Henry Hall (Covenanter)

Add links
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Henry Hall of Haughhead
Jehovah Nissi
For Christ & His Truths
No Quarters For The Active Enemies Of The Covenant[1]
Personal details
Died1680
DenominationPresbyterian

Henry Hall was a Covenanter and

Pentland Rising. He fought as an officer at Drumclog and at Bothwell Bridge. He was part of a group, along with Richard Cameron and Donald Cargill, who were openly opposed to the government's religious policies. Hall was intercepted at South Queensferry where Robert Middleton, the governor of Blackness Castle, tried to arrest him along with Donald Cargill. Hall managed to hold off the governor but received a mortal headwound from the butt of a gun from a taxman after Cargill had escaped. An unsigned and probably unfinished work known as The Queensferry Paper
was found on Hall which caused considerable disquiet when it was read by government supporters.

Family background

The inscribed stone at Haughhead

Henry Hall of Haughhead was a Covenanter and a landowner. He was a son of Robert (locally called Hobbie) Hall, whose name stands in an old valuation roll of 1643 as proprietor of Haughhead, on the banks of the

Lower Teviotdale. The estate, now annexed to adjoining property of the Duke of Buccleuch, was then valued at £200 a year. The ruins of the dwelling-house, which was continuously occupied till the end of the eighteenth century, are still preserved. Near the house is a flat stone inscribed with verses commemorating an encounter in 1620 between 'Hobbie' Hall and some neighbours who attempted to seize the land on behalf of a powerful landowner. The family belonged to a clan long famous on the borders.[2]

Early life

Cessford Castle ruins

The son, Henry, of strong religious temperament, actively opposed the resolutions adopted by the moderate party in the church in 1651 and ceased to attend the church at Eckford. He went each week instead to

dragoons, admirably adapted it for this purpose. There Richard Cameron was licensed to preach the gospel.[2]

Political aspirations

Replica Covenanter flag, Royal Scottish Museum

Hall was one of four Covenanting elders who, at a council of war at Shawhead Muir, on 18 June 1679, were appointed, with Cargill, Douglas, King, and Barclay, to draw up a statement of Causes of the Lord's wrath against the Land. He was also one of the commanding officers of the Covenanters' army from the skirmish at Drumclog till their defeat at Bothwell Bridge (June 1679). The blue silk banner carried before him in battle was in possession of a family in Moffat, Dumfriesshire.[1] On 25 June 1679 the Scottish privy council ordered a search for Hall but he escaped to the Netherlands and returned after three months.[2]

Capture at Queensferry

Hall seems to have spent a lot of time around

Pentland fame, lived near at hand, at Binns, a residence about a mile south from Blackness, and with a party of his guards came, and, though it was evident Hall was dying, carried him away prisoner to Edinburgh, and he died among their hands on the road. His body was carried to the Canongate Tolbooth, and lay there three days, when it was interred at night by his friends.[6][7]

The Queensferry paper

When Hall was taken, there was found upon him a paper that has been called, from the place where it was got, the Queensferry Paper. It was not acknowledged by Donald Cargill, for it does not seem to have been revised; and it was unsigned, but it is not doubted that it mainly came from his pen. The Queensferry Paper, shocked the government as the subscribers renounced allegiance to the existing king and government, and engaged to defend their rights and privileges, natural, civil, and divine.[8][2] Some writers point to it as being an early proclamation of the freedom of religion and of self-defence; others point out the radical nature of the politics, foreshadowing the Sanquhar Declaration of 22 June 1680- a year to the day after the battle of Bothwell Bridge.[9][10][4][5]

Family

  • Robert Hall was a son.
  • George Hall was a grandson [born 1680, son of 1728 Robert Hall of Haughhead, and grandson of Henry Hall, the Covenanter ; M.A. (Edinburgh, 26 June 1699) ; chaplain to Pringle of Torsonce ; licen. by Presb. of Earlston 8 Aug. 1706 ; chaplain to Thomas, Earl of Haddington ; ord. to Abbotrule 23 Sept. 1714; pres. by James Murray of Cherrytrees ; trans, and adm. 24 Oct. 1728 ; died 30 Nov. 1740. He marr. 17 July 1716, Emily (died at Edinburgh, 1768), daugh. of Andrew Duncan, Scone, and had issue — Patrick ; Gilbert ; Robert, bursar of the Presb. ; Jean (marr. April 1748, Colin Campbell, writer, Edinburgh). Publication — Practical Sermons on Several Subjects (Edinburgh, 1732)].[11]
  • Robert Hall (1763-1824) was a great-grandson.[2]

Bibliography

  • Old Valuation Roll, 1643-78
  • Howie's Scots Worthies, ed. 1870[12]
  • Records of Privy Council of Scotland
  • Statistical Account of Eckford Parish, 1793[13]
  • Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, and note
  • Transactions of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club[1]
  • personal visit and inquiries in the locality.[2]

References

Citations
  1. ^ a b c Drummond 1862.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Tait 1890.
  3. ^ Thomson 1903.
  4. ^ a b Muir 2004.
  5. ^ a b Jardine.
  6. ^ Thomson 1903, p346.
  7. ^ Thomson 1871, p512-513.
  8. ^ Johnston 1887.
  9. ^ Thomson 1903, p347.
  10. ^ Thomson 1871, p514-517.
  11. ^ Scott 1917, p. 76.
  12. ^ Howie 1870.
  13. ^ Yair 1845.
Sources
  • Anderson, William (1877). "Henry Hall, of Haugh-head". The Scottish nation: or, The surnames, families, literature, honours, and biographical history of the people of Scotland. Vol. 2. A. Fullarton & co. p. 409.Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Henry_Hall_(Covenanter)&oldid=1150481906"