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John Hall (1575 – 25 November 1635) was a physician and son-in-law of William Shakespeare.


Life

He was born at Carlton, Bedfordshire 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 sid ...
from 1589, receiving a B.A. in 1593 and a M.A. in 1597. He became a physician, although he did not hold an English medical degree; it has been speculated that he studied medicine in France. 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. Their home in Stratford,
Hall's Croft Hall's Croft is a building in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England, which was owned by William Shakespeare's daughter, Susanna Hall, and her husband Dr John Hall whom she married in 1607. The building is listed grade I, and now co ...
, is now open to the public. After Shakespeare's death, they moved into his former house at New Place. 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. 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 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'', by Peter Whelan. 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 Independent ...
. He was portrayed by Tom Hiddleston 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 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.


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