Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 24.djvu/108

 geese. But the floods swept away his flock, which (he complains) were appropriated by his neighbours, and after much wandering he settled in Marshland in Norfolk, where he gained for some time a living as an auctioneer and ‘cow-leech,’ while his wife practised midwifery and phlebotomy. Here he asserts (in verse) that his arm broke on account of rheumatic throbbing, whereupon he removed to Lynn, and commenced business as a dealer in old books. ‘The Antiquarian Library,’ as he called his shop, did fairly well, though he was obliged to sell, as opportunity offered, many other things besides books. He died in 1825. Hall published a considerable number of strange rough rhymes, dealing with the fens, fen life, and the difficulties of his calling. ‘Low-Fen-Bill,’ as he sometimes styled himself, had a perception of his own faults, which he describes when mentioning John Taylor the ‘Water Poet,’ Who near two centuries ago Wrote much such nonsense as I do. But his doggerel is not without a certain Hudibrastic force, and it frequently contains graphic touches descriptive of modes of fen life now passed away. He published at Lynn: 1. ‘A Sketch of Local History, being a Chain of Incidents relating to the state of the Fens from the Earliest Accounts to the Present Time,’ 1812. 2. ‘Reflections upon Times, and Times, and Times! or a more than Sixty Years' Tour of the Mind,’ 1816; a second part was published in 1818.

[Sketches of Obscure Poets, 1833; Hall's Works.] 

HALL, WILLIAM HUTCHEON (1797?–1878), admiral, entered the navy in October 1811 on board the Warrior, under the command of the Hon. George Byng, afterwards sixth Viscount Torrington, and during the remaining years of the war served continuously in her in the North Sea and the Baltic. In November 1815 he was appointed to the Lyra sloop, with Commander Basil Hall [q. v.], and served in her during her interesting voyage to China in company with Lord Amherst's embassy. Shortly after his return to England in November 1817 he was appointed to the Iphigenia frigate, carrying the broad pennant of Sir Robert Mends on the west coast of Africa, and from her was promoted to be master of the Morgiana sloop. In this rank he continued, actively serving on the West Indian, the Mediterranean, and the home stations, till 1836; when, after studying the steam-engine practically at Glasgow and on board steamers trading to Ireland, he went to the United States, and was for some time employed in steamboats on the Hudson and Delaware. In November 1839 he obtained command of the Nemesis, an iron paddle steamer specially built at Liverpool for the East India Company, fitted with a sliding keel, having a light draught of water, and carrying a comparatively heavy armament. On arriving at Galle after a stormy and tedious passage, she was immediately ordered on to China, and joined the squadron in the Canton river in time to render efficient assistance in the reduction of Chuen-pee fort on 7 Jan. 1841. She was at that time the only steamer present, and during the next two years had a most important share in the several operations of the war; Hall, by his energy and his skilful handling of the frail steamer, winning the special commendation of the officers of the navy under whom he served [see, 1793–1861; , 1788–1866]. In consequence of their recommendations, an order in council was obtained permitting his promotion to the rank of lieutenant, his commission being dated back to 8 June 1841; another order in council sanctioned his time served on board the Nemesis being counted as though served in a queen's ship; and on 10 June 1843 he was promoted to be commander. The Nemesis had been paid off at Calcutta, and Hall, returning home overland, was appointed on 1 July 1843 to the royal yacht, from which on 22 Oct. 1844 he was advanced to post rank.

From 1847 to 1850 he commanded the Dragon steam frigate in the Mediterranean; and on 28 Oct. 1849, when Sir William Parker brought the fleet to Besika Bay as a visible promise of support to the Turks against the demands of Austria and Russia in the matter of the Hungarian refugees, he was sent to Constantinople carrying the reassuring news to the British minister (, Life of Sir William Parker, iii. 570; cf., Life of Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, ii. 194, where the date is wrongly given 3 Oct.) In 1847 Hall was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. On the breaking out of the Russian war, not being able to obtain command of a vessel of a rate corresponding to his seniority, he accepted the Hecla, a small paddle steamer, in which he was actively employed in the Baltic in 1854. In the following year, again in the Baltic, he had command of the Blenheim blockship, in which he was present at the bombardment of Sveaborg, and in July was nominated a C.B. He had no further service, but became rear-admiral in 1863; was nominated a K.C.B. in 1867; was advanced to be vice-admiral on the retired list in 1869, and admiral in