On October 1, 1830, the couple set sail along with Mr. Bingham, a printer and the Rev. John Jacob Robertson and his wife Julia. They arrived in
Malta on November 16. Robertson had been the minister who had originally proposed a foreign mission to the church. From Malta, they proceeded that same day to
Smyrna making their way to
Tenos, where they would remain until spring due to the ongoing conflict in Athens during the
Greek struggle against the
Ottoman Empire. On May 26, 1831, the group left the island and made their way to
Athens, their original destination. By July 18, they had found suitable accommodations for Hill to establish a
school for girls, as Athens was in ruins due to the war. She began with twenty pupils, who studied in the basement of the house she and her husband occupied in
Plaka, near the
Ancient Agora of Athens. Within two months enrollment at the school had increased to 167 pupils, ranging in age from three to eighteen years old. It was the only school in Greece offering education to women at that time and from the beginning, the girls' schools were under the direction of Hill, while her husband supervised the boys' education. While the two husbands returned to Smyrna on missionary business, in September, Hill and Mrs. Robertson remained in Athens and taught at the school. Robertson was in charge of teaching
needle skills to the girls, while Hill attended to their recitation and reading skills, using the Bible as their main text book. The girls also studied
geography, spelling, writing and mathematics. The girls were divided into three groups, the elementary school, a trade school to teach those students who would need to earn a living industrial skills and a teacher training school. Within eighteen months, Mrs. Robertson withdrew from active participation because of her growing family, leaving Hill, as the only teacher for girls at the facility. Hill's goal was to use local girls to serve as
under-teachers to assist with instruction; however, as there were only two schools teaching girls in Greece, the other being on the island of
Syros, she found she had to train the teachers before she could employ them. By 1834, Hill had received the approval of the Greek government for the
normal school, the only such facility in operation. Three assistant teachers, Elizabeth and Frederica Mulligan and Mary B. Baldwin had been sent by the Missionary Board and were assisting with teaching the school in 1836. In 1837, Hill founded a boarding school for paying students of wealthy Greek families. The students were housed in a wing of the mission house and had 70 enrollees. Continuing her supervision of all the female students, Hill also oversaw the boys' education during 1841, when her husband took an extended trip to the United States. During that time, she also maintained all the mission duties. In 1842, an attack against the mission and Rev. Hill was launched by an editor of
The Age, a newspaper in Athens. Investigation by an ecclesiastical commission appointed by the Synod of the Kingdom, cleared the Hills of any anti-Greek actions, as were alleged by the paper. The editor then attacked the Synod, as well as the Archbishop of Argos, for support of the missionaries and its editor was prosecuted by the government. The strain of managing the mission and the subsequent allegations of wrongdoing caused Hill to suspend the school for girls for the remainder of the year, retiring to the countryside to regain her health. She was sent an official communique from the Secretary of State, of the government's satisfaction with her efforts to educate Greek girls and returned to the school in November with a class of 500 students. These students were the pupils of the kindergarten, elementary school for girls and the industrial training classes for girls. The boarding school, normal school, and boys' schools were not reopened. In late 1843, the Mission Board determined that they would suspend the mission in Athens, but an onslaught of support from organizations and individuals reversed their decision, allowing the girls' school to continue. Hill continued to manage the school until her husband retired from mission work in 1869. Rather than stop teaching, she then organized the Hill Institute, a private normal school. She continued to assist Marian Muir, who had taken over operation of the mission schools. ==Death and legacy==