Peel as M.P. for Oxford University. He resisted the admission of Roman catholics or Jews to parliament, in a pamphlet entitled `A Statement of some Reasons for continuing to Protestants the whole Legislature of Great Britain and Ireland,' 1829.
Hull was an early pioneer in the cause of improved hymnology, and published anonymously in 1827 and 1832 two books of original prayers and hymns (besides a collection of 209 hymns from various sources), which were republished with his name on the title-page in 1852, under the title, 'A Collection of Prayers for Household Use, with some Hymns and other Poems.'
During the last years of his life at the Knowle, Hazlewood, Derbyshire, he actively supported Lord Ebury's movement for liturgical reform. He died at the Knowle on 28 Aug. 1873. He was three times married, in 1820, 1850, and 1861, and left a family by each wife.
[Manchester School Register, ed. J.F.Smith (Chetham Soc.), iii. 37, 289; Julian's Dict. of Hymnology; family information; personal knowledge.]
HULLAH, JOHN PYKE, LL.D. (1812–1884), musical composer and teacher, was born at Worcester on 27 June 1812. His father, descended, according to tradition, from a Huguenot family, was a native of Yorkshire, but lived in London from the early years of the century. Hullah seems to have derived his musical gifts chiefly from his mother, who had been a pupil of John Danby. After attending private schools, he became in 1829 a pupil of William Horsley, studying the pianoforte, vocal music, and composition. In 1833 he entered the Royal Academy of Music for the purpose of learning singing from Crivelli. Two years afterwards he made the acquaintance of Charles Dickens, through his sister, Miss Fanny Dickens, a fellow-pupil of Crivelli. An opera by Hullah, `The Village Coquettes,' set to words by Dickens, was produced at the St. James's Theatre on 5 Dec. 1836, and ran for sixty nights with great success; the whole of the music, with the exception of a few songs, was burnt in a fire at the Edinburgh theatre soon after it was first brought out there. In 1837 Hullah became organist of Croydon Church. Among the compositions of this time was a madrigal, `Wake now my love' (afterwards printed in `Vocal Scores'), which was performed at the Madrigal Society's meeting, and two songs written for Miss Masson. On 11 Nov. 1837 `The Barbers of Bassora' (words by Maddison Morton) was produced at Covent Garden, and on 17 May 1838, at the same theatre, 'The Outpost,' Hullah's last attempt at dramatic music. Both were unsuccessful. In 1839 he investigated at Paris the Mainzer system of teaching music to large numbers of persons at one time; but he came to the conclusion that Wilhem's method excelled any other then invented.
At the instance of Dr. Kay, afterwards Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth, he began on 18 Feb. 1840 a class on Wilhem's model at the Normal School for Schoolmasters at Battersea, then recently opened. A year later, after improving his knowledge of the system by another visit to Paris, he formed classes at Exeter Hall for the instruction of schoolmasters and the general public. Later in the same year the system was started in Manchester under Hullah's direction. In July 1842 the number of persons attending the classes was computed at fifty thousand. Classes were also held at some of the great public schools, among them Eton, Winchester, the Charterhouse, Merchant Taylors', and King's College London. In June 1847 Hullah took a prominent part in the foundation of Queen's College in Harley Street. Later in the year he went again to Paris, where he found much to disapprove of in the musical system transmitted from older teachers by Chevé, and called by his name, a system which has no slight resemblance to the tonic sol-fa method. In October 1849 his classes began to meet in St. Martin's Hall, Long Acre, a building specially erected as a centre of operations for the movement. It was formally opened on 11 Feb. 1850, and in 1854 Hullah took up his abode there. In 1858 he succeeded Horsley as organist to the Charterhouse, a post which he retained until his death, and in the same year some of his most successful songs were written. `The Sands of Dee' and `The Three Fishers' were the result of his intimacy with Kingsley. Besides the work connected with the hall, which included the arranging of historical and other concerts there, he found time to take part in the controversy concerning musical pitch, and used his influence to promote the adoption by the Society of Arts of C-528. On 26Aug. 1860 St. Martin's Hall was burnt to the ground. This misfortune fell the more heavily on Hullah, since he had incurred serious financial responsibilities in connection with the building, and he was obliged virtually to begin the world again. A series of lectures on the history of modern music was delivered at the Royal Institution early in 1861. In 1864 Hullah lectured at Edinburgh, but in the next year failed in his candidature for the Reid professorship of
