Hill was born in Wooer's Alley,
Dunfermline, the daughter of Catherine McDiarmid (d. 1853) and Joseph Neil Paton (1797–1874), a damask designer. Her sister Jemima, born on 11 November 1823. Her brothers were artists
Joseph Noel Paton (1821–1901) and
Waller Hugh Paton (1828–1895). She appears to have trained as a sculptor under
William Brodie in Edinburgh. In 1862 she married the pioneer photographer
David Octavius Hill. She was his second wife. They lived in Edinburgh. His role as secretary of the
Royal Scottish Academy played a part in this. In 1861 they moved to
George Square, and in 1863 to Calton Stairs. In 1868 they set up home at Rock House, on the south-west corner of
Calton Hill near the southern entrance steps to the hill. Although they are famously connected with this address they lived here only two years. He died in 1870 and Amelia moved out of the house, to Newington Lodge. She placed a bronze bust of his likeness, sculpted by her own hands, on his grave. The 1891 census describes Hill as "sculptor, retired" but she exhibited at the
Royal Scottish Academy until 1902, aged 82. She died at her house, Newington Lodge, 38 Mayfield Terrace on 5 July 1904 aged 83. She was buried next to her husband in
Dean Cemetery, beneath her own sculpture of 34 years earlier. == Bicentenary ==