My great-grandfather John Hill

I have recently become interested in family history, and my family have shared with me some of their interesting findings. For example, my family are distantly related to the legendary Wild West lawman Wyatt Earp and the designer and poet William Morris. I was very interested to learn more about my great-grandfather John Hill, who seems to be the person who established my family in Burton-upon-Trent.

John was born in Burford in Oxfordshire in 1855 to William and Mary Hill. I don’t know much about his early life, but I know that I have a lot of family history in that area waiting to be discovered, and I plan to visit and do more research in the near future. 

The family story that has been passed down to me is that as a young man, John travelled to Burton-upon-Trent to find work with his younger brother, George. They travelled by horse-drawn carriage, with their belongings on the back. It was common for people to move to the region to work in the brewery industry, and John became a brewery labourer. I don’t know John’s exact age when he moved, but he must have been a young, because he married Caroline Sutton in Burton-upon-Trent in 1878, when they were both aged 22. They married at the Zion chapel in Union Street, which is no longer there. 

They went on to have a large family of one boy, Sidney, and eight girls: Agnes, Selina-Anne, Florence, Alice, Minnie, Laura, Margaret, and my grandma, Ada. I believe they may have had more children who died in infancy, as was sadly common at that time. I know that my great-grandfather was unable to read and write, and it was his own daughter Selina-Anne who later taught him.   

Sadly, I know little about the details of John’s life until his tragic death in 1928. John was killed in an accident on 14th April 1928 at the age of 73. His inquest is reported in the April 19th issue of The Burton Observer, as he died three weeks after being knocked over by a motorist. Both the driver, who had 14 years’ experience, and his witness, who had been keeping watch as he reversed, did not see John walking behind the car. They reported having no idea how he could have come to be walking behind the car. 

The inquest had no choice but to return a verdict of accidental death due to a lack of evidence. My great-grandfather was reported as being ‘rather deaf’ in the inquest, which may have contributed to him being unaware that the car was reversing towards him. I have no idea whether John may have had congenital deafness, which may be due to genetic factors which have also affected myself and other members, such as my cousin, or whether this was a result of old age. Perhaps I will find more evidence about this as I continue researching.  

Please see my next blog, where I will be talking about studying level 6 British Sign Language as part of my continued professional development.