She was buried at Abington on 17 Feb. 1669–1670, and was the latest survivor of Shakespeare's direct descendants. Sir John Barnard died early in 1674 (cf. Baker, Northamptonshire, i. 10; Transactions of New Shakespeare Soc. 1880–5, pt. ii. pp. 13†–15†).
In 1643 James Cooke, a surgeon, visited Mrs. Hall at New Place, in attendance on a detachment of the parliamentary army, and was invited by her to examine her late husband's manuscripts. As a result, Cooke issued in 1657 the rare volume entitled ‘Select Observations on English Bodies, and Cures both Empericall and Historicall performed upon very eminent persons in desperate diseases, first written in Latin by Mr. John Hall, physician, living at Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, where he was very famous, as also in the counties adjacent, as appears by these observations drawn out of severall hundreds of his as choysest, and now put into English for common benefit by James Cooke, practitioner in Physick and Chirurgery,’ London, 12mo. A second edition appeared in 1679, which was reissued, with a new title-page, in 1683. Hall's original Latin notes, which cover the dates 1622–36, are in Brit. Mus. Egerton MS. 2065.
[J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps's Outlines of Life of Shakespeare (7th edit.), i. 219–24, 271–5, ii. 170, 321–3; Dugdale's Warwickshire.]
HALL, JOHN (1627–1656), of Durham, poet and pamphleteer, son of Michael Hall, ‘gent.,’ born at Durham in August 1627, was educated at Durham school, and was admitted to St. John's College, Cambridge, on 26 Feb. 1645–6 (Mayor, Admissions, p. 76). At the age of nineteen he published ‘Horæ Vacivæ, or Essays. Some occasional Considerations,’ 1646, 12mo, which he dedicated to the master of his college, John Arrowsmith. Commendatory verses in English were prefixed by Thomas Stanley, William Hammond, James Shirley, &c.; Dr. Henry More contributed Greek elegiacs; and Hall's tutor, John Pawson, supplied a preface, dated from St. John's College, 12 June 1646. A portrait of the author by Marshall adorns the little volume. In a biographical notice before Hall's posthumous ‘Hierocles,’ 1657, his friend John Davies of Kidwelly (1627?–1693) [q. v.] declares that these youthful essays ‘amazed not only the University but the more serious part of men in the three nations,’ and that ‘they travelled over into France and were by no ordinary person clad in the language of that country,’ Hall sent a copy to James Howell, whose letter of acknowledgment is printed in part ii. of ‘Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ.’ The essays were followed by a small collection of not uninteresting ‘Poems,’ published at Cambridge in January 1646–7; reprinted by Sir S. Egerton Brydges in 1816. Commendatory verses by Henry More and others were prefixed, and the volume was dedicated to Thomas Stanley. The general title-page is dated 1646, but ‘The Second Book of Divine Poems’ has a new title-page dated 1647. Some of the divine poems were afterwards included in ‘Emblems with Elegant Figures newly published. By J. H., esquire’ [1648], 12mo, 2 parts, which was dedicated by the publisher to Mrs. Stanley (wife of Thomas Stanley), and has a commendatory preface by John Quarles. Hall remained at Cambridge till May 1647, cherishing a grievance against the college authorities ‘for denying those honorary advancements which are as it were the indulgence of the university when there is an excess of merit’ (Davies). He was afterwards entered at Gray's Inn.
In 1648 he published ‘A Satire against Presbytery,’ and in 1649 ‘An Humble Motion to the Parliament of England concerning the Advancement of Learning and Reformation of the Universities,’ 4to, a well-written tract in which he complains that the revenues of the universities are misspent and the course of study is too restricted, advocating that the number of fellowships should be reduced and more professorships endowed. By command of the council of state he accompanied Cromwell in 1650 to Scotland, where he drew up ‘The Grounds and Reasons of Monarchy,’ with an appendix of ‘An Epitome of Scottish Affairs,’ printed at Edinburgh and reprinted at London. Other political pamphlets were ‘A Gagg to Love's Advocate, or an Assertion of the Justice of the Parliament in the Execution of Mr. Love,’ 1651, 4to; ‘Answer to the Grand Politick Informer,’ 1653; ‘A Letter from a Gentleman in the Country,’ &c., 1653. He also put forth a new edition, dedicated to Cromwell, of ‘A Treatise discovering the horrid Cruelties of the Dutch upon our People at Amboyna,’ 1651, which had originally appeared in 1624. The Dutch ambassador complained about the book, but no notice was taken of his complaint. Davies states that Hall was awarded a pension of 100l. per annum by Cromwell and the council for his pamphleteering services.
Hall's non-political writings, in addition to ‘Horæ Vacivæ’ and the poems, are: 1. ‘Paradoxes,’ 1650, 8vo, of which a second and enlarged edition appeared in 1653. 2. A translation of ‘Longinus of the Height of Eloquence,’ 1652, 8vo. 3. ‘Lusus Serius, or Serious Passe-Time. A Philosophicall Discourse concerning the Superiority of Creatures
