in 1611,[195]
among the supporters to a Highway Bill, and he leased from the
Corporation a small stretch of wooded land on the outskirts of the town
in 1612. He must have remained on friendly terms with his father-in-law,
as he and his wife Susanna were left residuary legatees and executors of
Shakespeare's will, which he proved in June of that year, in the
Archbishop of Canterbury's Registry at London.

He shortly afterwards moved to New Place, beside his mother-in-law,
where the vestry notes of February 3, 1617-1618, record him as resident.
He was elected a Burgess of Stratford in 1617, and again in 1623, but
was excused from taking office on account of his professional
engagements. On April 22, 1626, Mr. Thomas Nash married his daughter,
Mrs. Elizabeth Hall. Hall gave the church a costly new pulpit, and in
1628 was appointed a borough churchwarden, in 1629 a sidesman, and in
1632 was compelled to become a burgess, and was soon after fined for
non-attendance at the council meetings.

In 1633 he was made the Vicar's churchwarden, and in that year the
Vicar, Thomas Wilson, induced him to join in a Chancery action against
the town. He was already in trouble with his fellow councillors, who in
October of that year expelled him for his "breach of orders, sundry
other misdemeanours, and for his continual disturbance at our Halles."
Evidently Dr. John had opinions of his own, and had the courage to
express them. He was a deeply religious man, and, though he has been
supposed to have shown Puritan tendencies in later life, it was a
Puritanism that did not eschew Catholicism. His was a religion of
constant reference to the Unseen. He was always a helper of those in
trouble for conscience' sake; and probably this was the reason he
supported the unpopular Vicar.

Shortly after, in 1635, there was a petition sent up from the
Corporation of Stratford for their wives to have the pew in Stratford
Church occupied by Dr. Hall, his wife, and his son-in-law and his wife.
Each family had a pew at each side of the church, while there was not
room for the burgesses' wives to sit or kneel in. It was true that the
said Mr. Hall had been a great benefactor to the church, and the Bishop
of the diocese had appointed him his pew; but his family were asked to
choose which of their large pews they preferred to keep, along with Mrs.
Woodward and Mrs. Lane, so that they might allow the aldermen's wives to
have the other.

John Hall died on Nove