Author: Hall, William
Biography:
HALL, William (1748-1825: ODNB)
pseudonyms Will Wilbeso, Low-Fen Bill Hall
He was born on 1 Jun. 1748 in the Lincolnshire Fens to very poor labouring-class parents whose names are not known. According to a biographical sketch published shortly after his death, he had only six months of schooling. On 23 Mar. 1773 he married Susannah Holmes of Heckington (his own parish at the time was Whaplode) at Heckington; no record of children has been found. He kept and bred geese until he lost his flock to floods and unscrupulous neighbours. The couple removed to Norfolk, where she practised midwifery and phlebotomy while he became an auctioneer, first at Marshland and finally at King's Lynn (Lynn) where he also established a bookshop, "the Antiquarian Library." He produced rhyming advertisements for his business and published some instalments of what he referred to as his "Fen Journal" in verse and prose. He retired from auctioneering in 1815 and in 1822 brought out his one extended work, The Chief of St. Athans, in 1822, with a substantial subscription list comprising aristocrats, churchmen, politicians, and Welsh and Irish readers. He died in 1825 after "a short illness." (ODNB 5 Jan. 2022; findmypast.com 6 Jan. 2022; Sketches of Obscure Poets [1833], 156-77) HJ