View source for Lyman Hall

{{short description|American Founding Father and politician}}

{{About|the Georgia governor and signer of the Declaration of Independence|the second president of Georgia Tech|Lyman Hall (academic)|the high school|Lyman Hall High School}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2018}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|name                =Lyman Hall
|image               =Lyman Hall.jpg
|office              =18th [[Governor of Georgia]]
|term_start          =January 7, 1783
|term_end            =January 9, 1784
|lieutenant          =
|predecessor         =[[John Martin (Governor of Georgia)|John Martin]]
|successor           =[[John Houstoun]]
|order2= Delegate from Georgia to the <br> [[Continental Congress]]
|term_start2=1775
|term_end2=1777
|birth_date          =April 13, 1724
|birth_place         =[[Wallingford, Connecticut]], British America
|death_date          = {{death date and age|1790|10|19|1724|4|12}}
|death_place         =[[Burke County, Georgia]], U.S.
|nationality         =
|party               =[[Pro-Administration Party|Pro-Administration]]
|spouse              = Abigail Burr (1752-1753) and Mary Osborn (1757-1790)
|relations           =
|children            =  Isaac Hall (1753-1794) and John Lyman Hall
|residence           =America|alma_mater          =
|occupation          =
|profession          =Clergyman<br> [[Physician|Medical Doctor]] <br> Member [[Continental Congress]] <br> [[Governor (United States)|Governor]] <br>   founder of [[University of Georgia]]
|religion            = 
|signature           = Lyman Hall signature.png
|website             =
|footnotes           =
}}

'''Lyman Hall''' (April 12, 1724 – October 19, 1790) was an [[Founding Father of the United States|American Founding Father]], physician, clergyman, and statesman who signed the [[United States Declaration of Independence]] as a representative of [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]].<ref name=Bernstein2001>{{cite book |last=Bernstein|first=Richard B. |author-link=Richard B. Bernstein |title=The Founding Fathers Reconsidered | chapter=Appendix: The Founding Fathers: A Partial List |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2011 |orig-date=2009 |isbn=978-0199832576 |location=New York |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/foundingfathersr0000bern/page/176/mode/2up}}</ref> [[Hall County, Georgia|Hall County]] is named after him. He was one of four physicians to sign the Declaration, along with [[Benjamin Rush]], [[Josiah Bartlett]], and [[Matthew Thornton]].

== Early life and family ==
[[File:Coat of arms of Lyman Hall.svg|200px|thumb|left|Coat of Arms of Lyman Hall]]
Hall was born on April 12, 1724, in [[Wallingford, Connecticut]]. He was the son of John Hall, a minister,<ref name=":0">{{Harvnb|Garraty|Carnes|1990|pp=865–66}}</ref> and Mary (née Street) Hall, daughter of Rev. Samuel Street.<ref>{{Harvnb|Cook|2005|p=50}}</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/details/hallancestryseri00hall/page/254/mode/2up Hall Ancestry : a Series of Sketches], Charles S. Hall, G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1896, p. 98-255-256</ref> He studied with his uncle Samuel Hall<ref name=":1">{{Harvnb|Dexter|1896|pp=116–19}}</ref> and graduated from [[Yale College]] in 1747,<ref>[[#CITEREFUnited_States_CongressH000061|United States Congress]]</ref> a tradition in his family. He was a nephew of Anne Law, daughter of Gov. [[Jonathan Law]], cousin of Dr. [[William Brenton Hall]], and a grandnephew of Capt. [[Theophilus Yale]] of the [[Yale (surname)|Yale family]].<ref>[https://www.seekingmyroots.com/members/files/G003445.pdf Family Records of Theodore Parsons Hall], W. C. Heath Printing Co., Detroit, Michigan, 1892, p. 10</ref><ref>[https://www.dsdi1776.com/signer/lyman-hall/ Lyman Hall (1721-1790)], 
Descendants of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence Society, Thornton C. Lockwood, 2008, Accessed January 26, 2024</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/details/hallancestryseri00hall/page/254/mode/2up Hall Ancestry : a Series of Sketches], Charles S. Hall, G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1896, p. 98-255-256</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=QjNVJnNF7_MC&q=theophilus+yale+john+hall+sarah+mary&pg=PA298 Early Families of Wallingford, Connecticut], Charles Henry Stanley Davis, Clearfield, Baltimore, Maryland, 1979, p. 297-298</ref> In 1749, he was called to the pulpit of Stratfield Parish (now [[Bridgeport, Connecticut]]). His pastorate was a stormy one: an outspoken group of parishioners opposed his ordination; in 1751, he was dismissed after charges against his moral character which, according to one biography, "were supported by proof and also by his own confession." He continued to preach for two more years, filling vacant pulpits, while he studied medicine and taught school.

In 1752, he married Abigail Burr of [[Fairfield, Connecticut]]; she died the following year.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> In 1757, he married Mary Osborne.<ref>{{Harvnb|Young|2010}}</ref> He migrated to [[South Carolina]] and established himself as a physician at [[Dorchester, South Carolina]], near [[Charleston, South Carolina|Charleston]],<ref name=":1" /> a community settled by [[Congregational church|Congregationalist]] migrants from [[Dorchester, Massachusetts]], decades earlier. When these settlers moved to the [[Midway, Georgia|Midway District]]{{spaced ndash}}now [[Liberty County, Georgia|Liberty County]]{{spaced ndash}}in Georgia, Hall accompanied them. Hall soon became one of the leading citizens of the newly founded town of [[Sunbury, Georgia|Sunbury]].

== Revolutionary War ==
On the eve of the [[American Revolution]], St. John's Parish, in which Sunbury was located, was a hotbed of radical sentiment in a predominantly [[Loyalist (American Revolution)|Loyalist]] colony. Though Georgia was not initially represented in the [[First Continental Congress]], through Hall's influence the parish was persuaded to send a delegate to Philadelphia to the [[Second Continental Congress]]. Hall was delegated and was admitted to a seat in the Congress in 1775. He was one of the three Georgians and one of four doctors to sign the document of Independence.<ref>{{Harvnb|Rosen|1976|pp=397–398}}</ref>

In January 1779, Sunbury was burned by the British. Hall's family fled to the North, where they remained until the British evacuation in 1782. Hall then returned to Georgia, settling in [[Savannah, Georgia|Savannah]]. In January 1783, he was elected [[governor of Georgia|governor]] of the state{{spaced ndash}}a position that he held for one year. While governor, Hall advocated the chartering of a state university, believing that education, particularly religious education, would result in a more virtuous citizenry. His efforts led to the chartering of the [[University of Georgia]] in 1785. At the expiration of his term as governor, he resumed his medical practice.

== Death and legacy ==
In 1790, Hall moved to a plantation in [[Burke County, Georgia]], on the South Carolina border, where he died on October 19 at the age of 66. Hall's widow died in November 1798.
.

Lyman Hall is memorialized in Georgia where [[Hall County, Georgia]], bears his name; and in Connecticut, his native state, where the town of Wallingford honored him by naming a [[Lyman Hall High School|high school]] after its distinguished native son. Elementary schools in [[Liberty County, Georgia]], and in Hall County, Georgia, are also named for him. [[Signers Monument]], a granite obelisk in front of the courthouse in [[Augusta, Georgia]], memorializes Hall along with [[Button Gwinnett]] and [[George Walton]] as Georgians who signed the Declaration of Independence. His remains were re-interred there in 1848 after being exhumed from his original grave on his plantation in Burke County.

==See also==
{{Portal|Biography}}
* [[Memorial to the 56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence]]
*[[Founding Fathers of the United States]]

== Notes ==
{{Reflist}}

== References ==
{{Source-attribution|{{Harvnb|Dexter|1896}}}}{{Refbegin}}
*{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m0ATAAAAYAAJ|title=The Governors of Georgia, 1754–2004|last=Cook|first=James F.|date=2005|publisher=Mercer University Press|isbn=978-0-86554-954-8|pages=50|language=en}}
*{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/biographicalske06dextgoog|title=Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College: May 1745-May 1763|last=Dexter|first=Franklin Bowditch|date=1896|publisher=Holt|pages=[https://archive.org/details/biographicalske06dextgoog/page/n131 116]–19|language=en-US|chapter=Lyman Hall}}
*{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/americannational09garr#page/865/mode/1up|title=American national biography|last1=Garraty|first1=John Arthur|last2=Carnes|first2=Mark Christopher|publisher=Oxford University Press|others=Internet Archive|year=1990|isbn=0-19-520635-5|location=New York|pages=865–66}} (American Council of Learned Societies)
*{{Cite journal|last=Rosen|first=George|date=April 1976|title=Benjamin Rush on Health and the American Revolution|journal=American Journal of Public Health|volume=66|issue=4|pages=397–398|doi=10.2105/ajph.66.4.397|pmc=1653277|pmid=773197}}
*{{CongBio|H000061|accessdate=August 23, 2018}}
*{{Cite book|last1=Young|first1=James Harvey|title=American National Biography|date=2010|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=London|url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ers&AN=88826659&site=eds-live&scope=site|access-date=May 24, 2016}}
{{Refend}}

== Further reading ==
{{Refbegin}}
*{{Cite book|title=Centennial of Meriden: June 10-16, 1906|last=Brown|first=E. R.|date=1906|publisher=Journal Publishing Company|others=The General Centennial Committee of [[Meriden, Connecticut|Meriden]], [[Connecticut]]|editor-last=Atwater|editor-first=Francis|pages=229–31|language=en|chapter=Friday, June 15 – Wallingford Day: Address by E. R. Brown|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ff4nAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA229}}
*{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/21669330/16/|title=Dr. Lyman Street Hall: Connecticut's Contribution to Colonial Georgia|last=Clark|first=Walter A.|date=March 16, 1910|work=Hartford Courant|access-date=July 8, 2018}}
*{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/hallancestry00hallgoog|title=Hall Ancestry|last=Hall|first=Charles Samuel|date=1896|publisher=G. P. Putnam's Sons|pages=[https://archive.org/details/hallancestry00hallgoog/page/n324 304]–12|language=en}}
{{Refend}}

== External links ==
*{{Find a Grave|2786}}
*[http://www.dsdi1776.com/signers-by-state/lyman-hall/ Lyman Hall, The Society of the Descendants of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence]
*[http://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/topics/historical_markers/county/hall/lyman-hall Lyman Hall] historical marker

{{S-start}}
{{s-off}}
{{Succession box
| before= [[John Martin (Governor of Georgia)|John Martin]]
| title= [[List of governors of Georgia|Governor of Georgia]]
| years= 1783–1784
| after= [[John Houstoun]]}}
{{S-end}}

{{USDecOfIndSig}}
{{Governors of Georgia}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hall, Lyman}}
[[Category:1724 births]]
[[Category:1790 deaths]]
[[Category:Continental Congressmen from Georgia (U.S. state)]]
[[Category:Governors of Georgia (U.S. state)]]
[[Category:Signatories of the United States Declaration of Independence]]
[[Category:American people of English descent]]
[[Category:People of Georgia (U.S. state) in the American Revolution]]
[[Category:People from Wallingford, Connecticut]]
[[Category:Yale University alumni]]
[[Category:Yale family]]
[[Category:University of Georgia]]
[[Category:American Congregationalists]]
[[Category:American slave owners]]
[[Category:Independent state governors of the United States]]
[[Category:Georgia (U.S. state) independents]]
[[Category:People from Liberty County, Georgia]]
[[Category:Physicians from Connecticut]]
[[Category:Physicians from Georgia (U.S. state)]]
[[Category:18th-century American physicians]]
[[Category:Founding Fathers of the United States]]