William Hill & Son
organ builders 1829-1916
William Hill & Son was one of the main organ builders in England during the 19th century.
The founder
William Hill was born in Spilsby, Lincolnshire, in 1789. He married Mary, the daughter of organ-builder Thomas Elliot, on 30 October 1818 in St Pancras Parish Church, and worked for Thomas Elliott from 1825. The company was known as Elliott and Hill until Elliott died in 1832.
After William Hill's death in 1870 at his home near Regents Park he was buried in Highgate cemetery in north London. A memorial window was installed in the church at Spilsby, Lincolnshire.
The company
On Elliot's death in 1832, William Hill inherited the firm. In 1837, he formed a partnership with Frederick Davison, who left in the following year to form a partnership with John Gray, Gray and Davison.
From 1832, William Hill's elder son William joined him in the firm. From 1855, William Hill's younger son Thomas joined the company and took control after his father's death in 1870.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “William Hill & Son” as organ builders 1829-1916. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as organ builders 1829-1916. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16994056. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1789, 1818, 1825 and 1832.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “William Hill & Son”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow William Hill & Son primary sources, William Hill & Son archive and William research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “William Hill & Son”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “William Hill & Son” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.