Henry Hall

Henry Hall (1661 – 8 December 1755), also referred to as Richard or Wm (i.e. William) Hall by contemporary sources, was a British lighthouse keeper who worked on the Eddystone Lighthouse, in the English county of Devon, some 9 statute miles (14 kilometres) southwest of Rame Head, Cornwall, UK.

Background Born in 1661, Henry Hall is the oldest-known member of the Hall Family of lighthouse keepers that kept lights around the English and Welsh coasts from at least the mid-eighteenth century until 1913. The Hall family intermarried with two lighthouse keeping families: the Knotts and the Darling family. One of the better known members of Darling family was Grace Darling, who participated in the rescue of survivors of the Forfarshire.

Eddystone Lighthouse fire Hall is remembered for his actions following a fire at the Eddystone Lighthouse on December 2, 1755, when the wooden Rudyerd's Tower of 1706 burned down. At around 9 p.m., approximately half an hour after Roger Short (also referred to as Thomas Short At around 10 a.m., the three men were spotted by a passing boat of fishermen. Due to rough surf, the sailors were unable to dock near the cave. The sailors threw a rope to Hall and his companions who tied them around their waists and were pulled through the water to the boat. Hall spoke to Dr. Spry "with a hoarse voice, scarce to be heard, that melted lead had run down his throat into his body"

Dr. Spry conducted an autopsy on Hall noting that, "left side of his body, below the short ribs, in the breast, mouth and throat ... left side of the head and face, with the eye extremely burnt". The autopsy revealed that "the diaphragmatic upper mouth of the stomach greatly inflamed and ulcerated, and the tunica in the lower part of the stomach burnt; and from the great cavity of it took out a great piece of lead ... which weighed exactly seven ounces, five drachms and eighteen grains." To disperse any doubt, Dr. Spry conducted a series of experiments with dogs and fowl to demonstrate that the heat of molten lead was not only not lethal when swallowed, but could be born by the stomach for several days without impeding feeding, and presented them to George Parker, 2nd Earl of Macchesfield and at the time president of the Royal Society. He also presented these results (including a live demonstration of the recovery of pieces of lead from the stomach of a live young chicken, sacrificed on site) to Dr. John Huxham, fellow of the Society, so he would support the veracity of his claims.