Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hall, Archibald
HALL, ARCHIBALD (1736–1778), divine, was born in the parish of Penicuick, Midlothian, in 1736. He learned the rudiments of the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages from John Brown (1722–1787) [q. v.] of Haddington, completed his arts curriculum at the university of Edinburgh, and studied divinity under the Rev. James Fisher of Glasgow. He was licensed to preach in 1758, and soon after was ordained minister of the associate congregation at Torphichen in West Lothian. In 1765 he became minister of the Secession church in Well Street, London, and in that capacity he exercised a widespread and beneficial influence, not only over the Scotsmen who chiefly composed his congregation, but also over the whole neighbouring community. He died 6 May 1778 in his forty-second year, and was buried in Bunhill Fields. His works are distinguished by practical good sense and clear energetic diction.
Hall wrote: 1. ‘An humble Attempt to Exhibit a Scriptural view … of the Gospel Church,’ Edinburgh, 1769, 2nd ed. London, 1795. 2. ‘Church Fellowship. Being an essay on … the communion of Saints in the Gospel Church,’ Edinburgh, 1770. 3. ‘An Impartial Survey of the controversy about the religious clause of some Burgess oaths.’ Summarised by McKerrow, pp. 212–14. It called forth a letter in reply, published under the pseudonym of Corydon, in 1772. 4. ‘Grace and Holiness, viz. Redemption by Christ without Law and Believer's death to the Law. Being the substance of two Discourses,’ London, 1777; reprinted by John Brown (1754–1832) [q. v.] of Whitburn, in ‘The Evangelical Preacher,’ vol. i. 1802. 5. ‘The Life of Faith exhibited. Being a selection of Private Letters,’ 1828, edited, with a memoir, by John Brown. Dr. Peddie is also said to have edited a treatise by Hall on the ‘Faith and Influence of the Gospel.’
[McKerrow's Hist. of the Secession Church, pp. 212–14, 872–4; Brown's Memoir; Brit. Mus. Cat.]