Robert Keate Hill

Awarded part of the compensation for Strawberry Hill in Port Royal Jamaica with his wife, Fidelia (née Munkhouse), one of the nieces of Arthur Savage, the deceased owner of the estate.

1. Arthur Savage of Arthur Savage & Co. Kingston Jamaica, a merchant and coffee planter of Strawberry Hill died c. 1815 and after specific bequests to among others his nieces left his residual estate to his sister Faith (later Fidelia, who married the Rev. Richard Munkhouse), and to two natural sons, Arthur and Richard by Jane Bowie: his will also provided for them to be educated in England.  The first Arthur Savage was the son of an American loyalist, in turn also Arthur, who was originally a merchant 'in the West India way' in Boston. The London merchant firm of Bird, Savage & Bird was clearly connected to the family given the evidence of naming practices including 'Bird'  among the children of Faith/Fidelia Munkhouse.      

2. 'A lieut[enan] in the Royal Navy'. Robert Keate Hill son of William and Elizabeth Hill born 23/03/1798, baptised 08/05/1798 Westminster. Married Fidelia Munkhouse 24/07/1830 St Dunstan in the West, City of London.

3. The couple moved to Jamaica 'shortly after' their wedding [although they were identified as of London in their claim]. In the mid-1830s they travelled to Australia 'on the understanding that Robert Hill would be given a position in the new colony of South Australia.' They were in Adelaide 1836-1838, then, Hill having died, Fidelia remarried in Tasmania, where she died in 1854. Hill's 'Poems and recollections of the past' (Sydney, 1840) were the first volume of poetry by a woman published in Australia.

T71/864 Port Royal no. 9, which identifies Robert Keate Hill & uxor as 'London'.

1. Lawrence Park, Thomas Savage of Boson and his descendants (Boston: David Clapp & Son, 1914), pp. 28-30.

2. Ibid. p. 29; Ancestry.com, England and Wales Christening Records, 1530-1906 [database online]; Ancestry.com, London, England, Marriages and Banns, 1754-1921 [database online].

3. Australian Poetry Library, 'Fidelia S. T. Hill (1794-1854), http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/hill-fidelia-s-t [accessed 09/05/2012]. This site describes Robert Keate Hill as 'a captain in the service of the East India Company.'