Edward Hall

[7][8] Katherine (née Geddying) Hall's burial on 19 June 1557 in the church of St Benet Sherehog was recorded by the diarist Henry Machyn.

[11][12] According to some sources, Katherine was the 'Mistress Hall' who in 1555 was imprisoned in Newgate for her faith under Queen Mary Tudor, and with whom the religious reformer John Bradford corresponded.

He left all his books in French and English to his brother, William, and his manuscript of his chronicle to Richard Grafton, entrusting him with its publication.

He has a lawyer's respect for ceremonial of all kinds, and his pages are often adorned and encumbered with the pageantry and material garniture of the story.

To the historian it furnishes what is evidently the testimony of an eyewitness on several matters of importance which are neglected by other narrators, and to the student of literature it is of interest as one of the prime sources of Shakespeare's history plays.

[19][20] On 22 June 1940, Alan Keen, a dealer in antiquarian books, discovered an extensively annotated copy of Hall's Chronicle among the contents of a library from outside London which he had just purchased.

After his death Keen left the volume in the hands of trustees, who placed it in the British Library, where until 2007 it was catalogued as Loan MS 61.