Myers Literary Guide:
The North-East
 

JOHN HALL (1627 - 56)

The poet and pamphleteer was born in Durham and educated there and at Cambridge. Aged nineteen, Hall published Horae Vacivae or Essays. His friend John Davies states that these essays 'amazed not only the University but the more serious part of men in the three nations.' The essays were followed by Poems, published at Cambridge in 1647.

In 1648, Hall 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'. This proposes that the university curriculum is too restricted and money should be spent on more professors and fewer fellows. Hall accompanied Cromwell to Scotland in 1650, where he drew up 'The Grounds and Reasons for Monarchy' with an appendix of 'An Epitome of Scottish Affairs'. Other pamphlets led to a pension from Cromwell. Hall's publications also include Paradoxes (1650) and the posthumous Hierocles (1657).

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