Location: National Portrait Gallery, London, Great Britain
Date: 1780-83
Medium: Pastel
Measurements: 12 x 9.7 inches
You can find more information on National Portrait Gallery website here.
Sir Richard Hill (1732 – 1808) was the 2nd Baronet of Hawkstone and a prominent Methodist and Tory Member of Parliament for Shropshire.
Richard Hill was the elder brother of the evangelical preacher Rowland Hill.
In 1758, he experienced an evangelical conversion after which he joined a Methodist society that met regularly in Oxford. He vigorously participated in the often bitter debates that broke out in the Methodist movement.
Hill entered Parliament as an MP in 1780 where he remained for twenty-six years. He adopted an independent stance on most issues but became a staunch supporter of William Pitt after he came to power in 1783. Hill succeeded to the baronetcy on his father’s death in 1783, inheriting his Shropshire estates and a large income. Hill developed the landscape garden at Hawkstone, one of his estates, transforming it into one of the most visited of the day,
He never married, and was succeeded by his younger brother John Hill.
