Thomas Hill

Hill, Thomas, D.D., LL.D., son of English parents, was born at New Brunswick, New Jersey, Jan. 7, 1818. At the age of 20 he left the apothecary's shop in which he was employed, and began the study of Latin and Greek. He graduated at Harvard, 1843, and at the Cambridge Divinity School, 1845. His first charge was as pastor of the Unitarian Church at Waltham, Massachusetts; his second, that of President of Antioch College, Ohio, 1859; his third that of President of Harvard College, and his fourth that of pastor of "the First Parish in Portland, Maine, May 18, 1873." Dr. Hill has published numerous sermons, addresses, reviews, &c, and also a work— Geometry and Faith, 1849. Putnam (to whose Singers and Songs of the Liberal Faith we are indebted for this notice) says that he has "written or translated several hundred hymns or poems of decided excellence." These were mainly contributed to American magazines, the first having been printed in the Christian Register, in 1838. One of these, "All holy, ever living One" (God our Light), is in common use. Several others of decided merit are given in Putnam, 1875, pp. 411-19.

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology