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Samuel Hill
Zeralda Holloway writes about Samuel Hill: “Samuel Hill was a genuine Englishman with a large strong frame, and a persevering, overbearing temperament and an ungovernable temper, which caused his family much trouble. He was peculiar in his manner of treatment toward his servants and family. He was heard to say to his men “Well! while we are resting, we will go and roll logs;” the horses, were resting. He was clearing the ground for plowing and rolling logs to be burned. After the death of the old folks, the remainder of the family went to KY to where the Holloways settled.” The particular quote about doing something while you are resting rang loudly in my ears since I have heard my father use that expression almost every day of our life together. He had no idea where the expression came from. It was just handed down from generation to generation.
Egbert Hill, grandson of Samuel, writes of Samuel that he “was an Englishman who came to this country before the Revolution and took sides with the Colonists.” According to a letter from Samuel’s daughter-in-law, Louisa (Hickman) Hill and a letter by a granddaughter, Samuel was born in Yorkshire, England near Sheffield. Thus, everything seems to indicate that Samuel was born in England and came to America sometime prior to the Revolutionary War. The court record his trial for murder places his year of birth at about 1755. Thus he probably came to America as a child or very young man. He died an untimely death in Fredericksburg, Virginia on August 8, 1808.
Clarissa Jane (Holloway) Hill
Clarissa Jane Holloway Hill was the daughter of William Holloway. Here mother was Frances (perhaps Carter) who married William Hudson upon William Holloway’s death. Her son, George Littlewood Hill, left a diary of sorts that lists her date of birth as June 18, 1763. Her date of death is clearly April 17, 1847. Her tombstone in Smithfield in Henry County, Kentucky says that she was 80 years old at the date of her death that would make her year of birth 1767. Clarissa was part of a large Holloway family around Caroline and Spotsylvania Counties Virginia.
Clarissa was known as “Clary”. Zeralda Hudson Holloway, who married into the Holloway family, left a diary written in 1911 in which she writes the Holloways were wealthy in land and slaves. Clarissa’s grandson, Egbert O. Hill (a son of George L. Hill) supports this in a letter to his daughter Louisa I. Rae in 1903 in which he says that “they were quite a numerous and prominent family.” Census records would tend to support this.
Children of Samuel and Clarissa
Henry Hill was born about 1793. He died on June 08, 1852, on the Oregon Trail near Goshen, Wyoming. He married Elizabeth Holloway, his first cousin, September 14, 1816, in Clark County, Kentucky. Elizabeth was the daughter of John Holloway, Clarissa’s brother, and John’s first wife, Lucy Schuyler. Henry, Samuel and Clarissa’s oldest son, is believed to be the son who testified at the trial of his father. He would have been 15 years of age at the time. During 1814 Henry served in the War of 1812 as a private in the company commanded by Captain William F. Gray of the Virginia militia commanded by Col. Boyd of King and Queen County Virginia. Henry moved to Fayette County, Kentucky and moved on to Henry County, Kentucky around the time of his mother, Clarissa’s move there. Ultimately, he moved on to Monroe County, Missouri. Henry died while striking out for gold in California. The location of his grave is two miles southwest of Henry, Nebraska in Goshen County, Wyoming (pictured at left.)
George Littlewood Hill was born January 12, 1798, in Caroline County., Virginia and died in Clinton, De Witt County, Illinois on November 30, 1887. He married Louisa Venona Hickman October 15, 1822, in Fayette County, Kentucky. Louisa was the daughter of William Lewis Hickman and Sarah Finney Thompson of Fayette County., Kentucky. George and Louisa also moved to Henry County., Kentucky with his mother, Clarissa and lived there until October 1837, when he moved to Clinton, De Witt County, Illinois. He purchased a farm of 640 acres on which he lived and died. According to George’s obituary in the Clinton Republic, December 9, 1887, he “was an intimate and personal friend of Abraham Lincoln, who often visited him at home.”
Anne Clarissa Hill was born April 25, 1801, and died January 12, 1872. She married William Pickett March 22, 1821, in Fayette County, Kentucky. Anne and her husband William Pickett moved to Monroe County, Missouri and lived near her brother, Henry Hill. Her name is often given as “Nancy” in some of the contemporaneous documents, but since “Nancy” was a nickname for Anne during this time, her first name was likely Anne. William and Anne had four children.
Elizabeth Hill was probably born about 1803. She married John Sharp November 03, 1821, in Fayette County, Kentucky. Elizabeth died shortly after the birth of her son, Owen. Elizabeth and John lived in Clark County, Kentucky until Elizabeth’s death, when John moved to Pendleton Co. He remarried and had several children by his second marriage. Elizabeth had two children, Mary Jane Sharp, born July 12, 1823, and Owen Sharp, born June 25, 1825.
William L. Hill was born May 01, 1808, in Caroline County, Virginia and died February 16, 1864, in Henry County., Kentucky. He married Amanda S. Walker December 17, 1834, in Henry County, Kentucky. Amanda was the daughter of James Walker and Eliza S. Oliver, natives of Henry County, Kentucky. William, who was born just a few months before his father’s death, and Amanda had six children. I have been unable to find what William’s middle initial stood for, but my guess is “Littlewood.” He had a brother with that middle name and a nephew (son of Henry) who had that middle name. It may be a clue as to Samuel’s ancestry.