Gardens, Religion and Clerical By-Employments: the dual careers of Hugh Hall, Priest-Gardener of the West Midlands

Abstract

Hugh Hall was a highly sought-after gardener in late sixteenth century England. He worked in the Midlands, specifically in Worcestershire, Warwickshire, and Northamptonshire, and mostly for Catholic families. Hall was a Catholic priest who resigned his parish living after the Elizabethan Religious Settlement, but continued to perform clerical duties such as saying Mass and hearing confession alongside his second vocation as a gardener. Indeed, his esteem as a gardener and, later, surveyor of works was strong enough that he attracted Protestant clients like Lord Burghley and Sir Christopher Hatton despite his adherence to Catholicism. Hall’s two vocations shaped his identity: his sense of self, his manhood, and how others perceived him. Hall’s written garden advice, A priestes discourse of gardeninge applied to a spirituall understandinge, which exists only in manuscript form, exemplifies the fusion of gardening and spiritual life, articulates Hall’s conceptions of manhood, and offers new perspective on how religion intersects with late Renaissance English gardens.