Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 05.djvu/45

 HALL

HALL

HALL, Edwin, educator, was born in Gran- ville, N.Y., Jan. 11, 1802; son of Ira and Rebecca (Parker) Hall, and a descendant of John Hall who came from Coventry, England, to Charles - town, Mass., in 1630. His mother was a sister of Judge Nathaniel Parker and of the wife of Judge Nathaniel Hall of "Whitehall, N.Y. His father died in 1816 and Edwin abandoned his col- lege preparatory course and went on the farm, teaching school winters. In 1822 he entered Mid- dlebury college, paj'ing his way through the four years' course by teaching school during the vaca- tions. He was graduated in 1826 ; was principal of Franklin county grammar school, St. Albans, Vt., 1826-27 ; tutor in Middlebury college. 1827-28 ; and principal of Addison county grammar school, Middlebury, Vt., 1828-30. On Aug. 27, 1830, he was ordained to the ministry at Hebron, N.Y., by the presbytery of Troy, and supplied churches at Glens Falls and Sandy Hill, N.Y., 1830-31. He was principal of an academy at Bloomfield, N.J., 1831-32, and in July of the latter year was installed as pastor of the First Congregational church. Nor walk, Conn., where he remained tiU 1854. He was professor of Christian theology at Auburn theological seminary, 1854-76, and emeri- tus professor, 1876-77. He was married Sept. 2, 1828, to Fanny, daughter of Isaac and Abigail (Savage) HoUister of Granville, N.Y. Middle- bury gave him the degree of D.D. in 1846. He published: The Law of Baptism (1840) ; Refutation of Baptist Errors (1840) ; The Pitrita7is and their Principles (1846); Historical Records of Noricalk (1847); Shorter Catechism, tcith Analysis and Proofs (1859); Digest of Studies and Lectures in TJieolor/y which was translated into the Chinese tongue; and left in manuscript a treatise on Metaphysics and Outlines in Xatural Theology. He died in Auburn, N.Y., Sept. 8, 1877.

HALL, Fitzedward, orientalist and English philologist, was born at Troy, N.Y., March 21, 1825; eldest son of Daniel and Anjinette (Fitch) Hall, anl grandson of Lot and Mary (Homer) Hall. His father, Daniel, was a graduate of Mid dlebury anl Dartmouth colleges, and a successful lawyer; and his mother was descended in two lines from Thomas Fitch, colonial governor of Connecticut, her parents, first cousins, having been his grandchildren. His grandfather. Lot, was a Revolutionary naval officer and eventually judge of the supreme court of Vtrmont. The earliest Anglo-American ancestor, John Hall, the father of twelve sons, emigrated from Coventry to Charlestown, Mass., in 1630. Fitzedward Hall was graduated from the Rensselaer polytechnic institute with the degree of C.E. in 1842, and was graduated from Harvard A.B.. 1846, and A.M., 1849. In 1846 he sailed for the East, and in Sep- tember, after shipwreck off the mouth of the

Ganges, reached Calcutta, where he at once set about acquiring several of the Indian languages. In 1849 he removed to Ghazeepoor, and thence, sliortly afterward, to Benares. Quite unexpect- edly, and without solicitation, he was there appointed to a post in the Government college. He was soon ad- vanced to the position of Anglo-Sanskrit professor, and in 1854 to the inspectorship of public instruction for A j mere and Mair- wara. In 1856 he was transferred from Aj- mere to Saugor, where, as inspector of public instruction for the Central Prov- inces, he subsequently terminated his Indian career. Meanwhile occurred the memor- able mutiny of 1857, when, having at the outset barely escaped with liis life, he exclianged his civil duties for military for nme months. Impaired in health by the hardships he had imdergone, he re- treated from India for a year and a half, visiting England and America, and then returned to his duties, which he finally resigned in 1862. From that date he was for some years professor of Sans- krit, Hindustani, and Indian jurisprudence in King's college, London, and was also librarian to the India office. In 1869 he retired to the village of Marlesford, Suffolk, where he continued to prose- cute his favorite studies. From 1863 to 1900 he was continuously employed as examiner by the civil service commissioners, his subjects having been, on different occasions, Sanskrit, Hindustani, Hindi, Braj Bhaklia, Bengali, Indian histoiy and geography, English composition and the English language. In 1860, wliile in England on leave of absence, he was honored with the title of D.C.L. by the University of Oxford, in consideration of his services to oriental literature; and in 1895 the degree of LL.D. was conferred on him by Har- vard university. His valuable collection of ori- ental manuscripts and books he presented to Harvard. Anonymous productions excepted, his earliest work was his Hindi version, in 1850, of the Sanskrit Tarkasangraha, a compendium of the Nyaya philosophy. Next appeared, in 1852, his Atmabodha and Tattvabodha, two introductions to the Vedanta philosophy, the first Sanskrit texts published by an American. To these succeeded no fewer than thirty volumes, various as to sub- ject matter, but of interest, mostly, to specialists only ; besides which may be mentioned his volu- minous contributions to Indian, American, and