was born on October 22, 1768 in Lewes, Delaware. He served the town of Frankfort in the General Court in 1814, 1816, 1818 and 1819, and was a member of the Maine House of Representatives in 1820-1821.
A National Republican, Hall was elected President of the Maine Senate in January of 1830 after forty-nine ballots had been taken with no result. The reason for the stalemate was the fact that eight Senators were National Republicans, eight were Democratic-Republicans and there were four vacancies.
Since the Maine Supreme Court had ruled that Nathan Cutler of Farmington could not serve as acting Governor once his term as a Senator had expired, Hall’s election as Senate President meant that he would serve as Governor until the Governor-elect took office on February 9th.
Hall owed his election as President to the National Republicans who had doubtless elected him to get him out of the Senate, thereby securing a majority during the critical period of organization when the occupants of the four vacant seats would be determined.
Hall has been described as a short, fleshy, good-hearted old gentleman; a Methodist minister who knew more about preaching than he did about politics. He had begun his work as an itinerant preacher at the age of nineteen and ended it on December 25, 1862 at the venerable age of ninety-four.
*Mundy, James H. “Joshua Hall,” Presidents of the Senate of Maine from 1820. Augusta: Secretary of the Senate, 1979.
*Cited in Friends of the Blaine House at http://blainehouse.org/governors(accessed April 25, 2011) (accessed April 25, 2011)