Richard William Hiley

Richard William Hiley was born in Leeds in 1824. He was the son of Richard Hiley and the brother of Alfred Hiley - see previous posts. 

He entered St Mary Hall in the University of Oxford and graduated with a B.A. in 1852 and an M.A. the following year. He taught at the Liverpool Collegiate Institute, was ordained Deacon and licenced to the curacy of St Luke's, and then ordained Priest in 1854.

In 1861 he bought Thorparch Grange, a school with 41 boys aged 10 to 17, from his father. Two years later he succeeded his father-in-law as Vicar of  the nearby village of Wighill, appointing his brother Alfred as curate. In 1885 he became a Doctor of Divinity and a Bachelor of Divinity. He retired from Thorparch in 1891 after 30 years as Principal, and retired as Vicar of Wighill in 1910 after 47 years in that post.

Richard William married Isabella Jessop in 1861 and the couple had 9 children. He died at Boston Spa in 1912 and was buried in the churchyard at Wighill. 

Like his father, Richard William wrote a number of books, including three volumes of  'A Year's Sermons', based upon some of the Scriptures for each Sunday morning, and an autobiography 'Memories of Half a Century'.

Obituary in The Birmingham Post

In his autobiography Richard William stated that his father's ancestors came from Poole in Dorset and that one of them entertained King Charles. Previous posts have featured the 'Poole Hileys' but there is still no confirmation as to where this connection lies.

Sir Ernest Haviland Hiley

This is the next post in the series on notable Hileys.

Ernest Haviland Hiley was born in 1870 in Richmond, Surrey. His parents were Reverend Walter Hiley and Henrietta Jemima Stuart Forbes. 

He usually went by his middle name of Haviland and worked in railways all his life. He worked for the Great Northern Railway and then the London and North Eastern Railway, and in 1913 became General Manager of the Government Railways in New Zealand. He was awarded the C.B.E. in 1919 for services rendered in connection with the war.

He was a member of a number of Commissions including the Indian Government Commission on Administration and the Royal Commission on the local government of Greater London.

In 1925 he became the Railways Adviser to the Rhodesian Government and then Chairman of the Rhodesian Commission. In 1928 he was awarded the K.B.E. 

Ernest Haviland died in Cambridge in 1943.

Sir Ernest Haviland Hiley 1870-1943

'Railway Hiley'

Ernest Haviland Hiley married Brenda Lee Lord and the couple had two children, including Peter, another notable Hiley who will be the subject of a post shortly.

The family tradition is that Ernest was descended from the 'Poole Hileys', members of which have appeared in recent posts, but the exact connection has yet to be established.

Haviland Hiley, wealthy merchant of Poole

Haviland Hiley (1601-1669) was the father of Peter (see post of 4th March ) and son of William Hiley (see post of 12th February).

Haviland served three times as Mayor of Poole. His first spell in 1641 coincided with the outbreak of the Civil War and Haviland was therefore Poole's spokesman when the town allied itself with Parliament.

Copy of portrait of Haviland Hiley
Poole History Centre, origin unknown

In 1645 there was an outbreak of the plague in Poole and the people faced starvation. Some townsmen, including Haviland, rode to neighbouring towns to ask for help and donations in money and kind. Later that year the town clerk of Poole, Richard Bramble, wrote a letter of thanks to the parishioners of Christchurch for their charitable gift to Poole during the plague. Haviland Hiley was one of the signatories of the letter:

In 1652 Haviland and George Phillips bought Upton Farm near Poole. The estate at Upton is one of the oldest sites in Poole and the Hileys were to remain owners for the next 150 years. The final owner was William Hiley (1761-1819) who sold the estate to William Spurrier, a Poole merchant.

A tax assessment of 1662 shows that Haviland Hiley was probably one of the richest men in the town. Brewing was probably his main business. In High Street he owned a mansion house, brewhouse and garden, the Bull Head Inn, and another house down the street at Cole Corner. He also owned tenements in Market Street and Strand Street, three closes and other land, besides any property holdings outside Poole which would not be included in the assessment.
(The National Archives (TNA) PRO E179/245/24)

There are two memorials to Haviland in St James's church in Poole. At the east end of the south aisle:

                                                                

Underneath lyeth buried Havelland Hiley, Esquire

Mayor of this towne and county

of Poole,

Obit anno Domini 1669

On the South wall a black marble monument:

Here resteth in hope of a joyful resurrection the body of Havelland Hiley, merchant, who was three times mayor of this town and county, and chosen a fourth, left this life for a better the 19th day of September, in the 69th year of his age, A.D. 1699 Memento mori

With thanks to Jenny Oliver for her help and permission to use some of her research on Haviland Hiley.

Peter Hiley, who entertained King Charles II

Peter Hiley (1631-1672) was the son of Haviland Hiley (1601-1669), and a grandson of William Hiley who featured in the post of 12th February 2022.

Peter was Mayor of Poole in 1662 and 1669. His father Haviland had been Mayor in 1641, 1649 and 1660.

The plaque in Poole to commemorate the visit of Charles II
 

In 1665 King Charles II honoured the town of Poole with a royal visit. Because of the plague Charles's court had removed from London, first to Hampton and then to Salisbury. A great many local people and dignitaries attended and the visit was well received. A dinner was provided for the King at the house of Peter Hiley which was set apart for that purpose. The house was situated in the cornmarket but it is no longer standing. 

King Charles II, the 'Merry Monarch'

John Sydenham in  'The History of the town and county of Poole', first published in 1839, writes that :

A part of his wardrobe was left by his majesty on this occasion, which has now been preserved by the Hiley family, and is now in the possession of its lineal representative, Charles Hiley, esq., of Planefield Lodge.

Peter Hiley was a merchant, shipowner, property owner and brewer. When he died in 1673, an inventory was taken of his High Street house and its contents. The total value of his assets was nearly £1600, a huge sum in those days. Among the items listed in the inventory were:

five fat pigs  £10/0/0

five sixteenths of the ship 'Happy Return'  £100/0/0

forty old beer casks  £3/0/0

two bedsteads, one bed and covering, and four bushels of beans £1/10/0

twenty dozen of worsted stockings  £20/0/0

due for fish on the ship Rachel  £47/9/5

With thanks to Jenny Oliver for permission to use some of her material from the Poole High Street Project.

Mary Hiley (1722-1778) mother of a Prime Minister

Mary Hiley was the great great granddaughter of William and Eleanor (see the last post). Mary was born in Fringford in Oxfordshire in 1722. She was one of the seven children of  the Reverend Dr. Haviland John Hiley and Eleanor (nee Terrell). In 1745 Mary married Anthony Addington, also from Fringford, in the St Mary At Hill church in London.

  

Dr Anthony Addington
Royal Physician 

Anthony Addington's career as a physician attracted considerable public attention when he appeared as an expert for the prosecution of Mary Blandy for the poisoning of her father Francis Blandy in 1752. He was elected a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1756.  He obtained a good general practice and a special reputation for the treatment of mental disorders, and built a house next to his own for the reception of his insane patients. He devoted his attention particularly to the treatment of insanity, and was one of the physicians called in to see George III when he first showed symptoms of mental illness.

Memorial to Anthony and Mary in Fringford church

Mary is mentioned in 'A chronicle of the ancient and noble Norman family of De Havilland : originally of Haverland in Cotentin Normandy, now of Guernsey, including the English branches of Havelland of Dorsetshire, now extinct, Haviland of Hawkesbury, Gloucestershire, also extinct : and Haviland of Somersetshire with the documentary evidences by Havilland, John von Sonntag de, 1826-1886.

The Doctor married Miss Mary Hiley................and to his marriage with Miss Hiley may the Doctor's surprising success in life be primarily attributed.

Dux femina facti  (A woman was the author of the achievement)

Henry Addington, Prime Minister

Mary and Anthony had nine children. Amongst these was Henry, born in 1757. Henry studied law at the University of Oxford and became an MP in 1784. He was elected Speaker of the House of Commons in 1789 and became Prime Minister in 1801, serving for three years. During his term, Parliament overhauled the whole tax system and Addington secured the Treaty of Amiens with France. He was elevated to the House of Lords as the 1st Viscount Sidmouth in 1805. 

William Hiley, Minister of God's Word, Rector of Poole

This year we will start looking at Hiley families that originated in places other than Yorkshire. The posts this month are about some members of a Hiley family who are first mentioned in Poole in Dorset in the 16th century.

William Hiley became Rector of Poole in 1582. He followed Richard Marcan who had been Rector in 1581, and was succeeded by Nicholas Jeffrey after his death in 1611.

We do not know where William came from. There seem to be no records of Hileys in the Poole area before 1582 so he may have come from outside Dorset. At this time the only universities in England and Wales were Oxford and Cambridge, and the main subjects taught were the classics and theology. If William received a university education he may well have attended one of these two universities. He may have come from a humble background and was looking to move up in the world and prepared to move to a completely different part of the country to pursue his profession.

William married Eleanor Haviland on 9th November 1585 in Poole. Eleanor was the daughter of  Christopher and Cecilia (nee Mann) Haviland. The Havilands were a very prominent family at this time. Originally from Normandy they had lived in Guernsey in the Channel Islands for many years. Christopher settled in Poole in about the year 1540.

William and Eleanor had ten children - Susanna, Samuel, Israel, Jenifer, Elizabeth, Peter, Temperance, Haviland, James and Hester. William died on 22 June 1611 and was buried eight days later at St James's Church in Poole. 

The original church was built in 1142. It was demolished and rebuilt starting in 1819. The pictures show the old church and the present one. 

William must have been an important person in the life of the town of Poole.

Stirring times were those that William Hiley saw. He became Rector in 1582 and died 1611. He saw the beacons on Worborow and the Purbecks flare for the Armada, and rising to the greatness of the occasion, urged the men, that needed little urging for such a task, for they were Englishmen, to join in death grips with Spain, for the freedom of their land, and their conscience. Little need of urging, indeed, when as Froude says, "from Lyme, and Weymouth, and Poole, and the Isle of Wight, young lords and gentlemen came streaming out in every smack or sloop that they could lay hold of, to snatch their share of danger and glory at Howard's side." And so Hiley saw depart "The Castell of Comforte," "The Grace of God," "The Stetts," "Bounauenter," and many besides, (such names are found among the lists of shipping referred to above), and cheered on the hardy sons of Poole, who hastened to join the fray so nobly begun off Plymouth, and still waxing more and more furious. 

Then to watch from the heights the straggling line of the Spaniards, to note the flash of the guns, in the action off the Wight, and to listen to the sullen roar, that told of danger and death to those bold adventurers. What a day of suspense that Thursday, August 4th (n.s.), 1588! The Rector found men praying then as they had never prayed before, and had, doubtless, much to do, striving to comfort the wives that might even then be widows, and children that might never see their fathers more.

(Poole Church and its Rectors by H Lawrence Phillips, Rector of Poole, published in 1915)

........ on the appointment of William Hiley in 1582, the Corporation built a new parsonage house for him and William Hiley remained as Rector of Poole for the rest of his life. In fact the 29 years of William Hiley's rectorship of Poole was a most significant period in national and religious history. It was during his curacy that the Warbarrow Beacons were lit to signify the approach of the Spanish Armada. It was, too, William Hiley, as Rector of Poole, who received the very first copy of the authorised version of the Bible for use in St James.

(Mansions and Merchants of Poole and Dorset - Poole Historical Trust)