Hill was ed­u­cat­ed at Shrews­bu­ry Gram­mar School, Eton, and St. John’s Coll­ege, Cam­bridge (BA 1769). Tak­ing Ho­ly Or­ders, he was for a time Cur­ate of Kings­ton, near Taun­ton. Leav­ing there, but with­out re­noun­cing his Or­ders or his con­nect­ion with the Church of Eng­land, he served as an itin­er­ant preach­er for twelve years, most­ly in Wilt­shire, Glou­ces­ter­shire, Som­er­set­shire, and Lon­don. At Wot­ton-un­der-Edge, he built a cha­pel where he oft­en preached. He al­so opened the Sur­rey Cha­pel in Lon­don in 1783; it was there he min­is­tered for near­ly 50 years.

Hill took great in­ter­est in evan­gel­ism and mis­sions, and helped found the Lon­don Mis­sion­a­ry So­ci­e­ty. He was al­so on the first com­mit­tee of the Re­li­gious Tract So­ci­e­ty. The au­thor of sev­er­al prose works, Hill com­piled the fol­low­ing hym­nals:

• A Col­lec­tion of Psalms and Hymns for the Use of the Poor, 1774
• A Col­lec­tion of Psalms and Hymns, Chief­ly In­tend­ed for Pub­lic Wor­ship, 1783. This was en­larged in 1787, and a Sup­ple­ment add­ed in 1796; other re­vi­sions fol­lowed, the last in 1830.
• Divine Hymns At­temp­ted in Ea­sy Lang­uage for the Use of Child­ren, 1790; se­cond edi­tion, 1794; later edi­tions in 1808 & 1819.
• A Col­lec­tion of Hymns for Child­ren, 1808
• Hymns for Schools, 1832

Except for his 1790 child­ren’s Hymns, his works do not show the au­thor­ship of the in­di­vid­u­al hymns. Those in the list below are gen­er­al­ly at­trib­ut­ed to him.

• Julian, pp. 130, 214, 222, 249, 259, 360, 409, 523, 537, 1565, 1590
• Robinson, pp. 374-75

1. Come, Ho­ly Ghost, the Com­fort­er
2. Cast Thy Bur­den on the Lord
3. Dear Friend of Friend­less Sin­ners
4. Exalted High at God’s Right Hand
   • Lo! Round the Throne a Glor­i­ous Band
   • Lo! Round the Throne at God’s Right Hand
5. Happy the Child­ren Who Be­times
6. Lord, We Raise Our Fee­ble Voic­es
7. My Par­ents Gave Me, Lord
8. We Sing His Love, Who Once Was Slain
9. When Je­sus First at Hea­ven’s Com­mand
10. With Hea­ven­ly Pow­er, O Lord De­fend
11. Ye That in His Courts Are Found