Hi - I'm trying to trace family letters exchanged between Sarah Harris nee Hill, a daughter of the above couple, and other members of her family. William Hill Snr may possibly have had connections with Cornwall but his children are believed to have been born in Plymouth, Devon. The daughters were all educated, so presume their father William was reasonably well-off and enlightened for the times.
Known children of William Hill and his wife
1)William Hill Jnr - dates unknown but thought to be the eldest in the family
2) Elizabeth -dates unknown
2) Emma Jane Hill (1802-1866) unmarried- ran private schools for young ladies in Plymouth and Liskeard, Cornwall
3) Ann Mountjoy Hill (1804-1887). Married Francis William Paddon in Plymouth but moved to London after his death in 1860.
4) Sarah Hill (1806-1879) born Plymouth, married there in 1833 to Edwin Harris, who worked as a draughtsman at his brother-in-law James Meadows Rendel's Plymouth office (Rendel had married Edwin's sister Catherine). Sarah & Edwin emigrated to New Plymouth, New Zealand, in 1840 on thr barque "William Bryan". They lived for a time in New Plymouth but relocated to Nelson, New Zealand, after the outbreak of hostilities with Taranaki Maori around.1860.
Sarah and Edwin both sent regular letters to their families back home in England, which give significant detail about people and events in the new colony. Some of these letters have been found in the past and copies are now held by the Puke Ariki Museum in New Plymouth, New Zealand. In recent times a further cache has been discovered in the possession of a Harris family descendant in England and there are faint hopes that others might have been kept by members of the Hill family in England. It's a very long shot, but as we've seen, it is possible
Any help would be greatly appreciated by those of us in New Zealand researching the Harris-Hill family.
