Christopher Newman Hall (22 May 1816 – 18 February 1902), born at Maidstone and known in later life as a 'Dissenter's Bishop', was one of the most celebrated nineteenth century English Nonconformist divines.

He was active in social causes; supporting Abraham Lincoln and abolition of slavery during the American Civil War, the Chartist cause, and arranging for influential Nonconformists to meet Gladstone.

His tract Come to Jesus, first published in 1848 also contributed to his becoming a household name throughout Britain, the US and further afield, supposedly selling four million copies worldwide over his lifetime.

To promote the latter cause he wrote The Scriptural Claims of Teetotalism, whilst his thoughts on Chartism and political causes, being influenced by the weekly Christian Socialist written by Charles Kingsley, Frederick Maurice and Thomas Hughes, was brought together in a small pamphlet entitled Divine Socialism, or The Man Christ Jesus.

His popularity led to invitations to preach at many of Yorkshire's Free Churches in Beverley, Selby, Leeds, Huddersfield, Filey, Harrogate, York, and Ripon.

Whilst ministering at the chapel, Newman Hall won a scholarship to study law in his spare time; he was awarded an LLB degree in 1856.

Newman Hall visited the United States during the Civil War, and published a passionate anti-slavery speech co-authored by Abraham Lincoln and Henry Ward Beecher.

Surrey Chapel on Blackfriars Road was by then a popular religious, educational, and music venue with many associated foundations and charities, but was too small to house all of these.

To provide sufficient space, a local temperance hall in Waterloo Road had been leased, and duly renamed Hawkstone Hall—the country seat of relatives of Rev.

At a service conducted by Rev Henry Allon at Christ Church, on Easter Monday 1880, Newman Hall married his second wife, Miss Harriet Knipe—daughter of Henry Knipe, barrister-at-law and J.P. His first marriage had ended in a controversial divorce case which had eventually led to a decree nisi in February 1880—a time when divorce was rare.