User:EE Project/Joseph Hill

Joseph Hill (1733–1811), English lawyer, friend of William Cowper

Perhaps Cowper's closest friend during his Temple days, Joe Hill had been born near Chancery Lane, the son of Francis Hill (d. 1741), an attorney who was the nephew and secretary of Sir Joseph Jekyll, Master of the Rolls, and Theodosia Sedgwick (d. 1784). He had been well known to Cowper's uncle Ashley and his family, and soon after Cowper left Westminster, he and young 'Sephus' became friends. Hill had been early bred to the law; he acted as a clerk in Chancery Lane (he served his articles of clerkship under Robert Chester of the Six Clerks' Office in Chancery Lane), later qualified as solicitor and attorney, and became one of the Sixty, or Sworn Clerks in Chancery. He was made Secretary of Lunatics in 1778. He became a rich man owing to the justified esteem in which so many of his wealthy clients held him. During most of his life Cowper was financially dependent on Hill. Hill not only handled Cowper's small monetary matters—paying his London bills, apportioning his income for expenses in Huntingdon, Olney, etc.—but from his own pocket made it possible for Cowper to live as a gentleman, though a poor one. Hill married Sarah Mathews (1742–1824) in August 1771.