Benjamin Hill was born in Nansemond County, Virginia in about 1697. A merchant, Hill resided in Bertie Preinct, North Carolina by about 1727. There he amassed considerable property and by 1741 he owned at least thirty enslaved people. He represented Bertie in the North Carolina Colonial Assembly from 1738 to 1740 and again from 1742 to 1746. In 1741, Hill was sued by fellow planter Samuel Scollay, who accused Hill of harboring one of Scollay's enslaved people, a man named Scipio. It appears Scipio may have come to Hill's plantation to live with his wife Dinah, as both Scipio, Dinah, and the couple's two children are mentioned in Hill's will. Hill died in Bertie in about June 1753.