Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hall, Agnes C.

1251242Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 24 — Hall, Agnes C.1890James McMullen Rigg

HALL, Mrs. AGNES C. (1777–1846), miscellaneous writer, born in Roxburghshire, was the wife of Robert Hall, M.D. (1763–1824) [q. v.], whom she survived, dying in London on 1 Dec. 1846. She was an industrious and versatile contributor on literary and scientific topics to Gregory's, Nicholson's, and Rees's ‘Cyclopædias,’ Aikins's ‘Old Monthly,’ Knight's ‘Printing Machine,’ and wrote the notes to Helms's ‘Buenos Ayres’ (1806). She translated the ‘Travels’ of Depons (1807), Bory de St. Vincent, Mangourit, Millin and Pouqueville (1813), Goldberry and Michaux, Vittorio Alfieri's ‘Autobiography’ (1810), Madame de Genlis' historical romance ‘La Duchesse de La Vallière’ (1804), and some other works by the same writer, and some of the tales of August Heinrich Lafontaine. She also published ‘Rural Recreations;’ ‘Obstinacy’ (1826), a tale for young people; ‘First and Last Years of Wedded Life,’ a story of Irish life in the reign of George IV; and an historical novel founded on the massacre of Glencoe. During her later years she contributed to the ‘Annual Biography,’ the ‘Westminster Review,’ and ‘Fraser's Magazine.’

[Gent. Mag. 1847, i. 97–8; Watt's Bibl. Brit.]

J. M. R.