1830s/1840s CH student John Denton Hall?

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samuel.truett
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1830s/1840s CH student John Denton Hall?

Post by samuel.truett »

My name is Sam Truett, and I am a professor of history in the United States (at the University of New Mexico). I am writing a biography of an individual who according to family correspondence from the nineteenth century was a former Christ’s Hospital student. I am interested in getting in touch with someone who might be able to help me shine light on this individual.

His name was John Denton Hall, and I believe he was a student of the Royal Mathematical School—one of the so-called King’s Boys who were singled out for apprenticeship in the Royal Navy—during the late 1830s and early 1840s. His father was Thomas Hall, a prominent Staffordshire potter who with his father and brothers (firm of John Hall & Sons) went bankrupt in the 1830s. From what I’ve been able to determine from family correspondence, John Denton Hall's brothers may have also gone to Christ’s Hospital (if so, a bit later, in the 1840s). Their names were Frederick Thomas Hall and Charles Kennerley Hall, and with their cousin, Samuel Denton, they became successful nineteenth-century lawyers in London and Paris in the family firm Denton & Hall (today one of the most prominent UK law firms, Denton Wilde Sapte).

From family correspondence, it seems that John Denton Hall attended Christ’s Hospital, perhaps starting in the late 1830s, and then in the early 1840s went to sea with either the East India Company or the Royal Navy, fought in the Chinese opium wars and against East Indian pirates, and then somehow ended up in California in 1849 in the California Gold Rush. He traveled south to Mexico in 1850 to make his fortune in mining, hoping to return to England a rich man, but he fell in love instead. He spent the rest of his life in a small peasant village, had several Mexican children, and died there in the 1890s.

At some point late in life, he wrote his memoirs, which were published in the 1880s. They’re extremely rare and amazing, and they open a valuable window onto his times (only four copies of the book have survived), and until now, we have known next to nothing about him. When he went to Mexico, he literally vanished from the public map. Drawing on clues from his memoirs and fragmentary family papers, I’ve managed to track bits and pieces of his story back to England. I am hoping to write a book about his adventures, and I would love to give Christ’s Hospital its place in that story. Here is the segment from an 1878 letter from John Denton Hall’s brother, Charles Kennerley Hall, which leads me to believe the two were students at Christ’s Hospital:

"I always think kindly as you do of Christs Hospital and I feel very angry when I see a lot of ignorant fools write disparagingly of the old place.—Somehow or other boys don’t seem to be made as they were in our time & they appear to be less lively & happy. I doubt whether they ever play at “Gates” or “Storming the Castle” or other invigorating games of that sort now. They eat off ordinary plates & drink out of mugs! The cookery, is said to be much improved, but of this I have no good proof. There is much talk of removing the school to the Country. I sincerely hope it will not be done."

This was written about Christ’s Hospital at Newgate, 20-odd years before it was moved to its present location. What leads me to think John Denton Hall was a student there (and, I’m guessing, a student of the Royal Mathematical School) is that he went to sea at a young age, and sailed with and was well-known to one of the leading sea captains of the time, Sir Henry Keppel (who in the 1840s fought pirates in Borneo and sailed against opium clippers in China together with ships of the East India Company, and later became Admiral of the fleet). So he was more than just an ordinary sailor and later in life he took advantage of many skills (such as surveying) which indicate the sort of training one got in the Royal Mathematical School.

I would very much look forward to the chance to tell a bit about the intriguing history of Christ’s Hospital, through this story of one of its most intriguing “blues.” I wonder if amongst you there might be someone with a historical interest in CH who might be able to help me track young John Denton Hall down and shed light on his life, times, and friends at Christ's Hospital. I would be open to any thoughts or suggestions.

Warmest regards,

Sam Truett
Associate Professor of History
University of New Mexico
truett@unm.edu
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Re: 1830s/1840s CH student John Denton Hall?

Post by englishangel »

I know absolutely nothing about CH at Newgate in the 1830's but nothing changes does it? "Things were better in our day, students were tougher and they have now gone soft". If you go through the many threads on here you will find it much the same 170 years later, " the young of today don't know they're born".

I hope someone can help you becasue I think we will all find your book fascinating. John Hall probably found his riches in Mexico even if they weren't the sort you can bput in the bank.
"If a man speaks, and there isn't a woman to hear him, is he still wrong?"
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