Abraham Hill ( 1633 - 1721 )

Birth: 18 April 1633 Baptism: St Dionis Backchurch, London, England, United Kingdom, Europe (16 June 1635) Death: 5 February 1721 Burial: The chancel of Sutton-at-Hone Church, Kent, England, United Kingdom, Europe (14 February 1721) Occupation: Merchant; administrator Research field: Antiquities; languages; natural philosophy Education: Taught himself several languages and natural and moral philosophy Career: Entered his father's merchant business and inherited a legacy on death of his parents (1660); purchased the lease of St John's or 'Sutton Manor' estate, Kent (1660) and introduced apples and pears to the estate, for making cider and perry; colleague and sometime scientific confidant of Robert Hooke FRS; Assistant to the Royal African Company (1683-1685, 1688-1690); Deputy Governor (1691-1692); Commissioner for Trade, Board of Trade (1696-1702); Comptroller to John Tillotson, Archbishop of Canterbury (1691-1694); collected coins and books; retired to his estate of St. John's in Sutton-at-Hone, Kent (1689) Membership: Founder Fellow Election Date: 28/11/1660 (Present at foundation meeting) Council: 1663-1666, 1672-1721; Treasurer 1663-1665, 1679-1700; VP 1715-1716 Secretary 1673-1675 Committees/Panels: Committee for the quicksilver experiment (1661); Committee to examine Birchensa's synopsis of music (1662); to review Mersenne on the tenacity of bodies (1662); for the making of statutes (1663); to consider experiments for the entertainment of Charles II (1664), for ordinary meetings (1676, 1680); for agriculture, histories of trade, correspondence, experiments on diving (1664, 1679); for the Repository (1666); for the inventory of the Society’s possessions (1676); for the prism experiment in the Newton-Linus dispute (1676); for publication (1676, 1682); for the purchase of property (1678-81, 1703); for the history of Barbados (1681); for verifying entries in the Society’s journal and other books (1682); for the publication of the History of Fishes (1685-86) (14); for Estruscan inscriptions (1700); of Visitors of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich (1710); for the Newton-Leibnitz controversy (1712); to draw up queries to be sent to Moscow (1713).