2nd of July 1896. He was an eminent authority on Oriental inscriptions. Following the scanty clues given by George Smith and Samuel Birch, and working on the data furnished by the di Cesnola collection, he succeeded about 1874 in deciphering an entire Cypriote inscription, and in establishing the Hellenic character of the dialect and the syllabic nature of the script.
His work in Cypriote epigraphy is described in his articles in Scribner’s Magazine, vol. 20 (June, 1880), pp. 205-211 and in the Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 10, No. 2 (1880), pp. 201-218. He published in facsimile the Antilegomena epistles (1886), which he deciphered from the W. F. Williams manuscript, and edited A Critical Bibliography of the Greek New Testament as Published in America (1884).
HALL, SIR JAMES (1761–1832), Scottish geologist and physicist, eldest son of Sir John Hall, Bart., was born at Dunglass on the 17th of January 1761; and became distinguished as the first to establish experimental research as an aid to geological investigation. He was intimately acquainted with James Hutton and John Playfair, and having studied rocks in various parts of Europe he was eventually led to accept and to demonstrate the truth of Hutton’s views with regard to intrusive rocks. He commenced a series of experiments to illustrate the fusion of rocks, their vitreous and crystalline characters, and the influence of molten rocks in altering adjacent strata. He thus assisted in proving that granitic veins had been injected into overlying deposits after their consolidation. He studied the volcanic rocks in Italy and recognized that the old lava flows and the numerous dikes in Scotland must have had a similar origin. He made further experiments to illustrate the contortions of rocks. The results were brought before the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He died at Edinburgh on the 23rd of June 1832. He represented in parliament (1807–1812) the old borough of Michael in Cornwall; he also wrote an Essay on the Origin, History and Principles of Gothic Architecture (1813).
His eldest son, John Hall (1787–1860), who succeeded him, was a Fellow of the Royal Society; the second son, Captain Basil Hall (q.v.), was the distinguished traveller; the third son, James Hall (1800–1854), was a painter, art-patron, and a friend of Sir David Wilkie.
HALL, JAMES (1793–1868), American judge and man of letters, was born at Philadelphia on the 19th of August 1793. After for some time prosecuting the study of law, he in 1812 joined the army, and in the war with Great Britain distinguished himself in engagements at Lundy’s Lane, Niagara and Fort Erie. On the conclusion of the war he accompanied an expedition against Algiers, but in 1818 he resigned his commission, and continued the study of law at Pittsburg. In 1820 he removed to Shawneetown, Illinois, where he commenced practice at the bar and also edited the Illinois Gazette. Soon after he was appointed public prosecutor of the circuit, and in 1824 state circuit judge. In 1827 he became state treasurer, and held that office till 1831, but he continued at the same time his legal practice and also edited the Illinois Intelligencer. Subsequently he became editor of the Western Souvenir, an annual publication, and of the Illinois Monthly Magazine, afterwards the Western Monthly Magazine. He died near Cincinnati on the 5th of July 1868.
The following are his principal works:—Letters from the West, originally contributed to the Portfolio, and collected and published in London in 1828; Legends of the West (1832); The Soldier’s Bride and other Tales (1832); The Harpe’s Head, a Legend of Kentucky (1833); Sketches of the West (2 vols., 1835); Tales of the Border (1835); Notes on the Western States (1838); History of the Indian Tribes, in conjunction with T. L. M‘Keeney (3 vols., 1838–1844); The Wilderness and the War-Path (1845); Romance of Western History (1857).
HALL, JAMES (1811–1898). American geologist and palaeontologist, was born at Hingham, Massachusetts, on the 12th of September 1811. In early life he became attached to the study of natural history, and he completed his education at the polytechnic institute at Troy in New York, where he graduated in 1832, and afterwards became professor of chemistry and natural science, and subsequently of geology. In 1836 he was appointed one of the geologists on the Geological Survey of the state of New York, and he was before long charged with the palaeontological work. Eventually he became state geologist and director of the museum of natural history at Albany. His published papers date from 1836, and include numerous reports on the geology and palaeontology of various portions of the United States and Canada. He dealt likewise with physical geology, and in 1859 discussed the connexion between the accumulation of sedimentary deposits and the elevation of mountain-chains. His chief work was the description of the invertebrate fossils of New York—in which he dealt with the graptolites, brachiopods, mollusca, trilobites, echini and crinoids of the Palaeozoic formations. The results were published in a series of quarto volumes entitled Palaeontology of New York (1847–1894), in which he was assisted in course of time by R. P. Whitfield and J. M. Clarke. He published also reports on the geology of Oregon and California (1845), Utah (1852), Iowa (1859) and Wisconsin (1862). He received the Wollaston medal from the Geological Society of London in 1858. He was a man of great energy and untiring industry, and in 1897, when in his eighty-sixth year, he journeyed to St Petersburg to take part in the International Geological Congress, and then joined the excursion to the Ural mountains. He died at Albany on the 7th of August 1898.
See Life and Work of James Hall, by H. C. Hovey, Amer. Geol. xxiii., 1899, p. 137 (portraits).
HALL, JOSEPH (1574–1656), English bishop and satirist, was born at Bristow park, near Ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire, on the 1st of July 1574. His father, John Hall, was agent in the town for Henry, earl of Huntingdon, and his mother, Winifred Bambridge, was a pious lady, whom her son compared to St Monica. Joseph Hall received his early education at the local school, and was sent (1589) to Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Hall was chosen for two years in succession to read the public lecture on rhetoric in the schools, and in 1595 became fellow of his college. During his residence at Cambridge he wrote his Virgidemiarum (1597), satires written after Latin models. The claim he put forward in the prologue to be the earliest English satirist:—
“I first adventure, follow me who list
And be the second English satirist”—
gave bitter offence to John Marston, who attacks him in the satires published in 1598. The archbishop of Canterbury gave an order (1599) that Hall’s satires should be burnt with works of John Marston, Marlowe, Sir John Davies and others on the ground of licentiousness, but shortly afterwards Hall’s book, certainly unjustly condemned, was ordered to be “staied at the press,” which may be interpreted as reprieved (see Notes and Queries, 3rd series, xii. 436). Having taken holy orders, Hall was offered the mastership of Blundell’s school, Tiverton, but he refused it in favour of the living of Halsted, Essex, to which he was presented (1601) by Sir Robert Drury. In his parish he had an opponent in a Mr Lilly, whom he describes as “a witty and bold atheist.” In 1603 he married; and in 1605 he accompanied Sir Edmund Bacon to Spa, with the special aim, he says, of acquainting himself with the state and practice of the Romish Church. At Brussels he disputed at the Jesuit College on the authentic character of modern miracles, and his inquiring and argumentative disposition more than once threatened to produce serious results, so that his patron at length requested him to abstain from further discussion. His devotional writings had attracted the notice of Henry, prince of Wales, who made him one of his chaplains (1608). In 1612 Lord Denny, afterwards earl of Norwich, gave him the curacy of Waltham-Holy-Cross, Essex, and in the same year he received the degree of D.D. Later he received the prebend of Willenhall in the collegiate church of Wolverhampton, and in 1616 he accompanied James Hay, Lord Doncaster, afterwards earl of Carlisle, to France, where he was sent to congratulate Louis XIII. on his marriage, but Hall was compelled by illness to return. In his absence the king nominated him dean of Worcester, and in 1617 he accompanied James to Scotland, where he defended the five points of ceremonial which the king desired to impose upon the Scots. In the next year he was one of the English
