Mary Hill

Last Name: 
Hill
First Name: 
Mary
Grave Plot No.: 
245
Spatial: 
Date of birth: 
1790
year of death: 
1847
Age at death: 
57 yrs
Gender: 
Female
Relationships: 
Wife of Mr Micaiah. Hill, acting pastor of Union Chapel
Full Epitaph: 
In memory of / Mary Hill / wife of Rev Micaiah Hill / of the London Mission Society / and acting Pastor of Union Chapel Dhurumtollah / Obit 7th September 1847 / Aetet 57 / This monument is erected by the church and congregation / for respect and esteem for her Christian virtues and / missionary zeal in establishing and superintending religious / schools for both heathen and poor Christian / females during a period of 24 years at Berhampore / And also to record the grateful remembrance of the . deep interest she untiringly took in the spiritual and / temporal welfare of the people among whom in the / providence of God she came for a time to reside / And among whom she closed her earthly career / of useful and Christian benevolence
Occupation: 
Missionary
Place of death: 
Calcutta
places mentioned 2: 
Berhampore; Tollygunge
Detailed information: 

Mrs Mary Hill was a missionary and the wife of the pastor of the Union Chapel in Calcutta. Mrs Hill joined her husband in his Tollygunge residence in 1824 and founded a girls' school there. Later, on the request of Bishop Heber and the Diocesan Committee, the London Missionary Society moved its station to Berhampore. The Bengal Obituary describes her work thus:

The erection of her first native girl's school occasioned a great commotion in the community; from several quarters, both the Civil and Military authorities were peti tioned to remove it. Mrs. Hill had at one time several native girl's schools and also a Portuguese girl's school under her superintendence. This latter was kept up for years whilst Berhampore continued a depot for European troops. The former were at length resigned for the female orphan asylum, which, with the Christian village, fully occupied her time. Useful as were her labours in these schools, they were still more blessed in the instruction of women from the Barracks of the European troops, among whom many have died in the faith who before were destitute of Godliness, and others still live to praise God for her faithful and affectionate instruction. Nor were her efforts confined to the humbler classes of society; among the rich there were some who had been thoughtless and gay who have attri buted their conversion to the subject of this obituary notice.

On returning to Calcutta, she was part of the Calcutta Dorcas Society and the Hill couple were friends of the Swiss preacher Alphonse Francois Lacroix . Lacroix also delivered her funeral sermon (Extracted by permission from the funeral sermon preached at the Circular Road Baptist Chapel ... occasioned by the death of Mrs Mary Hill . See https://www.library.soas.ac.uk/Record/292430).
The Missionary Conference commended the services of Mary Hill and forwarded their message through Alexander Duff.

Her plaque has been moved to the South Park Street Cemetery.

Photo 2 close up: 
This record has been created by:: 

Souvik Mukherjee