Rowland Hill

Rowland Hill
Rowland Hill by Samuel Mountjoy Smith
Born	August 23, 1744(1744-08-23) Hawkstone Park, Shropshire, England
Died	April 11, 1833 (aged 88) London, England
Nationality	British
Occupation	pastor
Religious beliefs	Christian
Parents	Sir Rowland Hill

Rowland Hill A.M. (1744-1833), was a popular English preacher, enthusiastic evangelical and an influential advocate of small-pox vaccination. He was founder and resident pastor of a wholly independent chapel, the Surrey Chapel, London; chairman of the Religious Tract Society; and a keen supporter of the British and Foreign Bible Society and the London Missionary Society. The famous instigator of penny postage, Rowland Hill, is said to have been christened 'Rowland' after him.

Early life

Rowland Hill was born at Hawkstone Park (11 miles from Shrewsbury), Shropshire, August 23, 1744, the sixth son of Sir Rowland Hill (died 1783), he was educated at Shrewsbury, Eton College and at St John's College, Cambridge (B.A., 1769),^[1] where he came under the influence of the Methodists. For preaching in the open air in and around Cambridge without a license, Rowland Hill was opposed by the authorities and frequently assaulted by mobs. Finally, in 1773, after he had been refused ordination into the Church of England by six bishops, he was ordained by the bishop of Bath and Wells and offered the curacy of Kingston in Somerset, but was subsequently denied priest's orders and continued his vocation as an independent or nonconformist.

Surrey Chapel

Having come into an inheritance through the death of his wealthy father, Sir Rowland Hill, he built his own free chapel, Surrey Chapel, in Blackfriars Road, London, which opened in 1783. The chapel's trust deed ensured it would not subscribe formally to the theological standpoint of any particular denomination. Despite Rowland Hill's own Calvinistic Methodist leanings, and a funding contribution towards his chapel from Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, the chapel was not a formal part of the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion. Instead, it operated a relatively open door policy, attracting preachers from a wide range of denominations whilst also providing substantial facilities for non-religious meetings, and was operated a Congregational form of management. Nonetheless, Rowland Hill provided the 'anchor' and personally preached to immense audiences when he was in London. During the summer months he would visit other parts of the country, preaching in Scotland and Ireland as well as England and Wales, frequently attracting large crowds.

Many benevolent institutions were established at the chapel or in the nearby district, including early Sunday schools. Enrollment in the latter steadily increased under Rowland Hill's successors, James Sherman and Christopher Newman Hall, reaching over 3,000 children by the 1860s. Rowland Hill was also one of the founders, and chairman, of the Religious Tract Society; and an active promoter of the interests of the British and Foreign Bible Society and the London Missionary Society.

Smallpox Vaccination

Rowland Hill was on close terms with Dr Edward Jenner, the pioneer of small-pox vaccination, and prosecuted his own plans to inoculate the congregations he visited or preached to. He published a tract on the subject in 1806 at a time when many medical men refused to sanction it. Later he became a member of the Royal Jennererian Society, which was established once the practice became accepted in Britain, India, the USA and elsewhere. Dr John Coakley Lettsom, an eminent Quaker physician of the day wrote to Rowland Hill commenting:

Death and legacy

Pulpit plaque by Frederick Brotherton Meyer in Christ Church, Lambeth

Rowland Hill died in London April 11, 1833 and was initially buried below his pulpit at the Surrey Chapel. He was succeeded at Surrey Chapel by James Sherman, whose tenure later passed to Christopher Newman Hall. Under Newman Hall, Rowland Hill's coffin was removed from Surrey Chapel and laid to rest at the Lincoln Memorial Tower, Westminster Bridge Road - part of a complex of Congregational buildings that included a new premises for the meeting hall named Hawkstone Hall which had been founded by James Sherman in memory of Rowland Hill and his birthplace.

Rowland Hill's pulpit was also removed from Surrey Chapel when the congregation moved to Christ Church, and in later years a bronze plaque was affixed by Frederick Brotherton Meyer commemorating Rowland Hill and his sucecssor, James Sherman. Christ Church was bombed during the Second World War, and the memorial plaque salvaged, to be re-erected in 1959 in the replacement building for Christ Church which stands today.

A portrait of Rowland Hill (Reference NPG 5397) by Samuel Mountjoy Smith in 1828 hangs in the National Portrait Gallery, London.

See also

• Rowland Hill (a disambiguation page)

Published works

Hill, Rowland (1800). Extract from a Journal of a second Tour from London: The Highlands of Scotland and North-western parts of England'. London: A Paris Hill, Rowland (1801; 34th edn 1839). Village Dialogues. London

References

Further reading

• Broome, E. (1883), Rowland Hill: Preacher and Wit, London.
• Charlesworth, V.J. (1879), Rowland Hill: His Life, Anecdotes and Pulpit Sayings, London.
• Dictionary of National Biography, xxvi. 411
• Hall, Christopher Newman (1868), Sermons and A History of Surrey Chapel and Its Institutions. New York: Sheldon.
• Jones, W. (1840), Memoir of Rowland Hill, ed. Sherman, London.
• Sidney, Edwin (1848;reprinted 2007), Life of Rev. Rowland Hill A.M., London (reprint - USA:Kessinger)
• Sherman, James, (1857), Memorial of Rowland Hill, London.

Based partly upon an article in the public domain New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge - the owners of the online edition at Christian Classics Ethereal Library have given permission for the online copy of this public domain encyclopaedia to be used in Wikipedia articles.

A LADY SOLD BY AUCTION “THREE BIDDERS” A true incident in the life of Rowland Hill

Will you listen, friends, for a moment, While a story I unfold; A marvelous tale, of a wonderful sale Of a noble lady of old: How hand and heart, at an auction mart, Soul and body, she was sold.”

’Twas in the broad king’s-highway, Near a century ago, That a preacher stood—though of noble blood— Telling the fallen and low Of a Savior’s love, and a home above, And a peace that they all might know.

All crowded around to listen; They wept at the wondrous love, That could wash their sins, and receive them in His spotless mansions above:— While slow through the crowd, a lady proud Her gilded chariot drove.

“Make room,” cried the haughty outrider, “You are closing the king’s highway; My lady is late, and their Majesties wait, Give way, good people, I pray.” The preacher heard, his soul was stirred, And he cried to the rider, “Nay.”

His eye like the lightning flashes; His voice like a trumpet rings. “Your grand days, and your fashions and ways Are all but perishing things. ’Tis the king’s highway, but I hold it to-day In the name of the King of kings.”

Then—bending his gaze on the lady, And marking her soft eye fall,— “And now in His name, a sale I proclaim, And bids for this fair lady call. Who will purchase the whole—her body and soul, Coronet, jewels, and all?”

“I see already three bidders,” The World steps up as the first, “I will give her my treasures, and all the pleasures For which my votaries thirst; She shall dance each day, more joyous and gay, With a quiet grave at the worst”.

But out spake the Devil, boldly: “The kingdoms of earth are mine. Fair lady, thy name, with an envied fame, On their brightest tablets shall shine; Only give me thy soul, and I give thee the whole, Their glory and wealth to be thine.”

“And pray what hast Thou to offer, Thou Man of Sorrows unknown?” And He gently said, “My blood I have shed, To purchase her for mine own. To conquer the grave, and her soul to save, I trod the winepress alone.

“I will give her My cross of suffering, My cup of sorrow, to share; But with endless love, in My home above, All shall be righted there: She shall walk in light, in a robe of white, And a radiant crown shall wear.”

“Thou hast heard the terms, fair lady, That each hath offered for thee. Which wilt thou choose, and which wilt thou lose, This life, or the life to be? The fable was mine, but the choice is yet thine, Sweet lady, which of the three?”

She took from her hand the jewels, The coronet from her brow; “Lord Jesus,” she said, as she bowed her head, “The highest bidder art Thou, Thou gav’st for my sake Thy life, and I take Thy offer—and take it now.

“I know the World and her pleasures, At best they weary and cloy; And the Tempter is bold, but his honors and gold Prove ever a fatal decoy; I long for Thy rest—Thy bid is the best; Lord, I accept it with joy!” “Amen,” said the noble preacher;

And the people wept aloud. Years have rolled on—and they all have gone Who formed that awe-struck crowd. Lady and throng have been swept along On the wind like a morning cloud.

But the Savior has claimed His purchase, And around His radiant seat, A mightier throng, in a joyful song, The wond’rous story repeat; And a form more fair is bending there, Laying her crown at His feet.