Murray H. Hall
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Politician, Bondsman
Murray H. Hall (initially Mary Anderson) was born in 1841 in Govan, Scotland. In his time, he was known for being a bail bondsman and politician at Tammany Hall.
Hall reportedly began wearing masculine clothing and using the name of “John Anderson” at the age of sixteen and later immigrated to the United States of America in 1870 with his wife after his assigned sex at birth had been revealed to local law officials. Hall lived for the majority of his life as male – well over twenty-five years. In America, Hall had a reputation for engaging in traditionally “hard” masculine activities, e.g. drinking, smoking, playing poker, and even occasionally brawling with law enforcement.
While not much is known about Hall’s private life, he was married twice and had an active political career in Tammany Hall – the political organization in New York City well known for engaging in efficient but oftentimes corrupt solutions to political problems. Passing as a man, Hall was able to vote and work as a politician, rights that were denied to women at the time. He reportedly also ran a commercial “intelligence office.”, sometimes aided by his second wife. Hall had a reputation for being a “man about town, a bon vivant, and all-around ‘good fellow’.” He was also a member of the Iroquois Club and a personal friend of State Senator “Barney” Martin.
Outside of politics and his career, Hall was married twice and adopted a child with his second wife. His last residence was an apartment in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City, about half a block north of the Jefferson Market Courthouse. According to a bookseller who frequently interacted with him, Hall was “well read… [and] a modest little man, but occasionally he showed an irascible temper. He would never talk about himself and shunned garrulous and inquisitive companions. In fact, when I met him on the street he was either accompanied by his black and tan dog or some woman or women, strangers to me, who I suppose were clients.”
Later in life, Hall was diagnosed with a type of breast cancer, which would eventually lead to his death. Hall did not seek treatment for an extended time for fear that it would expose his sex. Hall would eventually pass away on January 16th, 1901 at the age of sixty. After his death, Hall’s daughter, Minnie, was involved in an inquest on how to properly distribute his will and properties. His daughter eventually won the case, and Hall’s headstone was erected next to his late wife’s.
After his death, news of Hall’s “gender transgression” spread quickly. Many were shocked that he had been assigned female at birth. News headlines broke such as “KNOWN AS A MAN FOR SIXTY YEARS, SHE DIED A WOMAN.” in the Evening World. Most reports on Hall’s death continued to misgender but not deadname him. The New York Times’ article on Hall accused him of “masquerading” in male dress. Many outlets accused him of “tricking” people with how he presented.
Despite this, Hall’s colleagues only had positive things to say about his character and memory. One senator described how Hall used to “hobnob with the big guns of the County Democracy" and said that he "cut quite some figure as a politician"; he also added that “[Hall] dressed like a man and talked like a very sensible one.” Another political colleague of Hall’s told the New York Times that “[Hall would] line up to the bar and take his whisky like any veteran, and didn’t make faces over it, either. If he was a woman he ought to have been born a man, for he lived and looked like one.”
Hall was buried in women’s clothing in an unmarked grave in the Mount Olivet Cemetery in the Maspeth neighborhood of Queens, New York.
Bibliography
Kahler, Abbott. “The Mystery of Murray Hall.” Smithsonian Magazine, July 21, 2011. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-mystery-of-murray-hall-35612997/.
“Man About Town: The Story of Murray Hall.” Episode. The Gilded Gentleman no. 4, December 21, 2021. https://thegildedgentleman.com/episodes/the-story-of-murray-hall/.
“Murray Hall (1840-1901).” museum-digital, August 21, 2021. https://global.museum-digital.org/people/274014.
“MURRAY HALL FOOLED MANY SHREWD MEN.” The New York Times, January 19, 1901. https://nyti.ms/3MMimWc.
“Murray Hall Residence.” NYC LGBTQ Historic Sites Project, 2025. https://www.nyclgbtsites.org/site/murray-h-hall-residence/.
“Murray Hall.” Transgender History Month. Accessed December 8, 2025. https://www.transgenderhistorymonth.com/tht/murray-hall.
Sharpe, Gillian. “Murray Hall: The New York Politician Who Broke 19th Century Gender Rules.” BBC, August 15, 2019. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-49291971.
“WOMAN LONG POSED AS A MAN: Murray Hall Had Conducted an Employment Agency-Sex Revealed at Death.” The New York Times, January 18, 1901. https://nyti.ms/4rJqQ0t.
Last updated: December 8th, 2025.
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