INTRODUCTION, continued... Dr. Richard Hill, the history of whose family is here related, was born at South River, in Maryland, September 8, 1698. He was the son of Henry and Mary Hill, and the grandson of Richard Hill, a sea captain, who emigrated to Maryland in 1673. A patent to him, dated August 12, 1673, for one hundred and fifty acres of land on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, signed by Lord Baltimore, is still preserved in the family.*(footnote) In 1721, Dr. Hill married Deborah, the daughter of Dr. Mordecai Moore, of Hill’s Point, near Annapolis. Dr. Moore’s wife was Deborah, the youngest daughter of Thomas Lloyd, the confidential friend of William Penn, and the first Governor of Pennsylvania.
Thomas Lloyd was descended from an ancient Welsh family, which had held its patrimonial estates in Montgomeryshire for more than a thousand years. Miric of Meirig, the proprieter of Dolobran, and other large estates, is said in the legendary history of Prince Arthur, to have been one of the four knights who bore the four golden swords before that renowned chieftain at the great festival at Caerleon, in Monmouthshire, when he was crowned king, A. D. 517.†(footnote) The descent of the Lloyds is traced from Meirig to Ivan Teg, or Ivan the handsome, of Dolobran, who assumed the surname of Lloyd about the year 1476. Thomas Lloyd was the fifth in descent from this Ivan Teg, and was born at Dolobran in 1640.
He and his brother Charles were educated at Oxford, and distinguished themselves by superior ability and learning. Becoming convinced of the truth of the doctrines promulgated by George Fox and his associates, the brothers early joined themselves (about the year 1662) to the Society of Friends, and became highly useful and eminent members thereof. In 1665, Thomas Lloyd married first Mary, the daughter of Gilbert Jones, of Welsh-Pool, in Montgomeryshire.*(Footnote) They were the parents of ten children, all of whom, except the youngest, were born at Dolobran,†(footnote) in Wales. In 1683, Thomas Lloyd emigrated to Pennsylvania;‡(footnote) the next year he was appointed President of the Council, which office he held till 1691, when he received the commission of Governor of the Province. In the following year, the English crown wrested the province from the Proprietor, and appointed Benjamin Fletcher its governor, who arrived in the spring of 1693, and assumed the direction of affairs. Thomas Lloyd did not long survive these transactions. He was seized with a malignant fever in the following summer, and died, after an illness of five days, on the 10th of 7th month, 1694, in the fifty-fifth year of his age, honoured and respected by all who knew him. The friends of Haverford Meeting, in Pennsylvania, recorded their affectionate remembrance of his virtues in the following simple and antique, but beautiful tribute:—
“He was by birth of them who are called the gentry, his father being a man of a considerable estate and of great esteem in his time, of an ancient house and estate called Dolobran, in Montgomeryshire, in Wales. He was brought up at the most noted schools, and from thence went to one of the universities; and, because of his superior natural and acquired parts, many of account in the world had an eye of regard towards him. Being offered degrees and places of preferments, he refused them all. The Lord beginning his work in him, and causing a measure of his light to shine out of darkness, in his heart, which gave him a sight of the vain forms, customs, and traditions of the schools and colleges, and hearing of a poor despised people called Quakers, he went to hear them, and the Lord’s power reached unto him and came over him, to the humbling and bowing his heart and spirit; so that he was convinced of God’s everlasting truth, and received it in the love of it, and was made willing, like meek Moses, to choose rather to suffer affliction with the people of the Lord, than the honours, preferments, and riches of this world. The earthly wisdom came to be of no reputation with him, but he became a fool, both to it and his former associates; and through self-denial, and taking up the daily cross of Christ Jesus, which crucified his natural will, affections, and pleasures, he came to be a scholar in Christ’s school, and to learn the true wisdom which is from above. Thus, by departing from the vanities and iniquities of the world, and following the leadings, guidance, and instruction of the divine light, grace, and spirit of Christ, he came more and more to have an understanding in the mysteries of God’s kingdom, and was made an able minister of the everlasting gospel of peace and salvation; his acquired parts being sanctified to the service of truth.
“His sound and effectual ministry, his godly conversation, meek and lamb-like spirit, great patience, temperance, humility, and slowness to wrath; his love to the brethren, his godly care in the church of Christ, that all things might be kept sweet, savoury, and in good order; his helping hand to the weak, and gently admonitions, we are fully satisfied have a seal and witness in the hearts of all faithful friends who knew him, both in the land of his nativity and in these American parts. We may in truth say, he sought not himself, nor the riches of this world, but his eye was to that which is everlasting, being given up to spend and be spent for the truth and the sake of friends.
“He never turned his back on the truth, nor was weary in his travels Sion-wards; but remained a sound pillar in the spiritual building. He had many disputes with the clergy and some called peers in England, and also suffered imprisonments and much loss of outward substance, to the honour of truth, and stopping, in measure, the mouths of gainsayers and persecutors. Yet these exercises and trials in the land of his nativity, which he sustained through the ability God gave him, were small and not to be compared to the many and great exercises, griefs, and sorrows he met withall and went through in Pennsylvania, from that miserable apostate George Keith, and his deluded company. Oh, the revilings, the great provocations, the bitter and wicked language, and rude behaviour which the Lord gave him patience to bear and overcome. He reviled not again, nor took any advantage; but loved his enemies, and prayed for them that despitefully abused him. His love to the Lord, his truth and people was sincere to the last. He was taken with a malignant fever the 5th of the 7th month, 1694, and, though his bodily pain was great, he bore it with much patience. Not long before his departure, some friends being with him, he said: ‘Friends, I love you all; I am going from you, and I die in unity and love with all faithful friends. I have fought a good fight and kept the faith, which stands not in the wisdom of words, but in the power of God; I have fought, not for strife and contention, but for the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the simplicity of the gospel. I lay down my head in peace, and desire you may all do so; friends, farewell all.’ He farther said to Griffith Owen, a friend then intending for England: ‘I desire thee to mind my love to friends in England, if thou lives to go over to see them; I have lived in unity with them, and do end my days in unity with them; and desire the Lord to keep them all faithful to the end, in the simplicity of the gospel.’ On the 10th day of the 7th month aforesaid, being the sixth day of his sickness, it pleased the Lord to remove him from the many trials, temptations, sorrows, and troubles of this world, to the kingdom of everlasting joy and peace; but the remembrance of his innocent life and meek spirit lives with us, and his memorial is, and will remain to be sweet and comfortable to the faithful.
“He was buried in Friends’ burial-ground, in Philadelphia, aged about fifty-five years; having been several years President and Deputy Governor of Pennsylvania.”*(Footnote)Go to: Doctor Richard Hill
