Joseph Ralph Hill Sr, son of George & Maty Hills 1st married Rose Clark on July 22, 1624 in Great Burstead, Billericay, Essex, England. To this union,13 children were born:

Elizabeth, John, Steven, Sarah, Mary, Rebecca, Gershom, Mehitable, Joseph, James, Wayte, Hannah

Mehitable

They resided in Great Burnsted, and there his elder children were born. Not later than March, 1632, the family removed to Maldon, later to County Essex, which was the birthplace of sons, John and Steven, and daughter, Sarah. In 1638, Joseph Hills came to America on the ship, "Susan and Ellen," which arrived July 17 of that year at Boston in New England. His first abiding place was where the settlement of Charlestown was located by Governor Winthrop, between the Charles and Mystic rivers, and about the middle of the nineteenth century it became a city, and in 1870 it was annexed to Boston. The family dwelling was near the market place, but a few years later he was a resident of that part of the town north of the Mystic river, established his home on the Mystic side, on a farm of considerable size. He soon became active in public affairs; served as selectman of the town in 1644; in 1646 represented it in the General Court, as the Colonial Assembly was then named, and as its Legislature is still known under the Constitution of the State; re-elected in 1647, he was chosen speaker of the House of Deputies. When Mystic side was set off as a separate town, it was doubtless named by him for the place where he last dwelt in Old England, and this part of Charles- town is now known as the city of Maiden. He was Maiden's first deputy, and the town had no other representative until after 1664. In 1665 Maiden was not represented, Mr. Hills having removed to Newbury, on the Merrimac river, and in 1666 his son-in-law, John Waite, was his successor, and for nineteen years he filled this office, being speaker of the House of Deputies in 1684, and nominated as a magistrate in 1683. While a resident of Mystic side and Maiden, Mr. Hills was captain of the train band, and at his death he willed his buff coat to his son, Samuel, and his back sword to Henry Lunt, his step'son.

In 1645, Joseph Hills was the first named on a committee to set out lots to the settlers of Nashaway plantation; in 1648 he was the first of a committee of four to change the location of the highway between Winnesennet and Redding; in 1650 he was second of a committee of which the governor was chairman, appointed to draw up instructions for the Massachusetts delegates to a gathering where the commissioners of all the colonies shall meet; in 1653 he was one of the committee of six to consider the question "if the vinted collonges have power by the articles of agreement—to ingage in collonges in warre;" in 1654, with Captains Hawthorne and Johnson and the treasurer of the colony, he was appointed to frame a reply to the home government which had demanded an explanation of certain acts; three times, in 1650, 1653 and 1661, he was of committees to audit the treasury accounts. But his greatest public service was that of the leading member of the committee that in 1648 reported to the General Court the first codification of the laws of the colony, and the story of his part of the work is well told by one of his descendants, D. P. Cory, in his "History of Malden," published in that city in 1899. That he was the actual compiler of the laws, that he prepared the copy for the press and supervised their printing is clearly proved, and the colony recognized the great value of his work not only by a money payment but by a grant of five hundred acres of land on the Nashua river, now a part of Southern New Hampshire, and the remission of his taxes in his old age. But new laws were from time to time enacted and old ones changed, and "the courts finding by experience the great benefitt that doth redound to the country by putting of the laws into print, in 1649-50, 1653, 1654 and 1661 appointed committees as stated in the vote of the last named years, to peruse such laws as are un- printed and unrepealed and commit them

to the presse." For this work Joseph Hills had such prominence that his appointments to these committees were three times as numerous as those of any of his colleagues except Governor Bell- ingham who, notwithstanding his official position, was outranked by his less distinguished associate in the number of times he was designated for such service. Rose (Clark) Hills, the first wife of Joseph Hills, died at Malden, March 24,

2nd marriage 1650. He married (second), June 24,

1651, Hannah (Smith) Mellows, widow of Edward Mellows, of Charlestown, and she died about 1655. He 3rd married in January, 1656, Helen, Elline or Eleanor, daughter of Hugh Atkinson, of Kendall, Westmoreland, England, who died between the dates January 8, 1661, and November 10, 1662.

4th married March 8, 1665, at Newbury, Ann Lunt, the widow of Henry Lunt, of that town. He died at Newbury, February 5, 1688. Children of Joseph and Rose (Clark) Hills: Mary, Elizabeth, Joseph, James, John, Rebecca, Steven, Sarah, Gershom and Mehitable. Children of Joseph and Hannah (Mellows) Hills: Samuel, Nathaniel, Hannah. Children of Joseph and Helen (Atkinson) Hills: Deborah, Abigail.

He served as Captain in the Malden Military Company. He had in all 13 children.

He lived at the house of Henry Lunt in Newbury* after marrying Ann Lunt in 1664/5 He became totally blind in 1678 and died 1688 about 86 yrs old.

*Geographical Note - On January 28, 1764, the General Court of Massachusetts passed "An act for erecting part of the town of Newbury into a new town by the name of Newburyport."[

Note: Walt Disney is a descendant of Joseph and wife Rose, and Photographer Ansel Adams is a descendant of Joseph and wife Hannah.

Joseph Hill (Hills) and Rose Clarke (Cleerke) were married on July 22, 1624 in Great Burstead, Essex.

Their children:

Mary Hill (Hills) baptized November 25, 1625.

Elizabeth Hill (Hills) baptized October 21, 1627.

Joseph Hill (Hills) baptized August 2, 1629.

James Hill (Hills) baptized February 6, 1631.

John Hill (Hills) baptized March 21, 1632.

Rebecca Hill (Hills) baptized April 20, 1634.

Hannah Hill (Hills) baptized January 1635.

Stephen Hill (Hills) baptized May 1, 1636.

Sarah Hill (Hills) baptized August 14, 1637.

Gershom Hill (Hills) baptized July 27, 1639.

Mehitable Hill (Hills) baptized November 1, 1640.

Samuel Hill (Hills) baptized May 1652.

Nathaniel Hill (Hills) baptized December 19, 1653.

Deborah Hill (Hills) baptized March 1656.

Source:

The Hills family in America; the ancestry and descendants of William Hills, the English emigrant to Hills, William Sanford, 1826-

New York, The Grafton press, 1906.

History of the Hills Family, by Lyman De Platt

Some genealogists give the maiden name of his first wife as Rose Clerk or Clark, but I have found that Farmer, Savage and Pope as well as the Dunster Family Genealogy give it as Dunster and that she was a sister of Henry Dunster, whose will seems to make it plain that she was his sister.

The statement that Joseph Hills was an "undertaker" on the vessel "Susan and Ellen" is explained by one genealogist as meaning that he was a stockholder.

Children of Joseph Hills (No. 478) and Rose Dunster (No. 479), the first seven born Malden, Essex, England, the other two in Charlestown, Massachusetts:

Elizabeth, born 1626; married George Blanchard.

Mary, born 1627; married John Wayte.

Joseph, christened August 2, 1629; married Hannah Smith, November 1653.

John, born March 31, 1631; died June 28, 1652.

Rebecca (our ancestor), christened April 20, 1634; died June 6, 1674; married Thomas Greene.

Steven, born May 1, 1636.

Sarah, christened August 14, 1637; died August 15, 1637.

Gershon [given as Gershom, but the Bible spelling is as noted], born July 27, 1638.

Mehitable, born January 1, 1640-1641; died July 1653.

Children of Joseph Hills (No. 478) and Sarah Smith, both born at Malden, Massachusetts:

Samuel, born July 1652; died August 18, 1732.

Nathaniel, born December 19, 1653; died February 20, 1654.

Children of Joseph Hills (No. 478) and Helen Atkinson both born at Malden, Massachusetts:

Deborah, born March 1656-1657; died October 1, 1662.

Abigail, born October 6, 1658; died October 9, 1662.

Sources: Savage's Genealogical Dictionary. Early Settlers of America by Farmer. Pioneers of Massachusetts by Pope. Record of my Ancestry by Newhall. History of Malden, Massachusetts, by Corey, page 833. William Hills and Joseph Hills by J. H. Hills. Lancaster and Cheshire Antiquarian Society, Volume 27, page 84. Dunster Genealogy by Dunster. Greene Family. Charlestown Genealogies and Estates by Wyman, Volume 1, page 503. Family History by Green.