John Hall (1633–1710) was an English churchman and academic, Master of Pembroke College, Oxford, and

Bishop of Bristol A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ...

. He was known as the last of the English bishops to hold to traditional

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

views.

Life

He was son of John Hall, vicar of Bromsgrove,

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...

, and Anne his wife, and was born at his father's vicarage on 29 January 1633. His extended family held presbyterian views; an uncle, Thomas Hall, was an ejected minister in 1662. His brother-in-law, John Spilsbury, held the vicarage of Bromsgrove under the Commonwealth, and also was ejected; his nephew John Spilsbury, a dissenting minister at

Kidderminster Kidderminster is a large market and historic minster town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, south-west of Birmingham and north of Worcester. Located north of the River Stour and east of the River Severn, in the 2011 census, it ha ...

, became his heir. John Hall was admitted to Merchant Taylors' School in June 1644, and went on to Pembroke College, Oxford, where he was under the tuition of another uncle, Edmund Hall. Hall became a scholar of Pembroke in 1650, and graduated B. A. in 1651, and M.A. in 1653, when he was also elected fellow. He was chosen Master of Pembroke on 31 December 1664, and appointed to the college living of

St Aldate's, Oxford St Aldate's () is a street in central Oxford, England, named after Saint Aldate, but formerly known as Fish Street. The street runs south from the generally acknowledged centre of Oxford at Carfax. The Town Hall, which includes the Museum ...

, which he held '' in commendam'' till his death. He took his degree of B.D. in 1666, and of D.D. in 1669. He became Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Oxford on 24 March 1676. He preached bitterly against Catholic at St. Mary's on 5 November at the time of the Popish Plot allegations in 1678. He was also domestic chaplain to Charles II. Hall was elected bishop of Bristol, but continued to hold his mastership. He was consecrated in Bow Church on 30 August 1691; the MP Thomas Foley had earlier pressed the new king in July 1689 to have him as the new Bishop of Winchester.John Trevor Cliffe, ''The Puritan Gentry Besieged, 1650-1700'' (1993), p. 92. He chiefly resided at Oxford, where in 1695 he built a new Master's Lodge. He died there in February 1710, and was buried in the church of at Bromsgrove, where a monument was erected to him on the south wall of the chancel, with an epitaph by William Adams (1673–1714), student of Christ Church and rector of Stanton-on-Wye. He left generous legacies.

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hall, John 1633 births 1710 deaths Masters of Pembroke College, Oxford Bishops of Bristol People associated with the Popish Plot 17th-century English Puritan ministers Lady Margaret Professors of Divinity 17th-century Church of England bishops 18th-century Church of England bishops