Henry Hall (lighthouse keeper)
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- For other persons named Henry Hall, see Henry Hall (disambiguation).
Henry Hall (1661–1755) was a lighthouse keeper who worked on the Eddystone Lighthouse, some 9 statute miles (14 kilometres) southwest of Rame Head, in the English county of Cornwall.
Henry Hall is the oldest known member of the Hall Family of Lighthouse Keepers that kept lights around the English and Welsh coasts from before 1775 until at least 1910 (John William Hall at South Foreland, Kent).
Henry Hall is remembered for his remarkable death in 1755 at Eddystone Lighthouse when the wooden Rudyerd's Tower of 1706 burnt down*. Although 94 years old at the time he was said to be "of good constitution and active for his years". He found that a spark from a chimney had set the roof alight. He and his two companions were unable to put the fire out, and they were forced to retreat down the tower until eventually the lighthouse burned down around them. They were rescued the next day, but he died about two weeks later and it was found that, while looking up at the fire, he had swallowed molten lead running off the roof. This lead, weighing nearly half a pound, solidified in his stomach and killed him. It is said that this was the first medically documented case of lead poisoning. A report was submitted to the Royal Society by the physician, Dr. Edmund Spry, and the piece of lead is now in the collections of the National Museums of Scotland.
- The lighthouse was rebuilt in in the following 4 years as the famous Smeaton's Tower which was removed, stone by stone, to Plymouth Hoe in 1882.
