Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hall, George (1612?-1668)
HALL, GEORGE (1612?–1668), bishop of Chester, born in 1612 or 1613, at Waltham Abbey, Essex, was the son of Joseph Hall [q. v.], successively bishop of Exeter and Norwich. He matriculated as a commoner at Exeter College, Oxford, in 1628, took the B.A. degree on 30 April 1631, was elected, fellow on 30 June 1632, and proceeded M.A. on 17 Jan. 1633–4 (College Register, ed. C. W. Boase). On 8 Oct. 1637 he was inducted to the vicarage of Menheniot, Cornwall, became prebendary of Exeter on 23 Dec. 1639, and archdeacon of Cornwall on 7 Oct. 1641, in succession to his brother Robert. Though deprived of these preferments by the parliament, he was ultimately allowed to accept the lectureship of St. Bartholomew, Exchange, and by 1655 was minister at St. Botolph, Aldersgate. After the Restoration he became a royal chaplain, canon of Windsor on 8 (18) July 1660, and archdeacon of Canterbury four days later (Cal. State Papers, Dom. June 1660, pp. 83, 86, 229). On 2 Aug. of the same year he was created D.D. at Oxford (Wood, Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 460, 469, ii. 237). He was consecrated bishop of Chester on 11 May 1662, and during that year had the richly endowed rectory of Wigan conferred on him by Sir Orlando Bridgeman, which he held in commendam wiih his bishopric (Baines, Lancashire, ed. Whatton and Harland, ii. 177). He died on 23 Aug. 1668, aged 55, of a wound received by a knife in his pocket in a fall from the mount in his garden at Wigan, and was buried at the east, end of the rector's chancel there. He gave Exeter College, after the death of his wife Gertrude, his golden cup, and his estate in Trethewin, near St. Germans, Cornwall, worth 40l. a year (sold to Lord St. Germans in 1859). His writings are: 1. 'God's Appearing for the Tribe of Levi, improved in a Sermon [on Numb. xvii. 8] preached at St. Pauls . . . to the sons of Ministers, then solemnly assembled,' 4to, London, 1655. 2. 'The Triumphs of Rome over despised Protestancie' (anon.), 4to, London, 1655 (another edition, 8vo, London, 1667), an answer to a popish pamphlet entitled 'The Reclaim'd Papist,' 8vo, 1655. 3. 'A Fast-Sermon [on Psalm vii. 9] preached to the Lords. . . on the day of solemn humiliation for the continuing pestilence,' 4to, London, 1666.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), iii. 812–14; Boase and Courtney's Bibl. Cornub. i. 203, iii. 978; Chalmers's Biog. Dict. xvii. 57; Ashmole's Berkshire, 1719, iii. 275; Masson's Life of Milton, iii. 674.]