John Hall (1575 – 25 November 1635) was a

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

and son-in-law of

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

Life

He was born at

Carlton, Bedfordshire Carlton is a small village in north Bedfordshire in England. It is part of the Carlton with Chellington parish with the adjacent village of Chellington. The River Great Ouse runs just to the north of the village. Nearby places are Harrold, Pav ...

and studied at

Queens' College, Cambridge Queens' College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Queens' is one of the oldest colleges of the university, founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou. The college spans the River Cam, colloquially referred to as the "light s ...

from 1589, receiving a B.A. in 1593 and a M.A. in 1597. He became a

, although he did not hold an English medical degree; it has been speculated that he studied medicine in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. He established a practice in

Stratford-upon-Avon Stratford-upon-Avon (), commonly known as just Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is situated on the River Avon, north-we ...

, where he was the only doctor in the town. He married Shakespeare's daughter Susanna on 5 June 1607. They had one daughter,

Elizabeth Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to: People * Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name) * Elizabeth (biblical figure), mother of John the Baptist Ships * HMS ''Elizabeth'', several ships * ''Elisabeth'' (sch ...

. Their home in Stratford, Hall's Croft, is now open to the public. After Shakespeare's death, they moved into his former house at

New Place New Place () was William Shakespeare's final place of residence in Stratford-upon-Avon. He died there in 1616. Though the house no longer exists, the site is owned by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, which maintains it as a specially-desig ...

. Hall appears to have had a close relationship with his father-in-law, as they are recorded being in agreement over a local issue regarding enclosure in 1613. They are also known to have travelled together to London on business in 1614.

Defamation case

Hall was a leading local

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic Church, Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become m ...

. He had supported the Puritan vicar, Thomas Wilson, against whom there was much local opposition. In 1613, a member of the anti-Wilson faction, John Lane, defamed Susanna, claiming she had committed adultery with one Ralph Smith, a 35-year-old haberdasher, and had caught a venereal disease from Smith. On 15 July the Halls brought suit for slander against Lane in the

Consistory Court A consistory court is a type of ecclesiastical court, especially within the Church of England where they were originally established pursuant to a charter of King William the Conqueror, and still exist today, although since about the middle of th ...

at Worcester. Robert Whatcott, who three years later witnessed Shakespeare's will, testified for the Halls, but Lane failed to appear. Lane was found guilty and excommunicated. He was later involved in a riot to protest against Wilson.

Writings

Hall prepared two notebooks of his

case notes The terms medical record, health record and medical chart are used somewhat interchangeably to describe the systematic documentation of a single patient's medical history and care across time within one particular health care provider's jurisdic ...

with the intention that they be published. They were purchased and translated from

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

by James Cooke (1614–1688), a surgeon. He published them in 1657, 22 years after Hall's death, as . The earliest case, in Stratford, dates from 1611, making it almost certain that Hall lived and worked in Stratford from at least the time of his marriage. The first notebook still survives, but the original manuscript of the second notebook has been lost. * Wells, Greg; Edmondson, Paul (Eds.): ''John Hall, Master of Physicke - a casebook from Shakespeare's Stratford'', Manchester : Manchester University Press, 2020,

Portrayals

The slander case has been used as the subject of a play, ''

The Herbal Bed ''The Herbal Bed'' (1996) is a play by Peter Whelan, written specifically for the Royal Shakespeare Company. The play is set in the year 1613 and is about Susanna Hall, daughter of William Shakespeare, who is accused of adultery with local haber ...

'', by

Peter Whelan Peter Whelan (3 October 1931 – 3 July 2014) was a British playwright. Whelan was born and raised in Stoke-on-Trent, England. As a student from 1951–55 Whelan was an inspirational figure in the newly-formed Drama Society at the experimenta ...

. In the original production Hall was played by

Liam Cunningham Liam Cunningham (born 2 June 1961) is an Irish actor. He is known for playing Davos Seaworth in the HBO epic-fantasy series ''Game of Thrones''. Cunningham has been nominated for the London Film Critics' Circle Award, the British Independe ...

. He was portrayed by

Tom Hiddleston Thomas William Hiddleston (born 9 February 1981) is an English actor. He gained international fame portraying Loki in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), starting with ''Thor'' in 2011 and most recently in the Disney+ series ''Loki'' in 2021 ...

in '' A Waste of Shame: The Mystery of Shakespeare and His Sonnets'', a TV film first broadcast on

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

on 22 November 2005 as part of a supporting programme for the BBC's

ShakespeaRe-Told ''ShakespeaRe-Told'' is the umbrella title for a series of four television adaptations of William Shakespeare's plays broadcast on BBC One during November 2005. In a similar manner to the 2003 production of '' The Canterbury Tales'', each play i ...

season.

Hadley Fraser Robert Hugh "Hadley" Fraser (born 21 April 1980) is an English actor and singer. He made his West End debut as Marius in ''Les Misérables''. He also originated the role of Tiernan in the Broadway show '' The Pirate Queen''. Life and career ...

portrayed him in the 2018 movie ''All Is True'', directed by

Kenneth Branagh Sir Kenneth Charles Branagh (; born 10 December 1960) is a British actor and filmmaker. Branagh trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and has served as its president since 2015. He has won an Academy Award, four BAFTAs (plus ...

References

External links

Shakespeare and Queens'
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hall, John 16th-century English medical doctors 17th-century English medical doctors Shakespeare family 1575 births 1636 deaths People of the Elizabethan era 17th-century English Puritans Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge People from the Borough of Bedford