HALSBURY, HARDINGE STANLEY GIFFARD, 1st Earl of (1825- ), English lord chancellor, son of Stanley Lees Giffard, LL.D., was born in London on the 3rd of September 1825. He was educated at Merton College, Oxford, and was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1850, joining the North Wales and Chester circuit. Afterwards he had a large practice at the central criminal court and the Middlesex sessions, and he was for several years junior prosecuting counsel to the treasury. He was engaged in most of the celebrated trials of his time, including the Overend and Gurney and the Tichborne cases. He became queen’s counsel in 1865, and a bencher of the Inner Temple. Mr Giffard twice contested Cardiff in the Conservative interest, in 1868 and 1874, but he was still without a seat in the House of Commons when he was appointed solicitor-general by Disraeli in 1875 and received the honour of knighthood. In 1877 he succeeded in obtaining a seat, when he was returned for Launceston, which borough he continued to represent until his elevation to the peerage in 1885. He was then created Baron Halsbury and appointed lord chancellor, thus forming a remarkable exception to the rule that no criminal lawyer ever reaches the woolsack. Lord Halsbury resumed the position in 1886 and held it until 1892 and again from 1895 to 1905, his tenure of the office, broken only by the brief Liberal ministries of 1886 and 1892-1895, being longer than that of any lord chancellor since Lord Eldon. In 1898 he was created earl of Halsbury and Viscount Tiverton. Among Conservative lord chancellors Lord Halsbury must always hold a high place, his grasp of legal principles and mastery in applying them being pre-eminent among the judges of his day.
HALSTEAD, a market-town in the Maldon parliamentary division of Essex, England, on the Colne, 17 m. N.N.E. from Chelmsford; served by the Colne Valley railway from Chappel Junction on the Great Eastern railway. Pop. of urban district (1901), 6073. It lies on a hill in a pleasant wooded district. The church of St Andrew is mainly Perpendicular. It contains a monument supposed to commemorate Sir Robert Bourchier (d. 1349), lord chancellor to Edward III. The Lady Mary Ramsay grammar school dates from 1594. There are large silk and crape works. Two miles N. of Halstead is Little Maplestead, where the church is the latest in date of the four churches with round naves extant in England, being perhaps of 12th-century foundation, but showing early Decorated work in the main. The chancel, which is without aisles, terminates in an apse. Three miles N.W. from Halstead are the large villages of Sible Hedingham (pop. 1701) and Castle Hedingham (pop. 1097). At the second is the Norman keep of the de Veres, of whom Aubrey de Vere held the lordship from William I. The keep dates from the end of the 11th century, and exhibits much fine Norman work. The church of St Nicholas, Castle Hedingham, has fine Norman, Transitional and Early English details, and there is a black marble tomb of John de Vere, 15th earl of Oxford (d. 1540), with his countess.
There are signs of settlement at Halstead (Halsteda, Halgusted, Halsted) in the Bronze Age; but there is no evidence of the causes of its growth in historic times. Probably its situation on the river Colne made it to some extent a local centre. Throughout the middle ages Halstead was unimportant, and never rose to the rank of a borough.
HALT. (1) An adjective common to Teutonic languages and still appearing in Swedish and Danish, meaning lame, crippled. It is also used as a verb, meaning to limp, and as a substantive, especially in the term “string-halt” or “spring-halt,” a nervous disorder affecting the muscles of the hind legs of horses. (2) A pause or stoppage made on a march or a journey. The word came into English in the form “to make alto” or “alt,” and was taken from the French faire alte or Italian far alto. The origin is a German military term, Halt machen, Halt meaning “hold.”
HALUNTIUM (Gr. Ἀλόντιον, mod. S. Marco d’Alunzio), an ancient city of Sicily, 6 m. from the north coast and 25 m. E.N.E. of Halaesa. It was probably of Sicel origin, though its foundation was ascribed to some of the companions of Aeneas. It appears first in Roman times as a place of some importance, and suffered considerably at the hands of Verres. The abandoned church of S. Mark, just outside the modern town, is built into the cella of an ancient Greek temple, which measures 62 ft. by 18. A number of ancient inscriptions have been found there.
HALYBURTON, JAMES (1518-1589), Scottish reformer, was born in 1518, and was educated at St Andrews, where he graduated M.A. in 1538. From 1553 to 1586 he was provost of St Andrews and a prominent figure in the national life. He was chosen as one of the lords of the congregation in 1557, and commanded the contingents sent by Forfar and Fife against the queen regent in 1559. He took part in the defence of Edinburgh, and in the battles of Langside (1568) and Restalrig (1571). He had stoutly opposed the marriage of Mary with Darnley, and when, after Restalrig, he was captured by the queen’s troops, he narrowly escaped execution. He represented Morton at the conference of 1578, and was one of the royal commissioners to the General Assembly in 1582 and again in 1588. He died in February 1589.