This blog examines connections to Sir Rowland Hill that could only became apparent after his death, due to the workings of history in following generations.Â
********
Sir Rowland Hill’s acquisitions during secured St Chad’s Church, Norton-in-Hales. This acquisition intersected with the rise of the Cotton family, who had had an interst in Soulton before the Lodge family, in any event.
William Cotton, a London merchant and draper, served as Hill’s agent in Shropshire.
Their proximity likely facilitated the Cottons’ ascent, with family member Allan Cotton becoming Lord Mayor in 1625.
Sir Robert Cotton, 1st Baronet, of Connington, also belonged to this lineage. He famously held the Cotton Library before its acquisition by the British Museum and later, the British Library… where he got it from is a pregnant question.
Intriguingly, author Jane Austen descends from Sir Rowland Hill’s hiers.
This connection stems from the union of his heiresses with his protégé, Sir Thomas Leigh of Stoneleigh. This same lineage includes Catherine Leigh, wife of Gunpowder Plot conspirator Robert Catesby.
Shakespearean Connections and Beyond
Hill’s network further expands through his great-niece and heiress, Elizabeth Corbett. Her marriage to Robert Arden of Park Hall in the 1580s connects Hill to the Arden family, of which Mary Shakespeare (William Shakespeare’s mother) was a member.
Robert Arden was a second cousin of Mary’s, making Hill a cousin of William Shakespeare.
Finally, Sir Rowland Hill’s cousin, Thomas Bromley, the Tudor Lord Chancellor, establishes a link to Sir Oliver Cromwell, uncle of the famous Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell.
