Person Page - 2279

...He came from Coventry, Warwickshire, England, in 1630, to Charlestown, Mass., probably in the fleet with Gov. Winthrop. Coventry is about 95 miles north-west from London. It is not known whether he had a family then or not. He was then probably about 21 years of age. His name is No. 19 on the list of church members of the first church of Charlestown at it its (sic) organization, July 30, 1630. There was then no church in Boston; but in 1632, a majority of its members being on that side of Charles River, they caused its removal, and it became the first church of Boston. The remembers remaining organized a church in Charlestown, Nov. 2, 1632, consisting of 16 men and their wives and three unmarried men. Among this number were John Hall and his wife Bethia. John Hall had lot No. 48 in 1633. He was made freeman May 14, 1634. There is but little doubt that he resided in Barnstable in 1640; he was recorded as able to bear arms in 1643 and Mr. Paine, the historian of Harwich, Mass., said that John Hall was an inhabitant of Barnstable after 1647, and that he was a resident of Yarmouth in 1653. Barnstable and Yarmouth joined each other and were both incorporated as towns in 1639. That part of Yarmouth where John Hall lived was set off as a separate town in 1793 and named Dennis.
     Josiah S. Hall, one of the descendants of John Hall now (1880) owns and lives upon the old homestead in Dennis and says bethinks that John Hall moved on to it in 1641. Perhaps it might have been at that time claimed as a part of Barnstable. Josiah S. Hail, who has furnished me with a good deal of information, also says, "The Halls have occupied a position as good citizens, and I have never heard of any of them being guilty of a crime that would make any one who bore the name to blush, The emigrant ancestor was a man of character, though not much in office."

     The probability is that several of John Hall's kindred came to this country from Warwickshire, England. It is the tradition in Sutton that a brother, with his family, came with him in the same ship, and that this brother was the grandfather of Deacon Percival Hall, of Suton (sic), who appears by the history of Sutton to have been the chief means of procuring the settlement of one of John Hall's descendants as the pastor of the church of Sutton, viz : the Rev. Dr. David Hall, from Yarmouth.
     The relationship between the Halls of Yarmouth and the Halls of Medford is claimed also by their descendants who settled in Granville, N. Y.
     There are two marriages recorded in the N. E. H. G. Reg., which may have reference to this line of Halls. The first is in vol. 2, p. "John Hall of Warwickshire, Eng., married the youngest daughter of John Farmer, of Ansley, Warwickshire. John Farmer died 1669." The other is in vol. 1, p. 26. " ____ Pease married John Hall, of Warwickshire."
     As to the number of children had by John Hall, of Yarmouth, it is believed that he had twelve sons, although we have the names of only ten. But Rev. Dr. David Hall said that he had twelve sons, of whom he had seen seven.
     Arunah Hall, of New Lebanon, N. H, when he was 85 years old, in 1864, said that he had often heard his father say that his emigrant ancestor had twelve sons and no daughters.
     Five of these sons were very probably the children of his wife Bethia, but we find a record of only two. They are among the baptisms in Charlestown. John, son of John and Bethia Hall, 13, 3, 1638; Shebar, son of John and Bethia Hall, 9, 12, 1639. The children baptized in Yarmouth, beginning with Joseph, were the sons of John and Elizabeth Hall.
     John Hall made his will July 15, 1694, in which he mentions eight sons. His will was probated Aug. 29, 1696; he died July 23, 1696, and was buried on his farm.¹