Hall, Peter (1761-1767)
Hall, Peter
London then Charleston, South Carolina, USA; cabinet maker, upholsterer, importer, slave owner and slave trader (fl. 1761-1767)
A series of newspaper notices tell the story of Peter Hall's move from London to Charleston. At Christmas 1761 he announced that he 'intended to carry on his business' from a peruke-maker's shop 'on the Bay', where he was making and selling 'Chinese tables of all sorts, shelves, trays, chimney-pieces, brackets, &c. being at present the most elegant and admired fashion in London'.
By November of the following year (1762) Hall had moved into the home of a 'Mr. John Oyston, deceased', where he continued to supply chinoiserie decorated furniture and intended to 'carry on the UPHOLSTERING business in all its branches'.
Business must have picked up because the following week he again published a notice, this time to employ 'Journeymen Cabinet-Makers; and will also take two Apprentices' at his shop in Queen-street'.
By September 1765 Hall was also importing furniture from London, in this instance 'two large elegant pier glasses, and one chimney ditto'.
He apparently continued to import mirrors. In March 1766 he advertised 'A Very neat and elegant Pair of Sconce Glasses, and one CHIMNEY GLASS' which he evidently was ordered on commission because they were 'bought in LONDON with ready Money, - too large for the House they were intended for'.
In March 1767 he announced that he was leaving Charleston for London in May and was holding an auction on 7 April to sell his entire stock in trade, including his 'Sundry finished and unfinished pieces of cabinet work, cabinet makers tools and implements; planks of mahogany, and other kinds of wood, Divers household furniture, and two large wooden shops as they now stand'.
He also was selling 'FOUR very valuable NEGROES, two of them good workmen at the cabinet-maker's business, one a good sawyer, and handles his tools so well in the courser branches of the trade, as to be capable of making a tolerable country carpenter, and is very diligent and lively. The other boy, used to house-work, and is alert and active. They are all young and healthy, and as orderly as Negroes generally are'.
he called in his debts by 'humbly intreat[ing] such persons as are indebted to [him], to pay off (in the mean time) their respective accounts, in order to save trouble to themselves, and to my own creditors'.
What became of Peter Hall thereafter is unknown.
Source: DEFM; MESDA ID 14787;
The original entry from Dictionary of English Furniture Makers, 1660-1840 can be found at British History Online.
Ornamentation/Design