I was born [Jan. 16, 1838] in (Awful Lane?) Manchester, Lancashire, England and know very little about my ancestry as I left England when a small child. What I know is from childhood recollections and from the things my mother told me.

My father James Hill died at the age of twenty-seven years. He was a rider of some note, having won a silver cup for the best horsemanship, also many other trophies and large sums of money. He was a member of the Church of England and I have his prayer book. At the time of his death there were a great many grave robberies in England and to prevent the body from being dug up my mother had the body placed in a vault. On the coffin was an inscription bearing his name, birth and death date.

It is my understanding that my father's father was named William Hill. He had a small piece of land and raised vegetables and flowers for the market. His wife was named Elizabeth. They are said to have had nine daughters, three of them were named Mary, Martha, and Elizabeth.

My mother was Mary Yarwood, the youngest of her family. She was born in Lower Peover, Cheshire, England, 25 March 1807, and died 30 March 1892 at her home in North Ogden, Weber, Utah. She was the daughter of Samuel Yarwood who died the year I was born. He owned quite a large estate with seven fields. His wife was Esther Filsher who came of well-to-do parentage. My mother, as a consequence of the position of her people was given a fair education and for a time taught a small school in her home in North Ogden.

Mother had two sisters who were-Elizabeth whose husband was a British admiral, and Hannah who married John Kinder. Her brothers were-Strethill, Samuel, George, and Joseph.

I had one brother older than I who died before I was born. His exact birth date is not known to me, but I think he was quite young when he died.

Mother was among the early converts to join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and while in England she kept the Elders at her home. Among them were Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball. Her brother Samuel Yarwood, his wife, daughter Mary, son-in-law George White, and a little son of the daughter Mary, with mother and myself left England with a company of Saints about six weeks after the death of my father. The company was quite large and on account of a big storm we were held in the Irish Channel three weeks. Finally the storm cleared and we began our voyage to America. We were three weeks crossing the Atlantic Ocean and landed in New Orleans.

From New Orleans we took a boat up the Mississippi and landed at Nauvoo. Not long after our arrival a fever broke out among the Saints and of those to take it were my uncle Samuel and his family. All of them died and were buried at Montrose, Iowa. . . . [p.1]

BIB: Hill, William John [Autobiography] (Mss. B-289, bx 4, p.1), Utah State Historical Society.
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