Name Matthew Hill Siblings Rowland Hill | Nephews Rowland Hill | |
Died June 7, 1872, Stapleton, Bristol, United Kingdom People also search for Thomas Wright Hill, John Augustus, Rowland Hill, Edwin Hill Books Address Delivered at the Birmingham & Midland Institute, on the 30th September, 1867 | ||
Matthew Davenport Hill (6 August 1792 – 7 June 1872) was an English lawyer and penologist.
Contents
Life
He was born at Birmingham, where his father, Thomas Wright Hill, for long conducted the private schools Hazelwood and Bruce Castle. He was a brother of the postal reformer Sir Rowland Hill and the prison inspector Frederic Hill. He acted as assistant in his father's school, but in 1819 was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn. In 1832 he was elected one of the Liberal Members of Parliament for Kingston upon Hull, but he lost his seat at the next election in 1834. On the incorporation of Birmingham in 1839 he was chosen recorder; and in 1851 he was appointed commissioner in bankruptcy for the Bristol district. Taking an interest in questions relating to the treatment of criminal offenders, he publicly aired opinions which were the means of introducing many important reforms in the methods of dealing with crime, drawing notably upon the theories of the Scottish penal reformer, Alexander Maconochie. His book Mettray (1855) describes the Mettray Penal Colony with its then new approach to dealing with young delinquents.
One of his principal coadjutors in these reforms was his brother Frederic Hill (1803–1896), whose Amount, Causes and Remedies of Crime, the result of his experience as inspector of prisons for Scotland. marked an era in the methods of prison discipline. Hill was one of the chief promoters of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, and the originator of the Penny Magazine. He died at Stapleton, near Bristol. Two of his daughters wrote an early biography in 1878.
Family
He married Margaret in 1819. Their children were Rosamond Davenport Hill, Alfred Hill born in 1821, Florence Davenport Hill who was also born in Chelsea in 1828, Matthew Berkeley Hill and Joanna Margaret Hill who was born in Hampstead in 1836/7.
Works
His principal works are: