Author: Hartson, Hall
Biography:
HARTSON, Hall (c.1739-1773: ancestry.co.uk)
He was likely born at Dublin but nothing is known about his family. He was made a scholar at Trinity College Dublin in 1756 and graduated BA in 1758. The historian, Thomas Leland, was his tutor and Hartson adapted Leland’s 1762 historical romance, Longsword, the Earl of Salisbury, for his successful tragedy, The Countess of Salisbury. The play was produced at Dublin’s Crow Street theatre in 1765 and at London’s Haymarket theatre in 1767. Youth is his only other publication. He was impoverished at the time of his death in London from tuberculosis in Mar. 1773. He was buried at St. Marylebone, London, and Hugh Boyd (q.v.), a friend, is said to have paid the cost of his funeral. (Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography [1857]; ancestry.co.uk 11 Mar. 2021; A Catalogue of Graduates who Have Proceeded to Degrees in the University of Dublin [1869])