Sir William Hillary, 1st Baronet was a British militia officer, author and philanthropist, best known as the founder, in 1824, of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.
21 Facts About William Hillary
1.
2.
William Hillary left Liverpool at age 26, and travelled to Italy.
3.
William Hillary then travelled north with the incognito Prince, heading for Berlin.
4.
William Hillary had departed from Quaker beliefs, and his wife was not a Quaker.
5.
William Hillary 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.
6.
William Hillary quickly dissipated a large fortune, and had to sell properties including the old Yorkshire home of Rigg House.
7.
In 1813, William Hillary married a local Manx woman, Emma Tobin, daughter of Patrick Tobin, or Amelia Toben of Kirk Braddan, his first wife having died, according to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, which is however contradicted by other sources.
8.
Lady William Hillary, divorced from her husband by 1812, continued to live at Danbury Place until her father died, when she moved to Boulogne.
9.
William Hillary met Frances D'Arblay in Paris in 1817, while on a continental voyage with her children.
10.
William Hillary witnessed the wreck of HMS Racehorse, in 1822, only two months after he had been a participant in the rescue of HMS Vigilant.
11.
William Hillary drew up plans for a lifeboat service crewed by trained people, intended not only for the Isle of Man, but for all of the British coast.
12.
William Hillary proposed a national and voluntary organisation, and pointed out the potential of new techniques such as those introduced by William Congreve, Charles Cornwallis Dansey of the Royal Artillery, Frederick Marryat, and George William Manby.
13.
William Hillary appealed to London philanthropists including Thomas Wilson and George Hibbert of the West Indies merchants, and his plans were adopted.
14.
At the age of 60, William Hillary took part in the rescue, in 1830, of the crew of the packet St George, which had foundered on Conister Rock at the entrance to Douglas harbour.
15.
William Hillary commanded the lifeboat, was washed overboard with others of the lifeboat crew, yet finally everyone aboard the St George was rescued with no loss of life.
16.
John Tudor, wrote to Sir William Hillary expressing the gratitude of himself and his crew.
17.
The incident prompted William Hillary to set up a scheme to build the Tower of Refuge on Conister Rock.
18.
William Hillary had written a paper on the proposal before 1835, when formal proposals were put forward, and design plans drawn up by Sir John Rennie.
19.
William Hillary was one of the founders of the Order, and pressed for Sir Sidney Smith to be given a major post.
20.
William Hillary wrote on the project in the Morning Herald for 25 November 1841, as an "Address", published as a pamphlet.
21.
William Hillary died at Woodville, near Douglas, Isle of Man, on 5 January 1847.