He was son of Richard Hall, clothier, by his wife Elizabeth, and was born in St. Andrew's parish, Worcester, about 22 July 1610. He was educated at the King's School, Worcester, under Henry Bright, one of the most celebrated schoolmasters of the day. In 1624 he entered Balliol College, Oxford, as an exhibitioner. Finding himself under 'a careless tutor,' he moved to the newly founded Pembroke College as a pupil of Thomas Lushington. He graduated B.A. on 7 February 1629. Returning to Worcestershire, he became teacher of a private school, and preached in the chapels of several hamlets in the parish of Kings Norton, of which his brother, John Hall, vicar of Bromsgrove, was perpetual curate. At this period he conformed, but attendance at the puritan lecture, maintained at Birmingham, contributed to make him a presbyterian. He became curate at Kings Norton under his brother, who soon resigned the living in his favour. The living was of little value, but Hall obtained the mastership of the grammar school, founded by Edward VI. During the civil war he was 'many times plundered, and five times imprison'd', according to Edmund Calamy. He refused preferment when his party was in power. In June 1652 he 'had liberty allow'd him by the delegates of the university' to take the degree of B.D. on the terms of preaching a Latin and an English sermon. His presbyterian principles prevented him from joining Richard Baxter's Worcestershire agreement in 1653; and he became a member of the presbytery of Kenilworth, Warwickshire. He, however, signed Baxter's Worcestershire petition for the retention of tithe and a settled ministry. Hall was a 'plain but fervent' preacher, and 'a lover of books and learning'. When the first Birmingham library was established in connection with the Birmingham grammar school he contributed many books, and collected others from his friends. Subsequently, he founded a similar library at Kings Norton; the parish at his instance erected a building, and Hall transferred to it all his books for public use. After his ejection by the Uniformity Act he was reduced to great poverty, but his friends did not allow him to want. He died on 13 April 1665, and was buried at Kings Norton.
Views
He was a "high" Presbyterian, concerned to put in place a national church. Histrio-mastix, or A Whip for Webster, starts from a clear mistake of the identity of John Webster the physician, for the dead dramatist John Webster; Hall argues from an "unyielding Aristotelian" point of view, and for no change in the educational system. It was a companion to the Vindiciae literarum, which Christopher Hill calls "hysterical". He was an opponent of astrology, associating it in Histrio-mastix with the 'Familistical-Levelling-Magical temper'.
'The Pulpit Guarded with XVII. Arguments', &c., 4to ; with appendix, also found separately, 'Six Arguments to prove our Ministers free from Antichristianisme,' &c., 1651, 4to.
'The Font Guarded with XX. Arguments,' &c, 1651, 4to ; has appendix, 'The Collier and his Colours,' &c., 1662, 4to ; and second appendix, 'Praeecursor Praecursoris: or a Word to Mr. Tombs,' &c., 1652, 4to, Baptist preacher.
'The Beauty of Holiness,' 1653, 8to.
'Comarum Ἀκοσμία. The Loathsomnesse of Long Haire.... Appendix... against & Painting,' &c.,1654, 8vo.
'Centuria Sacra... Rules for... understanding of the Holy Scriptures,' 8vo., 1654, 8vo.
'Rhetorica Sacra... Tropes and Figures contained in the Sacred Scriptures,' &c., 1654, 8vo.
'Histrio-mastix. A Whip for Webster,' &c., 1654, 8vo, against an 'examen of academies' appended to John Webster's Saint's Guide, 1654, 4to).
'Vindiciae Literarium; the Schools Guarded,' &c., 1654 , 8vo; makes all learning a handmaid to divinity.
'Phaetons Folly,' &c., 1655, 8vo
'A Scriptural Discourse of the Apostacy of Antichrist,' &c.,. ! 1655, 4to. 12. ' Chiliastomastix Redivivus, sive Homesus Enervatus. A Confutation of the Millenarian Opinion.., with a Word to our Fifth-monarchy Men,' &c., 1657, 4to ; 1658, 12mo.
'A Practical and Polemical Commentary ,' &c, 1658, fol.
Tὸ ὅλος τῆς γῆς: sive Apologia pro Ministerio Evangelico,' &c., Frankfort, 1658, 8vo ; in English, 'Apology for the Ministry," &c., 1660, 4to.
'Samaria's Downfall,' &c., 1659, 4to; comment on Hosea xiii. 12–16, supplementary to the 'Exposition ' of Jeremiah Burroughes; 1660, 4to; 1843, 4to; appended is an attack on Solomon Eccles, the quaker.
'The Beauty of Magistracy,' &c., 1660, 4to.
'Funebria Florae. The Downfall of May-games,’ &c., 1660, 4to; 1661, 4to, two editions.
