T O Hall was born in 1830 at Harpsden Court near Henley-on-Thames. He was the last of the Halls to live at Harpsden Court, which had previously been the family home. Harpsden was the only property the Hall family was allowed to keep at the end of the Civil War. The family, who had decided to be Cromwellians, had had to receive a pardon from King Charles II before being allowed to keep Harpsden. T.O's grandmother, Elizabeth, kept a journal of life there from 1st May1800 ~ 29 January 1804 *; two volumes have survived with 90,000 words - the 75 pages can be seen here. The family lived there until the time of Thomas Owen, when two factors caused Harpsden to be sold: far more daughters had survived than sons, and they had had to be provided for, which helped to impoverish the estate; and, during the early life of T.O. a very long and bitter law suit was going on, and the Halls were badly advised by their lawyers and had to sell Harpsden as a result in order to pay the necessary costs. This meant that T.O started as the heir to Harpsden, and had the potential to grow up into as good a landowner with as much care for his tenants as all his predecessors had had. But when Harpsden was sold, T.O had to have a career, so he was ordained and became a priest in Rutland, Northants. He married Eliza, the daughter of the Rev Henry Sewell. T.O was the last landed gentleman in the family. Although his predecessors had served in the professions, there had always been Harpsden to come back to and look forward to, but from that time all the sons had to be self-supporting. Cecil Gallopine was the seventh of his ten children and started a new dynasty of the Hall family.

* She records visits from a William Dakin. Read about this King's Cliffe Eccentric in a 2002 monograph by Canon John Bryan with his kind permission.

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