FRANCES M. HILL (1799-1884)

FRANCES M. HILL (1799 - 1884)

The daughter of New York City lawyer John W. Mulligan, Frances M. Hill and her husband, the Rev. John H. Hill, joined the Episcopal Church’s movement in 1831 to aid members of the Greek Orthodox Church following the Greek War of Independence. Sent to Athens by the Board of Missions of the Episcopal Church, the Rev. Hill opened a school for boys and Mrs. Hill opened a very successful school for girls. By the time of her death from pneumonic fever, over 5,000 girls had passed under her instruction.

Written before her death, an article on Mrs. Hill appears in Sarah Hale’s Woman’s Record in the section about benefactresses. An excerpt from a letter Mrs. Hill wrote demonstrates the benefits of her school for Greek women:

“We have seen the powerful effect of a good and virtuous education overcoming the custom of ages, and the power of Mammon. Many parents who have had no other dowry to bestow upon their daughters but this – ‘that they had been educated in our schools,’ – have married their daughters to men of education and good sense, able to support them well – and we have seen their mothers coming to us with tears of gratitude, acknowledging the lasting benefits conferred by education ….” (p. 869)

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Sarah J. Hale, ed. Woman’s Record (New York, 1853), p. 868; also 1855 ed.	FRANCES M. HILL (1799 - 1884) The daughter of New York City lawyer John W. Mulligan, Frances M. Hill and her husband, the Rev. John H. Hill, joined the Episcopal Church’s movement in 1831 to aid members of the Greek Orthodox Church following the Greek War of Independence. Sent to Athens by the Board of Missions of the Episcopal Church, the Rev. Hill opened a school for boys and Mrs. Hill opened a very successful school for girls. By the time of her death from pneumonic fever, over 5,000 girls had passed under her instruction. Written before her death, an article on Mrs. Hill appears in Sarah Hale’s Woman’s Record in the section about benefactresses. An excerpt from a letter Mrs. Hill wrote demonstrates the benefits of her school for Greek women: “We have seen the powerful effect of a good and virtuous education overcoming the custom of ages, and the power of Mammon. Many parents who have had no other dowry to bestow upon their daughters but this – ‘that they had been educated in our schools,’ – have married their daughters to men of education and good sense, able to support them well – and we have seen their mothers coming to us with tears of gratitude, acknowledging the lasting benefits conferred by education ….” (p. 869) Next>