HILL, JOSEPH SYDNEY (1851-95) was born at Barnack, near Stamford, England, the son of a builder. Orphaned at the age of nine, he entered a working school at Haverstock Hill and at 14 was apprenticed to a trade. The Rev Alexander Burton, of Trinity Church, Southampton, persuaded him to study for the ministry, and he passed his examinations after two years at Reading College and a further course at the C.M.S. College at Islington. There he met and married Lucilla Leachman. Ordained at St Paul's (1876), he proceeded to Lagos, but was soon compelled by fever to return to England, and was appointed to the cure of Holy Trinity, Richmond. In 1878 he was sent by the C.M.S. to New Zealand, where he worked with great success amongst the Maori in Hawke's Bay and Auckland. He was also a strong supporter of the Y.M.C.A. in Auckland. In 1890 Hill returned to England and was engaged in home mission work until 1893, when he was consecrated as Bishop of West Equatorial Africa in succession to Bishop Crowther. He and his wife died of fever in the Niger diocese on 9 Jan 1894.

Biography by Rose E. Faulkner, 1895 (p); N.Z. Herald, 24 Feb 1894, 9 Mar 1895.

Reference: Volume 1, page 211

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