Solomon Hill

Born	1755-04-08 Billerica, MA
Father	Ralph Hill III

Solomon Hill was born in Billerica on April 8, 1755, the son of Deacon Ralph Hill and Mehitable Patten and a grandson of Deacon Samuel Hill. He grew up on the Hill family farm on the west side of the road from Billerica to Concord and Bedford, running down to the Concord River. His mother died on January 24, 1780. On December 9, 1779 he married Hannah Blanchard, born November 22, 1756, the daughter of John Blanchard. Their children, as Hazen and the town records give them, were Solomon (1780), Hannah (1782), William Page (1784), Ralph (1786), Jeremiah (1788), Oliver Crosby (1791), Betsy (1794), Abigail (1797) and Martha Page (1800).

His father, by then Captain and Deacon Ralph Hill, made his will on November 12, 1784 and died on February 13, 1789. He gave his son William "the Southerly part of my homestead," with the old house, and to Solomon "all the rest of my Lands in Billerica including the small Island in the River with all the Buildings thereon standing." That share included the farm's newer house, which, the Historical Commission noted, his father had built, though later writers named it for Solomon: the Solomon Hill House, later of Meadow Lane. His father's widow Abigail kept the use of the east end of the dwelling house, and his unmarried sisters Naomi and Sarah had a right to a room "in either of my Dwelling Houses." Solomon did not hold the farm long. In June 1789 he and Hannah sold Naomi, for 75 pounds, half of the 56-acre tract "with the Buildings standing thereon."

On February 14, 1791 the selectmen of Billerica, as overseers of the poor, among them Oliver Crosby, complained to the probate judge that Solomon Hill "by excessive Drinking, Idleness, and other dissolute practices" was likely soon to become, with his family, a charge on the town. He did not appear at the hearing at Concord in March, and the witnesses who were examined all testified that he was "remarkably & habitually idle, dissolute, drunken & negligent" and that "in two years he has wasted the greater part of his estate." On March 10, 1791 the court appointed Hezekiah Crosby and Oliver Crosby his guardians, and they published a notice in a Boston newspaper forbidding anyone to deal with him. Their inventory of March 28 valued the dwelling house at 30 pounds, the barn at 3 pounds and fifty-five acres, mortgaged, at 165 pounds, bounded north by Peter Hill, west by the Concord River, south by William Hill and east by the road to Bedford. His household goods came to about ten pounds, among them two beds, a low case of drawers, pewter, seven old cider barrels and one pig. Among the claims against him were notes held by his sisters Naomi and Sarah, who had "a Deed of all the Lands and buildings inventoried" and had given a bond to reconvey them.

Under a license from the Supreme Judicial Court, the guardians advertised "about fifty five acres of Land with a house and Barn thereon," "within about a mile & an half of the meeting house," "well fenced with stone wall and well watered," and on December 5, 1791 they sold it at auction at the house of Capt. Solomon Pollard. It was struck off to his neighbor to the north, Lt. Peter Hill, for 211 pounds 2 shillings. From the proceeds they paid his sisters and paid his brother William for undertaking to provide for their father's widow as the will required. Solomon and Hannah stayed in Billerica for some years after; the births of their children were recorded there until 1800. Where and when he died has not been found. The house he inherited stood until the 1970s, and its loss was recorded by the Historical Commission in 1976.

Solomon Hill

Solomon Hill

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