Samuel Hill was born in Soyland, the son of James Hill.
He entered the textile trade in the 1730s, insisting that his cloth was
not to be outdone in England by any man
He became a prosperous worsted manufacturer and merchant who exported bays and kerseys to Holland, Belgium, Germany and Russia. He later produced the finer worsted and shalloons.
He owned a large amount of land and properties in Soyland and Mill Bank, including Birks Farm, Ripponden, Brig Royd Estate, Ripponden [which he bought in the 1750s and which he used as his headquarters], Golden Lion, Ripponden, Kebroyd House, Kebroyd Mills, Making Place [which he bought in 1706], Myrtle Grove, Soyland, Old Water Mill, Mill Bank, Prison, Soyland, Raynor Land, Soyland, Sawter House Farm, Mill Bank, Small Lees, Soyland, Thorpe Mill, Sowerby Bridge, and Town End Farm, Soyland,
He made his fortune by putting-out work to families in and around Soyland and Sowerby.
He left many business letters and pattern books. In notes in one of his pattern books, he writes:
1,200 bales of [this cloth] provided in one year for St Petersburg
and
The most perfect cloth made in this kingdom
In 1747, his turnover was £35,527 6/8d.
He made Kebroyd
an elegant place
He drew up a complicated will to bequeath his money to his son, Richard, but not to his son's common-law wife – Ann Wylde – whom Sam considered unsuitable.
His will also indicated his wishes that a bridge be built over Lumb Brook where Kebroyd Bridge / Denton Bridge, Kebroyd was eventually constructed.
Joseph Holroyd was his brother-in-law.
The character Sam Horsfall in Phyllis Bentley's novel Manhold is based on Hill's life.
On 21st April 1712, he married Elizabeth Holroyd at Coley Church.
Elizabeth of Sowerby, was the daughter of Mr Holroyd
Children:
In his will of 1759, the bulk of his estate was left to his granddaughter Betty Nuttall Hill.
She died in 1772, without having children, and Samuel's estate reverted back to the trustees. The case was taken to Chancery and was finally settle in 1793.
Members of the family were buried at St Bartholomew's Church, Ripponden. The family tomb stands near the gates at St Bartholomew's Church
See The Letter Books of Joseph Holroyd & Sam Hill
Page Ref: X2086
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