to fix stone sculpture and doorways, and also maintained the tools used by the stonemasons. Alexander made horse shoes for the cart horses, and William Hill clad the cartwheels with iron shoes. Lumsden, a smith in Dysart, made fire grates. Hill also worked with the royal artillery, occasionally helping to load guns on and off ships. He also supplied a variety of nails; some decorative nails for Holyrood Palace were described as great and smaller "schorn tynnit nails". He made bars and bolts to support and embellish decorative timber ceilings, "glass bands" to support the glazing of larger stained glass windows, which were installed by Thomas Peebles. His official appointment as Master Smith was made on 8 May 1530. In May 1538 William Hill rode to Tantallon Castle and

Dunbar Castle Dunbar Castle was one of the strongest fortresses in Scotland, situated in a prominent position overlooking the harbour of the town of Dunbar, in East Lothian. Several fortifications were built successively on the site, near the English-Scotti ...

with the master-carpenter John Drummond and the stonemason William Kadisley, to oversee repair works and make measurements for an iron gate. A new forge was devised for William Hill and another smith John Spretty at Holyrood Palace in 1539. Hill made yetts for the new palace at Stirling Castle, at the request of James Hamilton of Finnart, and was paid in August 1541. In 1543 he was employed by

Regent Arran A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state ''pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy, ...

to increase the security of Linlithgow Palace by fitting iron window yetts, while the infant

Mary, Queen of Scots Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567. The only surviving legitimate child of James V of S ...

and her mother Mary of Guise stayed there.

William Hill in the royal accounts

Many payments to William Hill were recorded in the Scottish royal accounts now preserved among the

National Records of Scotland , type = Non-ministerial government department , logo = National Records of Scotland logo.svg , logo_width = , picture = , picture_width = , picture_caption = , formed = , preceding1 = National Archives of Scotland , preceding2 = General Regi ...

. The entries were written in the

Scots language Scots ( endonym: ''Scots''; gd, Albais, ) is an Anglic language variety in the West Germanic language family, spoken in Scotland and parts of Ulster in the north of Ireland (where the local dialect is known as Ulster Scots). Most commonl ...

using some technical terms. This record describing his work on an iron yett with a wooden door made for Holyrood Palace was made for the last week of April 1530:

Item to William Hill for ix stane iii pund maid irne werk, for gret crukis, ane irne bar to the treyne dur wythout the irne yet, ii gret irne sloittis with ii keparis to the irne yet and treyne yet, to the closyng and stekyng of the samyn yettis, and ii irne barris that is ane bar now enterit, and the tother principall bar to the irne yet enterit in sommer last bipast and in thir comptis than price of the stane maid werk viii.s vi d. summa iii lib. xviii s.

(modernised) Item to William Hill for 9 stone 3 pound finished made iron work, for great crooks (to hang the doors), an iron bar to the wooden door outside the iron yett, 2 great iron bolts with 2 keepers to the iron yett and wooden yett, to the closing and fixing of the same yetts, and 2 iron bars that is one bar now entered (accounted for), and the other principal bar to the iron yett entered in Summer last bypast (accounted for last Summer) and in these accounts the price of the stone made iron work is 8 shillings and 6 pence, the sum is £3-18s Scots.Henry M. Paton, ''Accounts of the Masters of Works'', vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1957), p. 33.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hill, William Court of James V of Scotland British blacksmiths People of Linlithgow Palace People of Stirling Castle People of Falkland Palace