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Thomas Wright Hill (Kidderminster
Kidderminster

Kidderminster is a town in the Wyre Forest District Council district of Worcestershire, England. It is located approximately seventeen miles south-west of Birmingham city centre....
 24 April 1763–Tottenham
Tottenham

Tottenham is an urban area of North London, England in the London Borough of Haringey, situated north-east of Charing Cross....
, 13 June 1851) was a schoolmaster and steganographer
Steganography

Steganography is the art and science of writing hidden messages in such a way that no-one apart from the sender and intended recipient suspects the existence of the message, a form of security through obscurity....
. He is credited as inventing the single transferable vote
Single transferable vote

The Single transferable vote is a voting system of preferential voting designed to minimize wasted votes and provide proportional representation while ensuring that votes are explicitly expressed for individual candidates rather than for party lists....
 in 1821. His son, Rowland Hill
Rowland Hill (postal reformer)

Sir Rowland Hill Order of the Bath Fellow of the Royal Society was a United Kingdom teacher and reform movement. He campaigned for a comprehensive reform of the postal system, based on the concept of Uniform Penny Post, and later served as a government postal official....
, famous as the originator of the modern postal system, introduced STV in 1840 into the world's first public election, for the Adelaide
Adelaide

Adelaide is the List of Australian capital cities and most populous city of the Australian States and territories of Australia of South Australia, and is the fifth-largest city in Australia, with a population of more than 1.1 million....
 City Council
City council

A city council is a form of local government, usually covering a city or other urban area, such as a town. The system of government has roots back at least to the Roman Empire....
, in which the principle of proportional representation was applied.

In 1791, Thomas Wright Hill courageously tried to save the apparatus of Dr Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley

Joseph Priestley was an 18th-century British theologian, English Dissenters clergyman, Natural philosophy, educator, and Political philosophy who published over 150 works....
 from a mob in the Birmingham 'Church and King' riots
Priestley Riots

The Priestley Riots took place from 14 July to 17 July 1791 in Birmingham, England; the rioters' main targets were English dissenters, most notably the politically and theologically controversial Joseph Priestley....
 of 1791 - the offer was declined.

In 1803 he bought a boys' school named Hill Top on Lionel Street, Birmingham
Birmingham

Birmingham is a city status in the United Kingdom and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. Birmingham is the most populous of England's English Core Cities Group, and is the List of United Kingdom cities by population British city after London, with a population of 1,010,200 ....
 and, in 1819, they moved to a new purpose-built school designed by Rowland at Hazelbrook called Hazelwood on Hagley Road in Edgbaston
Edgbaston

Edgbaston is an area in the city of Birmingham in England. It is also a Government of Birmingham, England#Districts, managed by its own district committee....
.






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Thomas Wright Hill (Kidderminster
Kidderminster

Kidderminster is a town in the Wyre Forest District Council district of Worcestershire, England. It is located approximately seventeen miles south-west of Birmingham city centre....
 24 April 1763–Tottenham
Tottenham

Tottenham is an urban area of North London, England in the London Borough of Haringey, situated north-east of Charing Cross....
, 13 June 1851) was a schoolmaster and steganographer
Steganography

Steganography is the art and science of writing hidden messages in such a way that no-one apart from the sender and intended recipient suspects the existence of the message, a form of security through obscurity....
. He is credited as inventing the single transferable vote
Single transferable vote

The Single transferable vote is a voting system of preferential voting designed to minimize wasted votes and provide proportional representation while ensuring that votes are explicitly expressed for individual candidates rather than for party lists....
 in 1821. His son, Rowland Hill
Rowland Hill (postal reformer)

Sir Rowland Hill Order of the Bath Fellow of the Royal Society was a United Kingdom teacher and reform movement. He campaigned for a comprehensive reform of the postal system, based on the concept of Uniform Penny Post, and later served as a government postal official....
, famous as the originator of the modern postal system, introduced STV in 1840 into the world's first public election, for the Adelaide
Adelaide

Adelaide is the List of Australian capital cities and most populous city of the Australian States and territories of Australia of South Australia, and is the fifth-largest city in Australia, with a population of more than 1.1 million....
 City Council
City council

A city council is a form of local government, usually covering a city or other urban area, such as a town. The system of government has roots back at least to the Roman Empire....
, in which the principle of proportional representation was applied.

In 1791, Thomas Wright Hill courageously tried to save the apparatus of Dr Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley

Joseph Priestley was an 18th-century British theologian, English Dissenters clergyman, Natural philosophy, educator, and Political philosophy who published over 150 works....
 from a mob in the Birmingham 'Church and King' riots
Priestley Riots

The Priestley Riots took place from 14 July to 17 July 1791 in Birmingham, England; the rioters' main targets were English dissenters, most notably the politically and theologically controversial Joseph Priestley....
 of 1791 - the offer was declined.

In 1803 he bought a boys' school named Hill Top on Lionel Street, Birmingham
Birmingham

Birmingham is a city status in the United Kingdom and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. Birmingham is the most populous of England's English Core Cities Group, and is the List of United Kingdom cities by population British city after London, with a population of 1,010,200 ....
 and, in 1819, they moved to a new purpose-built school designed by Rowland at Hazelbrook called Hazelwood on Hagley Road in Edgbaston
Edgbaston

Edgbaston is an area in the city of Birmingham in England. It is also a Government of Birmingham, England#Districts, managed by its own district committee....
. In 1821, he suggested the principle of proportional representation as it was informally practised in his school.

Enid Lakeman
Enid Lakeman

Enid Lakeman, OBE was a British political reformer, writer and politician, noted for her long-standing championship of the Single Transferable Vote system of elections....
 wrote in How Democracies Vote:
'...(Hill's) pupils were asked to elect a committee by standing beside the boy they liked best. This first produced a number of unequal groups, but soon the boys in the largest groups came to the conclusion that not all of them were actually necessary for the election of their favourite and some moved on to help another candidate, while on the other hand the few supporters of an unpopular boy gave him up as hopeless and transferred themselves to the candidate they considered the next best. The final result was that a number of candidates equal to the number required for the committee were each surrounded by the same number of supporters, with only two or three boys left over who were dissatisfied with all those elected. This is an admirable example of the use of STV.'


In 1827, Thomas Wright Hill moved the school to Bruce Castle, Tottenham
Tottenham

Tottenham is an urban area of North London, England in the London Borough of Haringey, situated north-east of Charing Cross....
, London.

Family

Thomas Wright Hill married Sarah Lea on 29 July 1791 at St Martin's Church, Birmingham and had at least 8 children:
  1. Matthew Davenport Hill
    Matthew Davenport Hill

    Matthew Davenport Hill was an England lawyer and penologist.He was born at Birmingham, where his father, Thomas Wright Hill, for long conducted a private school....
     (1792-1872), the criminal law reformer
  2. Edwin Hill (1793-1876), mechanical inventor and writer on currency
  3. Rowland Hill
    Rowland Hill (postal reformer)

    Sir Rowland Hill Order of the Bath Fellow of the Royal Society was a United Kingdom teacher and reform movement. He campaigned for a comprehensive reform of the postal system, based on the concept of Uniform Penny Post, and later served as a government postal official....
     (1795-1879), the postal reformer
  4. Arthur Hill (1798-1885), headmaster
  5. Caroline Hill (1800-1877)
  6. Frederick Hill (1803-ABT 1896), inspector of prisons, secretary of Post Office
  7. William Howard Hill (26 Jul 1805-1805)
  8. Sarah Hill (9 June 1807-12 June 1840)


Sources

  • Science and Education: A Note - W. H. G. Armytage, Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 12, No. 2 (Dec., 1957), pp. 226-229