Covington is a city in Hill County in central Texas, United States. Located at the intersection of FM 67 and State Highway 171, 14 miles north of Hillsboro, it is near the northern boundary of Hill County. It was founded by Colonel James Jackson Gathings, formerly of North Carolina and Mississippi, in the spring of 1852, and is named for his wife's family. Gathings secured about 10,000 acres of land in what is now Hill County, 100 of which were set aside for the new town of Covington.