Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 24.djvu/76

 16 Feb. 1827. He published his 'Bampton Lectures' on 'Fulness of Time' in 1799, and some single sermons.

 HALL, CHESTER MOOR (1703–1771), inventor of the achromatic telescope, was born at Leigh in Essex, and was baptised in the parish church on 9 Dec. 1703. He was the only son of Jehu Hall by his wife Martha, daughter and coheiress of Richard Brittridge of New House, Sutton, Essex. The Halls were originally from Stepney, but settled at Leigh on inheriting by successive marriages the properties of the Moors and of the Chesters of Leigh. Jehu Hall removed to Brentwood, and there died in 1728. Chester Moor Hall was admitted a student of the Inner Temple on 5 Oct. 1724, and was made a bencher in 1763. He resided at New Hall, Sutton, where he died on 17 March 1771, aged 67. His elder sister, Martha Hall, erected a marble monument to him in the church of Sutton, of which he was patron. The inscription describes him as 'a judicious lawyer, an able mathematician, a polite scholar, a sincere friend, and a magistrate of the strictest integrity.' He was an extensive landowner in Essex, and is frequently designated as 'Moor of Moor Hall.' His library was sold in 1772.

A writer in the 'Gentleman's Magazine' states that Hall obtained, from a study of the human eye, the conviction that achromatic lenses were possible, and discovered in 1729, after various experiments, two kinds of glass of dispersion sufficiently different to enable him to realise his idea. He accordingly constructed, about 1733, several telescopes, subsequently pronounced by experts to be truly achromatic. Their excellence was shown by their bearing, with apertures of two and a half, focal lengths of twenty inches. One was on sale with Ayscough of Ludgate Hill in 1754: another was in 1790 in the possession of the Rev. Mr. Smith of Charlotte Street; some were stated by Sir John Herschel and Professor Barlow to have been in existence about 1827. Hall proved his indifference to claims of priority by taking no part in the trial of Dollond v. Champness in 1766, although probably in London [see ], Some of the workmen whom he had employed, having furnished them with the radii of curvature and added finishing touches, gave evidence, and his invention of the achromatic telescope in 1733 was regarded by Lord Mansfield as fully proved. The obscurity in which it was allowed to remain is inexplicable. Hall's autograph, presented by Mr. R. B. Prosser in 1886 to the Royal Astronomical Society, was ordered to be framed and suspended in the council room.

 HALL, EDMUND (1620?–1687), puritan divine, born at Worcester about 1620, was younger son of Richard Hall, clothier, of Worcester, by his wife, Elizabeth (Bonner), and was apparently educated at the King's School, Worcester. (1610-1665) [q. v.] was his eldest brother. In 1636 he entered Pembroke College, Oxford, but left the university without a degree to take up arms for the parliament against Charles I. He took 'the covenant, and at length became a captain' in the parliamentary army. About 1647 he returned to Oxford, and was made a fellow of Pembroke College, and proceeded M.A. on 11 March 1649-50. He was strongly in favour of monarchy, and wrote against Cromwell's pretensions with great bitterness. About 1651 he was committed to prison by the council of state, and remained there for twelve months, still attacking the government in published pamphlets. Subsequently he preached in Oxford and the neighbourhood, and about 1657 became chaplain to Sir Edmund Bray, of Great Risington, Gloucestershire. Bray was a royalist, and his endeavours to present Hall to the rectory of Great Risington, of which he was patron, proved of no avail. Hall's sermons, according to Wood, 'had in them many odd, light, and whimsical passages, altogether unbecoming the gravity of the pulpit, and his gestures, being very antic and mimical, did usually excite somewhat of laughter in the more youthful part of the auditory.' His views, although Calvinistic, grew into something like conformity with the church of England. At the Restoration he made professions of loyalty. In May 1661 he petitioned the government to remove Lewis Atterbury from the rectory of Great Risington, to which Bray had presented the petitioner, but his petition does not appear to have been granted. He secured, however, preferment at Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, where he was generally popular. He there 'obtained the character from some of a fantastical, and from others of an edifying preacher.' In 1680 he at length became rector of Great Risington on the presentation of Bray. He