Hall, Gordon (1784-1826)

Pioneer missionary in India

Born in Tolland, Massachusetts, Hall graduated with highest honors from Williams College in 1808. Entering Andover Theological Seminary in 1810, he joined the group of students whose enthusiasm for missionary service led to the formation of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) later that year. Appointed a missionary in September 1811, Hall studied medicine at Boston and Philadelphia. In February 1812 he was ordained by the ABCFM at Salem, Massachusetts, along with Adoniram Judson, Samuel Newell, Samuel Nott, and Luther Rice. Hall, Rice and the Notts sailed from Philadelphia on February 18, reaching Calcutta on August 8. Refused residence by the British East India Company, Hall and the Notts evaded authorities, sailed for Bombay and persuaded the governor, a vice president of the British and Foreign Bible Society, to allow them to stay, constituting the first American missionary station overseas.

Hall first studied the local languages, gave medical treatments to English and Indians, preached in the English church, and prepared literature in Marathi. In 1814 the first of thirty-five schools was opened. Hall married Margaret Lewis, a young English woman resident in Bombay who was proficient in the local language, in 1816. For the following ten years he evangelized and provided medical services, usually in Hindu temples and in bazaars, translated much of the New Testament, opened and supervised schools, and distributed literature. He was instrumental in forming the Bombay Missionary Union. After two children died, Mrs. Hall and two sons returned to America in 1825. In March of the following year Hall died of cholera at Doorlee Dhapur.

David M. Stowe, “Hall, Gordon,” in Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, ed. Gerald H. Anderson (New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 1998), 275.

This article is reprinted from Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, Macmillan Reference USA, copyright © 1998 Gerald H. Anderson, by permission of Macmillan Reference USA, New York, NY. All rights reserved.

Bibliography

Histories of the ABCFM by Tracy (1842) and Strong (1910), and histories of missions in India, particularly in the Bombay area, refer extensively to Hall. His correspondence with the ABCFM is included in the ABCFM papers in Houghton Library, Harvard, and extensively excerpted in the Panoplist and Missionary Herald 1813-1826. His letter condemning American slavery appeared in the Boston Recorder 17 (1832): 1.

Digital Primary

Hall, Gordon and Samuel Newell. The Conversion of the World, or The Claims of the Six Hundred Millions and the Ability and Duty of the Churches Respecting Them. Andover, MA: Printed for the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, by Flagg & Gould, 1818.

Digital Secondary

Bardwell, Horatio. Memoir of Rev. Gordon Hall, One of the First Missionaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions at Bombay. Glasgow: Sinclair, 1834; New York: Dayton and Saxton, 1841.

Colton, A. M. Gordon Hall, A Memorial. Northampton, MA: Bridgman & Childs, 1882.

Hill, James Langdon. The Immortal Seven: Judson and his Associates, Dr. and Mrs. Adoniram Judson, Samuel Newell, Harriet Newell, Gordon Hall, Samuel Nott, Luther Rice. Philadelphia and Boston: American Baptist Publication Society, 1913.

Strong, William E. The Story of the American Board: An Account of the First Hundred Years of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Boston: Pilgrim Press, American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, 1910.

Tracy, Joseph. History of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions: Compiled Chiefly from the Published and Unpublished Documents of the Board. New York: M. W. Dodd, 1842.

Primary

Hall, Gordon. “The duty of the American churches in respect to foreign missions: A sermon, preached in the Tabernacle, Philadelphia, on Sabbath morning, Feb. 16, 1812, and in the First Presbyterian Church, on the afternoon of the same day.” [Andover, MA]: Flagg & Gould, 1815.

Secondary

Colton, A. M. Gordon Hall, A Memorial. Northampton, MA: Bridgman & Childs, 1882.

Crozier, John. I Cannot Turn Back: The Adventures of Gordon Hall. Bombay: American Marathi Mission, 1977.

Hall, Daniel M. Gordon Hall: A Family Portrait of a Committed Man. n.p.: Hall, 1973.

Tracy, Joseph. History of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions: Compiled Chiefly from the Published and Unpublished Documents of the Board. New York: M. W. Dodd, 1842.