Editing Robert Hall (minister) (section)

==Early life==
He was born at [[Arnesby]] near [[Leicester, England|Leicester]], the youngest of 14 in the family of the Baptist minister [[Robert Hall, the elder|Robert Hall]] and his wife Jane Catchaside. He attended [[dame school]] and then the school of Mr Simmons at [[Wigston]].<ref name="ODNB">{{cite ODNB|id=11982|first=Rosemary|last=Chadwick|title=Hall, Robert (1764–1831)}}</ref> Before he was nine he had read [[Jonathan Edwards (theology)|Jonathan Edwards]]'s ''Treatise on the Will'' and ''[[Analogy of Religion|Butler's Analogy]]''.<ref>Gregory, Olinthus. ''Memoirs and Private Correspondence of the Rev. Robert Hall, of Bristol, England''>. Boston: Griffin and Company, 1888. p. 6</ref>

Hall was sickly as a child, and out of concern for his health, his parents sent him to stay with a family friend, Beeby Wallis, near [[Kettering]] where he was deacon of the Baptist church.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cross |first1=Anthony R. |title=Useful Learning: Neglected Means of Grace in the Reception of the Evangelical Revival among English Particular Baptists |date=5 May 2017 |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers |isbn=978-1-4982-0256-5 |pages=374-375 |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ZlT7DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA374 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Historical Collections Relating to Northamptonshire: Family Histories, Pedigrees, Biographies, Tracts on Witches, Historical Antiquities, Reprints of Rare and Unique Tracts |date=1896 |publisher=J. Taylor & Son |page=3 |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=p0QuAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA2-PA3 |language=en}}</ref> In a better physical state, Hall was moved to a school at [[Northampton, England|Northampton]] run by [[John Ryland]], where he remained a year and a half, studying Latin and Greek.<ref name="EB">{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Hall, Robert|volume=12}}</ref> There he heard Thomas Robins of [[Daventry Academy]] preach, a literary inspiration.<ref name="ODNB"/><ref>{{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120227050914/http://surman.english.qmul.ac.uk/resultDisplay.php?dbid=23882|date=}}</ref>

Returning home, Hall had his [[believer's baptism]], and studied with his father. Aged 14, he entered the [[List of dissenting academies (1660–1800)#South-West|Bristol Baptist academy]] with a Ward scholarship. In 1780, he was set apart to the ministry by the Arnesby church. In 1781, under the terms of the scholarship,  he entered [[King's College, Aberdeen]], where he took the degree of M.A. in 1785 and befriended [[James Mackintosh]].<ref name="ODNB"/>