Was born in Shropshire at the end of the fifteenth century. He was in 1514 scholar of King’s College, Cambridge, but removed to Oxford; about 1518, he entered at Gray’s Inn, was called to the bar, became common sergeant and under-sheriff, and in 1540 one of the judges of the sheriff’s court. His career belonged entirely to the reign of Henry VIII., and he died in 1547. His history of “The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Families of Lancastre and Yorke,” commonly called Hall’s “Chronicle,” ended with the year 1532. It was first published in 1548, after its author’s death, by Richard Grafton.

  This is to be noted that the author thereof, though not to all men, yet to many very well known, was a man in the later time of his life not so painful and studious as before he had been.

  He wrote a large account of the forementioned wars, which, in a very flattering epistle, he dedicates to Henry VIII. If the reader desires to know what sort of cloaths were worn in each king’s reign, and how the fashions altered, this is an historian for his purpose; but in other matters his information is not very valuable.

  All the copies I have yet seen or heard of are dedicated to Edw. VI., and the dedication is far from being flattering. The informations, too, are all along so very good, abating that the chronology is here and there wrong, that they have been, and will always be, highly valued by the most curious men. He declines giving any account of cloaths and fashion, excepting upon some solemn occasion in King Henry the Eighth’s reign, and contents himself with what is truly momentous.

  A good writer for his time, and a competent scholar.

  Opinions differ as to Hall’s value as an historian, so far as regards the important points of care and accuracy. It is a great misfortune, especially so far as regards the earlier part of his works, that he does not quote by name the authorities from whom he drew his materials. He frequently mentions the conflict of preceding writers, but does not specify who they were, or whether they were contemporaneous with the events which they recorded. He strives hard to rise above the meagre creeping gait of the old chroniclers, and the effects of a classical education are continually visible in his work.

  Is often coupled with Fabyan as one of the two beginners of English prose history…. There is no particular reason for coupling him with Fabyan. More comes between them as a historian with his “Edward V.” Hall was a man of better education than Fabyan…. His style is not equal to More’s, and better than Fabyan’s.

  It was certainly, in its day, a wonderful example of what might be done in English prose; nor can we refuse to accord it a certain meed of admiration even now. There has certainly been much pompous English since Hall’s day without half so much weight of matter.

  It is for the early years of Henry VIII that he becomes an authority of the greatest value, not so much for the facts which he relates as for the light which he throws upon the social life and opinions of his times. He expresses the profound loyalty of the middle class, and represents the conditions which rendered possible the policy of the king. His descriptions of the festivities of the court are full and vivid; he shows us the discontent awakened by Wolsey, and gives many instructive accounts of London life, and of the growing spirit of independence among Englishmen. His literary merits are of high order, especially in his accounts of the opposition which Wolsey’s masterful proceedings aroused; his power of describing the action of a mob is admirable. Hall has scarcely yet met with due recognition. His chronicle was one of the books prohibited by Mary in 1555, and in consequence became rare. The later chronicles of Grafton, Holinshed, and Stow borrowed a good deal from Hall, and became more popular, so that Hall’s chronicle was not reprinted till 1809 by Ellis, and the only English historian who has seen its full value is Brewer in his “History of the Reign of Henry VIII.”

  He does not bury little matter under many words.

  Hall’s historical account, owing to the limitation of its subject, acquires a kind of dramatic interest, and this is sometimes effectively heightened by his naïve and vivid representation. The historical value of the work consists in its containing various independent communications, and, above all, its full information concerning the state of civilization in the days of Henry VIII. The history of literature, too, is indebted to him for important notices relating to the first fruits of the secular drama.

  Hall, who begins to tell a story better than Fabian, often loses the point of it in some silly detail.