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A stocky, fair-haired German who spoke English badly, the Bounty cooper was 5'7" tall, fair complexion, sandy hair, strong made. His left arm was notably shorter than the other, having been broken when he was quite young. He was tattooed in several places.

Hillbrant was one of the very first to run afoul of Captain Bligh, and in this case, contrary to most others, it might well not have been through any fault of his own. Hillbrant, as will be seen later, was a talkative person and very likely not able to keep secrets well. When the cheese rations were found to be short, it was Hillbrant, the cooper who had the responsibility for the barrels of provisions, who blurted out that he had seen Samuel, the clerk, take the cheeses from the barrels and, when questioned by Hillbrant, Samuel stated that he had been ordered by Bligh to take the cheeses to Bligh's home. I sincerely doubt that Hillbrant was trying to make Bligh angry when Bligh started ranting about the loss. I think that he was honestly (if naively) trying to remind the Captain of the circumstances that he saw. Bligh's response to him, threatening him if he should ever say that again, has been taken by Bligh as tacit admission of taking the cheeses, but does it seem rational that Bligh would take the risk of stealing ship's provisions from his own ship? He was well-off, and as a commander, he knew that short provisions would be the most likely source of trouble in mid-voyage. Could Bligh's response, alternatively, have been a reaction to Hillbrant's disclosure of Samuel's actions, which might well have been unauthorized ... was it to Samuel's home the cheeses were bound?? Samuel was, even by that early point, a lap-dog to the commander. Could Bligh have been reacting to just finding out that his pet clerk not only stole something, but blamed him in the process. He wouldn't likely have said anything to Samuel then, but I wonder what was said in private a bit later!

Preferring to remain on Tahiti than sail on with Christian, he settled in Oparra, near Matavai, with several of his fellow crewmembers, living as guests of the chief of that district. After his arrest, under severe questioning, he seems to have been the source of a great deal of Capt. Edward's information about the other mutineers, especially those with Christian and the ship. Because of the inaccuracy of the information, however, it is possible that Christian fed him with intentionally misleading information, knowing that he was likely to tell all under pressure. He was the only 'Pandora' prisoner who remained chained in the hold of the 'Pandora' when it went down.

According to Rawson in 'Pandora's Last Voyage', Hillbrant left a widow and children on Tahiti. There are, however, no records, and no memories remain.