Hall Family Collection
c. 1847-1890

DAL.SMS.089

Collection Overview:
Title: Hall Family Collection
Dates: c. 1847-1890
Creator: Caroline Hall
Call Number: DAL.SMS.089
Repository: Drew Archival Library
Location: Small Collections Box 3
Quantity: 1 folder
Language: English

Administrative Information:
Access Restrictions: collection is open to researchers
Acquisition Information: donated by Tony Kelso
Preferred form of citation: DAL.SMS.089, Hall Family Collection in the Drew Archival Library of the Duxbury Rural & Historical Society.
Finding Aid prepared by: Carolyn Ravenscroft, July 2015

Scope and Content:

The collection consists of two items relating to the Hall family of Hall’s Corner in Duxbury, MA. One item is a letter dated March 11, 1847 from Rev. James Hall in Boston to his brother, William Hall, regarding the Standish Estate in England. The other item is an eight page, handwritten booklet on the genealogy and history of the Duxbury branch of the Hall family (c. 1890) written by Caroline B. Hall, the daughter of Capt. Daniel Hall and Ruth Josselyn.

Biographical Information:

The Hall family in Duxbury, MA owned much of the land in what is now Hall’s Corner. Capt. Daniel Hall (1772-1847), the son of Capt. Joshua Hall, was a master mariner who sailed for Ezra Weston. In 1798 he married Ruth Standish Josselyn (d. 1873) of Hanover, MA, a descendant of Myles Standish. It was Ruth Josselyn Hall who recalled the location of the burial place of Myles Standish and that it was marked with field stones – this led to the first excavation of the Standish’s gravesite.

Capt. Daniel and Ruth had ten children: Daniel (b. 1799), Ruth (1801-1842), Olive S. (b. 1803), William (b. 1805), James (b. 1807), Mary S. (b. 1809), Caroline B. (1814-1892), Joshua (1817-1833) and George B. (b. 1821).

Caroline B. Hall remained unmarried and lived in the Hall homestead, also known as Hall’s Tavern, until her death in 1892. The house was dismantled in the early twentieth century and moved to Cambridge, MA where it still stands.