Sir William Hillary, 1st Baronet

Sir William Hillary, 1st Baronet (4 January 1771 – 5 January 1847) was an English militia officer, author and philanthropist, best known as the founder, in 1824, of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution..

Hillary's background was Quaker, from a Yorkshire family: he was the son of the merchant Richard Hillary and his wife, Hannah Wynne. He left Liverpool at age 26, and travelled to Italy. From his contacts there, he became equerry to Prince Augustus Frederick, the young son of George III, and spent two years in the post.

While Hillary was in Naples, the Prince and Sir William Hamilton sent him on a mission to Malta where he saw the election (July 1797) of the last of the Grand Masters of the Knights of Malta, Ferdinand von Hompesch zu Bolheim.

Hillary then travelled north with the incognito Prince, heading for Berlin. After a period there, he left the Prince's employ and returned to London in the autumn of 1799.

He married Frances Elizabeth Disney Fytche (1st wife) on 21 February 1800. She was the daughter of Lewis Disney Fytche (originally Lewis Disney) of Danbury Place, Essex, and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of William Fytche. In the same year, their twins were born: a son Augustus William Hillary (d. 30 December 1855), and a daughter Elizabeth Mary. He had departed from Quaker beliefs, and his wife was not a Quaker.

He had been left property by John Scott, his father's business partner and nephew; and then inherited West Indian estates from his elder brother Richard, who died in 1803. He quickly dissipated a large fortune, and had to sell properties including the old Yorkshire home of Rigg House.

Hillary spent some £20,000, on creating the First Essex Legion, recruited largely from the Dengie Hundred and present-day Maldon District areas in Essex, after the end in 1803 of the Peace of Amiens, and was given the title Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant. The force numbered 1,400. He was rewarded with a baronetcy in 1805.

After experiencing financial troubles, Hillary settled at Fort Anne near Douglas, Isle of Man in 1808.

In 1813, Hillary married a local Manx woman, Emma Tobin, daughter of Patrick Tobin, or Amelia Toben of Kirkbradden, his first wife having died, according to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, which is however contradicted by other sources. Lady Hillary obtained a Scottish divorce from Sir William in 1812. Hillary's second marriage took place in Scotland, at Whithorn, then in Wigtonshire.

References

• WIKI William Hillary
• For an account of his family background, see Journal of the Friends Historical Society vol. 60, No.3 pp. 157–179 "Quakers of Countersett and their legacy" by Christopher Booth
• Janet Gleeson (15 February 2014). The Lifeboat Baronet: Launching the RNLI. History Press Limited. pp. 43 and 46. ISBN 978-0-7509-5471-6.

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WIKI Lewis Disney Fytche

" His daughter Frances Elizabeth married William Hillary."
"...In 1801 he [Lewis Disney Fytche] sold his estate Danbury Place to his son-in-law,
" Lady Hillary, divorced from her husband by 1812, continued to live at Danbury Place until her father died, then moving to Boulogne. [The Essex Review 57. 1948. p. 11]