Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 05.djvu/56

 HALLAM

HALLECK

He was seen at his best in tlie nep:ro character of "Mungo."" in the play of the "Padlock." After his stepfather retired from the manage- ment of the American company, Lewis assumed the management and in connection with John Henry continued to tour America. At this time it was the custom for each of the principal actors to have benefit nights, and tickets for these benefits were purchased directly from the actor for whose benefit the performance was to be given at his home or lodgings, and in order to secure seats the ticket purchasers were instructed to send servants or messengers to the theatre late in the afternoon and occupy the seats until claimed by the purchasers. In 1797 he sold out his half interest in the company to William Dun- lap, and with Mrs. Hallam continued on salary. This Mrs. Hallam was his second wife, a Miss Tuke, whom he had married in 1791. He made his last appearance in New York city, June 6, 1806. He died in Philadelphia. Pa., Nov. 1, 1808.

HALLAM, Robert Alexander, clergyman, was born in New London, Conn, Sept. 30, 1807. He was graduated at Yale A.B. 1827, A.M. 1830; and from the General theological seminary in 1833. He was ordained a deacon bj- Bishop Brownell in 1832, and a priest in 1833, and was rector of St. Andrew's church, Meriden, Conn., 1833-34, and of St. James's church, New London, Conn., 1835- 77. He was a member of the standing committee of the diocese of Connecticut, 1846-72; a delegate to the general convention, 18.j0-68; a curator of Trinity college, 1843-77, and a fellow, 1855-58. He received the honorary- degree of A.M. from Trinity in 1845 and that of S.T.D. in 1853. He delivered popular courses of lectures in his church on "The Morning Prater," and on "Moses," which were published in book form. He is also the author of Sketches of Travel in Europe (1869); Soverehnis of Jiidah (ISll) ; Annals of St. James's Church, Xew London ; and contribu- tions to church periodicals. He died in New London, Conn.. .Jan. 4, 1877.

HALLECK, Fitz-Qreene, poet, was born in Guilford, Conn., July 8, 1790; son of Israel and Mary (Eliot) Halleck; and a direct descendant from Peter Halleck, who landed in New Haven colony in 1640 and with other English families cros.sed the sound to Long Island and settled in Southold ; and also a descendant of John Eliot, the apostle to the Indians. His father was a native of Duchess county, N.Y., a.id during the American Revolution was a Royalist and served in the British army under Colonel Tarleton. Fitz-Greene received a common school training and was a clerk and book-keeper in the store of Andrew Eliot in Guilford, 1805-11, making his home with his employer. It was during this time that his first poem appeared in print in a New

Haven newspaper. He was a clerk and book- keeper in the banking house of Jacob Barker, in New York city, 1811-31. In 1812 he formed a business partnership with a relative of Mr. Barker as Halleck & Barker, which was short lived by reason of the war, and in 1819 ha formed a literary partnership with Joseph Rodman Drake, and the ar- rangement resulted in the " Croaker " papers, quaint, satir- ical chronicles of New York life, pub- lished anonymously in the New York Evening Post, Drake writing under the name "Croaker" and Halleck, " Croaker, Jr." It was dur- ing the latter part of this year that he wrote "Fanny," an amusing satire, that received un- qualified praise from John Randolph of Vir- ginia and was enlarged by fifty stanzas and re- published in 1821. He visited Europe in 1822 and in 1827 published anonj^mously a collection of his poems which included "Burns "and "Alnwick Castle" and the lyric "Marco Bozzaris. " He was a clerk for John Jacob Astor, 1832-49; was a tru.stee of the Astor librarj", and received from the millionaire at his death an annuity of "£40 a year," supplemented by a gift of §10,000 from his son, William B. Astor, upon which he retired and lived with a maiden sister in the mansion of the Shelley estate at Guilford, Conn., and there wrote "Connecticut," "Lines to Lewis Gaylord Clark," and " Yoxmg America." He visited New York city, which had been his residence for nearh* fifty j'ears, for the last time in October, 1867. His memory is perpetuated by his poems; by a monument over his grave in Alderbrook cemetery, Guilford, Conn., erected by Bryant, Longfellow, Sumner, Whittier and numerous other friends, the first public monu- ment raised to an American poet ; a full length bronze statue, — the first -set up in the New World to a poet, — erected in Central Park, New York city, and im veiled in May, 1877, by President Hayes, his cal>inet, the general of the army and the leading literary men of the nation ; and portraits painted by Jarvis, Mor.se, Inman, Waldo, Elliott and Hicks. His published works, from which he received during his lifetime §17,500, include: FrtJtH?/ (1819, new ed., 1821); Alnwick Castle, with Other Poems (1827, 2d ed., 1836, 3d ed., 1845); Fanny and Other Poems (1839); The Poetical Works of Fitz-Greene Halleck now first collected (8 vols.,