Edward Hill

Colonel Edward Hill (died c.1662) was a Virginia planter, soldier and politician. In addition to representing Charles City County for many terms in the House of Burgesses, fellow members three times selected him as its Speaker (1644–45, 1654–55, and 1659), and he sat in the Virginia General Assembly's upper house, the Virginia Governor's Council in 1651 as well as from 1660-1663. Burgesses also sent Hill to Maryland to put down Richard Ingle's 1646 rebellion, and he acted as the colony's temporary governor before ceding to the proper governor, Leonard Calvert, but later contested nonpayment of monies promised to him and Virginia militia troops for that action. Col. Hill also led the Charles County and Henrico County militia and Pamunkey native Americans against other tribes in Hanover County in 1656, with less success. Early and family life This man's origins are uncertain. Although some speculation considers him the son of "Master Edward Hill" of Elizabeth City County who distinguished himself defending his home (and 100 acres of farmed land) against Native Americans in the uprising of 1622, and who was buried on May 15, 1624. That Edward Hill's widow, the former Hannah Boyle (1602-after 1644), remarried twice while remaining in Elizabeth City and raising that man's daughter named Elizabeth. If that man had a son, he would have inherited the property by primogeniture, and appeared in the 1625 muster, but didn't. Hannah's second husband, Thomas Spellman, helped settle her first husband's estate, but died by March 1627, leaving his property in England to their daughter Mary and his Virginia property to his widow. Her third husband, Alexander Mountney (an "ancient planter" who had arrived in the colony in 1610 and had moved to Accomack County by 1635), sold the girls' lands in Elizabeth City and converted the proceeds to cattle, among other court appearances before his death in February 1644. Career Hill established Shirley Plantation in Charles City County by 1638. Two years later he was a tobacco viewer for Charles City County, and 1660 he patented nearly 2500 acres in Charles City County which became part of Shirley plantation. In 1640, Hill first represented Charles City County in the House of Burgesses, alongside Francis Eppes, Joseph Johnson and Thomas Pawlett. In that session, as with previous sessions, the assembly had a clerk (Richard Lee) but no Speaker.