Hall, ROBERT, dissenting preacher and writer, was born at Arnsby, near Leicester, May 2, 1764.
Feeble in body but precocious in intellect, he learned to read before he could speak. He was educated at a Baptist academy at Bristol (1778-81), and at King's College, Aberdeen (1781-85), where he formed an intimate companionship with (Sir James) Mackintosh. Immediately after his graduation he was appointed assistant minister and tutor in the academy at Bristol. Here his eloquent preaching attracted overflowing audiences. As an orator he was fluent, rapid, and impressive, and was liberal, but not heterodox, in his religious views. In consequence of a disagreement with his colleague, he went in 1790 to Cambridge, where by his powerful and vivid eloquence he rose to the highest rank of British pulpit orators. His writings, apart from sermons, are few; the more important are an Apology for the Freedom of the Press (1793) and On Terns of Communion (1815). In 1806 he settled in Leicester; but returned in 1826 to Bristol, where he died February 21, 1831. A complete edition of his works, with a memoir by Dr O. Gregory, and Observations on his Preaching by John Foster, was published at London (6 vols. 1831-33; 11th ed. 1853).