Hon. Whitmel Hill resided in this county. He was distinguished for his devotion to the cause of liberty, a man of strong natural sense and of cultivated mind. He was born in Bertie on the 12th Feburary 1743, son of John and Martha Hill, and was educated at the University of Pennsylvania, at which he graduated.
He early entered with great earnestnes into the dubious and dangerous conflict between England and America, and threw into the scale of liberty his “life, his fortune, and his sacred honor.”
In 1775, he was a delegate from Martin to the Assembly of Freemen at Hillsboro’, and was in the State Congress in Halifax in April, 1776, which placed the State in military organization, and, in Nov., 1776, which fomed our present State Constitution. In 1778 he was delegated to the Continental Congress at Philadelphia, and served until 1871.
He resided at Hill’s Ferry, in Martin County, near the Halifax line, where he died, 26th September, 1797. He was a man of fine literary attainments, a devoted patriot, and useful citizen. He married Winifred Blount, of Chowan, by whom he had three sons, Joseph, John and Thomas Blount, and one daughter, Elizabeth. Joseph and John died young without issue. Thomas B. Hill left a large family of children and grandchildren, among whom is Whitmel B. Hill, Esq., of Halifax, Mrs. Spruill, and others. His daughter Elizabeth married John Anthony, of Philadelphia, from whom a large family has sprung.
Source: Wheeler, John H. Historical Sketches of North Carolina: From 1584 to 1851, Compiled from Original Records, Official Documents and Traditional Statements : with Biographical Sketches of Her Distinguished Statemen, Jurists, Lawyers, Soldiers, Divines, Etc. Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo and Co, 1851. http://books.google.com/books?id=vEgOAAAAIAAJ.