A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Hall, Sarah
HALL, SARAH,
Born at Philadelphia on the 30th. of October, 1761, was daughter of the Rev. John Ewing, D.D., who was for many years Provost of the University of Pennsylvania, and Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. Although brought up in the troublesome times of the Revolution, and when it was not customary to bestow much cultivation on the female mind, with access to few books or other of the usual means of study. Miss Ewing became the mistress of accomplishments such as few possess. For her earliest years her active and inquisitive mind was ever on the alert for knowledge, and, fortunately, she possessed, in the society of her father—one of the most distinguished scholars of his day—a prolific source of information, which she failed not to improve to the utmost. By means of conversations with him, and observing the heavenly bodies under his direction, she became quite a proficient in the science of astronomy, which, through her whole life, continued one of her favourite pursuits. She also obtained a critical acquaintance with the principles of grammar, and an extensive knowledge of the ancient classics, by hearing her brothers recite their Latin and Greek lessons to their father, and by listening to the conversations of the learned men who frequented his house. True genius is stimulated to exertion by the obstacles that embarrass it in the pursuit of knowledge; and in the case of Miss Ewing the difficulties which she was obliged to surmount only served to redouble her industry, and to give increased value to the hard-earned acquisitions of her mind.
In 1782, Miss Ewing was married to Mr. John Hall, the son of a wealthy planter in Maryland, to which state they removed. Here she spent about eight years; but her taste was not for retirement; she loved books, society, and her friends too well to be satisfied with a country life in a secluded neighbourhood, and they removed to Philadelphia, where Mr. Hall filled successively the offices of Secretary of the Land Office, and Marshal of the United States for the district of Pennsylvania. Here they remained till 1801; then they resided in Lamberton, New Jersey, till 1805; thence they removed to Mr. Hall's paternal estate, in Maryland, where they lived until 1811; they then returned to Philadelphia, where Mr. Hall died, in 1826. Mrs. Hall survived her husband only four years, dying on the 8th. of April, 1830, aged sixty-nine.
During all these removals and the vicissitudes which occasioned them, Mrs. Hall never neglected, in the least particular, her duties as the head of a family; and in order to find time for reading without infringing on them, she, for the last forty years of her life, devoted to this exercise the hours usually appropriated to repose.
The only book Mrs. Hall ever published, "Conversations on the Bible," a duodecimo of three hundred and sixty-five pages, affords ample testimony that her memory is entitled to much praise. This work, which was very well received, both in America and in this country, contains a fund of information which could only have been collected by diligent research and profound thought. While engaged in this undertaking she began the study of Hebrew, to enable herself to make the necessary researches, and attained a considerable proficiency in this difficult language. When it is stated that she commenced this work after she had passed the age of fifty, when she had been the mother of eleven children, and that during her whole life she was distinguished for her industry, economy, and attention to all the duties of her station, it must be allowed that she was no ordinary woman. Her other writings were confined to contributions to the leading literary periodicals of the day.