John Hall

Who was John Hall?

John Hall was the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, meeting in Burntisland in 1601. The Assembly asked King James the VI of Scotland to order a revised translation of the Holy Scriptures. It seems that this was the King’s own suggestion, but, despite expressing admiration for the King’s considerable linguistic and theological abilities, the Assembly declined to invite him onto the committee it set up to carry out this task. The main task was to revise an already existing English translation - the so-called Geneva Bible which contained extensive footnotes and explanations, many of them not acceptable to the King. It was not until he became King James I of England that he commissioned a group of English clergy and scholars to complete this task. The result was the famous Authorised Version of the Scriptures, a book that has had enormous effects on the English language as well as on the civil and religious history of the English speaking peoples.

John Hall was born in Kirkcudbright in about 1559, an area with later significant Covenanting associations. His father, Andrew Hall, was a merchant of the town. John trained for the Ministry of the Church of Scotland and is recorded as being Minister of Colinton, in Edinburgh in 1579. In 1586 he is recorded as being part of a commission to try some people in Lothian suspected of heresy. He was appointed Minister of Leith on 24 October 1596. Two years later, on 7 December 1598, he was appointed Minister of the Second Charge at St Giles, Edinburgh. In 1600, the King forbade him to preach anywhere in his kingdom, because he had declined to offer prayers of thanksgiving for the Kings safe deliverance for the Gowrie Conspiracy. Apparently, Hall did not fully believe there had been a plot to kill the king. However, when called before the Privy Council on 10 September 1600, he declared himself satisfied that there had been a plot. He was reinstated. He was appointed constant Moderator of the Presbytery in 1606 and was twice a member of the Court of High Commission, which James used to enforce religious conformity. He later extended this to England,. He was a member of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1610.