Richard Wilmot Hall,
M.D.
University of Maryland, 1833
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In his role as secretary of the regents, a position he held for
several years, Hall was typically selected to travel to
Annapolis to represent the University’s interests in the
legislature. He also served as chair of theoretical
surgery and as secretary and orator of the Medical and
Chirurgical Faculty. Despite his popularity among students, Hall
was impeached in 1843 at a trial held by the Medical and
Chirurgical Faculty. Hall defended himself vigorously against
faculty detractors who considered him incompetent and was
subsequently acquitted by the regents, retaining his faculty
position until his death. In addition to a number of shorter
articles mentioned in Quinan’s Annals, Richard Hall authored a
two-volume translation of Baron Larrey’s Memoirs of Military
Surgery. He died in 1847 at age 62.
Born in Harford
County, Maryland, in 1785, Richard Wilmot Hall was the son of Dr.
Jacob Hall, a Revolutionary War surgeon. He received his MD degree
from the University of Pennsylvania in 1806,
and settled in Baltimore in 1811. The following year he was
appointed adjunct professor of obstetrics at the School of Medicine.
Twice the dean of the School of Medicine, Hall played an active role
in the affairs of the University. In 1837, during his second tenure
as dean, the trustees of the School of Medicine seized control of
the School from the University regents. They maintained control for
18 months until the State Court of Appeals declared the seizure
unconstitutional. During that period, the Trustees School, as it was
then called, remained at Lombard and Greene streets, and the Faculty
of Medicine opened a Regents School in the former Indian Queen
Hotel.
