Fitzedward Hall was one of the most important volunteer helpers involved with the OED and provided inestimable aid to Murray during the early years of his editorship of the Dictionary. A brief sketch of his  life - along with an account of his contribution of quotation slips - can be found here in our section on Individuals in Reading and readers. Just as valuable as Hall's quotations (often from very obscure sources, and for unusual words) was the help he gave with proof-reading pages during the stages of preparing copy for publication. This was gratefully acknowledged by the editors in many of the Prefaces to the successive fascicles of the Dictionary (see Raymond 1987). Murray never met Hall in person and their long acquaintance was developed through a series of letters now preserved in the OED archives and in the Bodleian Library.