HALIFAX, CHARLES MONTAGU, 1ST EARL of (1661-1715). —A famous wit, statesman, and patron of literature, was ed. at Westminster School and Trinity Coll., Camb. Entering Parliament he became Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1694, and First Lord of the Treasury 1697. Vain and arrogant, he soon lost popularity and power. His chief literary effort was his collaboration with Prior in The Town and Country Mouse (1687), a parody of and reply to Dryden's Hind and Panther. H. was the friend and patron of Addison, Steele, Congreve, and many other of the classical writers of his day. He became a peer in 1701.
HALL, MRS. ANNA MARIA (FIELDING) (1800-1881). —Novelist, was b. in Dublin, but left Ireland at the age of 15. Nevertheless, that country gave her the motive of several of her most successful books, such as Sketches of Irish Character (1829), Lights and Shadows of Irish Character (1838), Marian (1839), and The White Boy (1845). Other works are The Buccaneer, and Midsummer Eve, a fairy tale, and many sketches in the Art Journal, of which her husband, SAMUEL CARTER HALL (1800-1889), was ed. With him she also collaborated in a work entitled Ireland, its Scenery, Character, etc. Mrs. H. was a very voluminous writer; her descriptive talents were considerable, as also was her power of depicting character. Her husband was likewise a writer of some note, chiefly on art.
HALL, BASIL (1788-1844). —Traveller, s. of Sir James H., an eminent man of science, was in the navy, and rose to be captain. He was one of the first to visit Corea, and wrote Voyage of Discovery to Corea (1818), also Travels in North America in 1827-28, a lively work which gave some offence in the U.S., Fragments of Voyages and Travels (1831-40), and some tales and romances. He was latterly insane.
HALL, or HALLE, EDWARD (1499?-1547). —Chronicler, b. in London, studied successively at Camb. and Oxf. He was a lawyer, and sat in Parliament for Bridgnorth, and served on various Commissions. He wrote a history of The Union of the two Noble and Illustre Families of Lancastre and Yorke, commonly called Hall's Chronicle. It was pub. after the author's death by Richard Grafton, and was prohibited by Queen Mary.
HALL, JOSEPH (1574-1656). —Divine, b. at Ashby-de-la-Zouche, and ed. at Camb., he entered the Church, and became in 1627 Bishop of Exeter, and in 1641 Bishop of Norwich. He had a chequered career. He accompanied James I. to Scotland in 1617, and was a Deputy to the Synod of Dort. Accused of Puritanism, and at enmity with Laud, he fell on troublous days, and was, in 1641, imprisoned in the Tower for joining those bishops who protested against the validity of laws passed during their exclusion (owing to tumult in the streets) from Parliament. Returning to Norwich he found that his revenues had been sequestrated, and his private property seized. In 1647 he retired to a small farm near Norwich, where he passed the remainder of his life. Among his works are Contemplations, Characters of Virtues and Vices (1614), and his Virgidemiarum, or Satires (1597-8), the last written before he was in orders, and condemned by Archbishop Whitgift to be burned. Pope, however, thought them "the best poetry and truest satire in the English language." H.'s Divine Right of Episcopacy gave rise to much controversy, in which Archbishop Ussher, Milton, and the writers who called themselves "Smectymnuus" (a combination of their initials) took part.