HALL, ISAAC HOLLISTER (1837-1896), American Orientalist, was born in Norwalk, Connecticut, on the 12th of December 1837. He graduated at Hamilton College in 1859, was a tutor there in 1859-1863, graduated at the Columbia Law School in 1865, practised law in New York City until 1875, and in 1875-1877 taught in the Syrian Protestant College at Beirut, where he discovered a valuable Syriac manuscript of the Philoxenian version of a large part of the New Testament, which he published in part in facsimile in 1884. He worked with General di Cesnola in classifying the famous Cypriote collection in the Metropolitan Museum of New York City, and was a curator of that museum from 1885 until his death in Mount Vernon, New York, on the 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).