HALL, Charles (1603-69), of Kettlethorpe, Lincs.

Hall belonged to a cadet branch of a prominent Grantham family that had settled in Derbyshire in Tudor times.28Lincs. Peds. 440-1; Dugdale’s Notts. and Derbys. Vis. Pprs. (Harl. Soc. n.s. vi), 145. He was still a minor when his father died; his wardship being granted to his mother.29WARD9/205, f. 131. Hall’s father had evidently been a gentleman of substance, leaving legacies in his will of over £1,500 and bequeathing lands in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Staffordshire.30PROB11/132, f. 99v. Although Hall inherited these properties, he established his principal residence at Kettlethorpe, near Lincoln, which he acquired through his first marriage. He was also seized, through his first wife, of the advowson of Kettlethorpe and of numerous lands and properties in the surrounding townships.31Lincs. RO, 2-AMC/6/C/5/15, 17. Hall’s social circle during the 1630s included the leading Lincolnshire lawyer and future parliamentarian William Ellys*, who referred to Hall as his ‘very loving friend’.32Lincs. RO, AMC/6/C/3/1-2. Ellys advised Hall in the latter’s long-running legal dispute with Francis Willoughby, 5th Baron Willoughby of Parham over enclosures at Kettlethorpe.33Lincs. RO, AMC/6/C/5/1-18. Hall may also have been on familiar terms during the 1630s with the Buckinghamshire gentleman and future parliamentarian Arthur Goodwin*.34Lincs. RO, AMC/6/C/3/2.

Hall sided with Parliament during the civil war – a decision that was probably linked to his religious convictions, for he was an active member of the commission established by the earl of Manchester early in 1644 for removing ‘idle, ill-affected [to Parliament], scandalous and insolent clergy’ in Lincolnshire.35‘The royalist clergy of Lincs.’ ed. Hill, 73. He was also a leading member of the Lincolnshire county committee, and as such he was closely involved in its dispute with Colonel Edward King during the mid-1640s.36SP28/161, unfol.; SP28/211, f. 514; CSP Dom. 1644-5, pp. 229, 244; E. King, A Discovery of the Arbitrary, Tyrannical and Illegal Actions of…the Committee of…Lincoln (1647, E.373.3); C. Holmes, ‘Col. King and Lincs. politics, 1642-6’, HJ xvi. 451-84. King publicly denounced the committee for its arbitrary proceedings and seems to have regarded Hall as one of its more corrupt members, alleging that he had colluded with his fellows in order to avoid paying taxes on his land.37King, Discovery, 7. Hall, for his part, signed several of the committee’s letters to Westminster complaining of King’s contempt for parliamentary authority and of his rabble-rousing activities.38Bodl. Tanner 50, f. 478: Tanner 58, f. 39: Nalson VI, f. 72. In July 1648, at the height of the second civil war, he signed a letter to Parliament from the committee for Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire, requesting that

for the future discouragement of ... rebellious practices in the kingdom, some of the chiefest actors in this late design [in the midlands] may be brought to speedy trial at the assizes ... and the rest of the prisoners now in custody to be sent over sea [sic], who will otherwise remain here as seeds of new insurrections.39Bodl. Nalson VII, f. 122; HMC Portland, i. 477.

Hall seems to have had little sympathy for the Rump, and vice versa, for he was omitted or removed from all commissions between 1650 and the dissolution of the Rump.40C231/6, pp. 191, 230. In addition, his father-in-law by his second marriage, Sir Thomas Trollope, was arrested early in 1651, apparently on suspicion of plotting against the commonwealth.41CSP Dom. 1651, pp. 102, 104, 107.

In the elections to the first protectoral Parliament in the summer of 1654, Hall was returned for Lincolnshire, taking what was apparently the fourth of the county’s ten places.42Supra, ‘Lincolnshire’. It is not clear whether he was elected primarily on his own interest as a Lincolnshire landowner or whether he owed his place to a patron such as William Ellys, who was an influential figure in the county and was returned for Boston.43Supra, ‘William Ellys’. Either Charles or his fellow Lincolnshire MP Thomas Hall (no relation) was added to the committee of privileges on 5 October, but that represented the sum total of both men’s appointments in this Parliament.44CJ vii. 373b. In the elections to the second protectoral Parliament in the summer of 1656, Hall was again returned for Lincolnshire, receiving 538 votes on a poll and taking the sixth place.45Supra, ‘Lincolnshire’. Of the ten successful candidates, however, Hall and five others were excluded by the protectoral council as enemies of the government.46Supra, ‘Lincolnshire’; CJ vii. 425b. Perhaps the most likely explanation for his exclusion is that he was accounted hostile to the rule of the major-generals.

Hall was evidently not trusted by the Restoration authorities, for he was omitted from all local commissions during the early 1660s. After the death of his second wife in mid-1660, he appears to have resided quietly in his house at Nottingham.47Lincs. RO, 2-AMC/6/C/3/5-6. He died on 1 December 1669 and was buried two days later at Kettlethorpe.48Lincs. Peds. 441. In his will, he left the bulk of his estate to his three surviving sons and bequeathed £2,000 to each of his two daughters for their portions.49PROB11/332, ff. 468v-469. No immediate member of his family sat in any later Parliament.