Rowland Hill (preacher) - Death and Legacy

Death and Legacy

Rowland Hill died in London on 11 April 1833 and was initially buried below his pulpit at the Surrey Chapel. He was succeeded at Surrey Chapel by James Sherman, whose tenure later passed to Christopher Newman Hall. Under Newman Hall, Rowland Hill's coffin was removed from Surrey Chapel and laid to rest at the Lincoln Memorial Tower, Westminster Bridge Road – part of a complex of Congregational buildings that included a new premises for the meeting hall named Hawkstone Hall which had been founded by James Sherman in memory of Rowland Hill and his birthplace.

Rowland Hill's pulpit was also removed from Surrey Chapel when the congregation moved to Christ Church, and in later years a bronze plaque was affixed by Frederick Brotherton Meyer commemorating Rowland Hill and his sucecssor, James Sherman. Christ Church was bombed during the Second World War, and the memorial plaque salvaged, to be re-erected in 1959 in the replacement building for Christ Church which stands today.

A portrait of Rowland Hill (Reference NPG 5397) by Samuel Mountjoy Smith in 1828 hangs in the National Portrait Gallery, London.