Benjamin Hall's parents were Benjamin Hall II of Hensol (1778 - 1817) and Charlotte (née Crawshay, 1784 - 1839).  They married on the 16th December 1801; a notice in The Times dated 21st December 1801 reads as follows:-
Married on 16th instant Benjamin Hall, Esq., of Lincoln's Inn to Miss Charlotte Crawshay, second daughter of Richard Crawshay, Esq., of Cyfarthfa, Glamorganshire.

Their first child was born on the 8th November 1802 at his parents' home, 14 Upper Gower Street. London and was named Benjamin (later Sir Benjamin, then Lord Llanofer).
His paternal grandfather was Dr. Benjamin Hall, Chancellor of the diocese of Llandaff, and his maternal grandfather was Richard Crawshay, the iron master of Cyfarthfa.

In 1808 Richard Crawshay gave the coal mines and iron works at Abercarn to Benjamin and Charlotte, and that is where they made their home.
When seeking election to Parliament representing Glamorganshire in 1814, Benjamin Hall II was criticised for being a 'Monmouthshire Lad', in spite of his having been born in Llandaff, and following his election he bought Hensol Castle.

Benjamin Hall II died in 1817, leaving the mansion at Abercarn to Charlotte, his wife, for the remainder of her life.  She remarried in 1821 but little is known of her second husband, Samuel Hawkins of Court Herbert, Glamorgan.

The Halls of Abercarn had become close friends with their neighbours the Waddingtons of Llanofer, and after 'a boy and girl romance', young Benjamin married Augusta Waddington, in December 1823. Their first child, Augusta Charlotte Elizabeth (later Mrs. Herbert) was born in September 1824 at Newport House, Almeley, Herefordshire. Some time after 1826 Mrs. Hawkins moved away, and the young Mr. and Mrs. Hall made their home in the Abercarn mansion.

The Halls moved from Abercarn to Ty Uchaf, Llanofer, following the death of Mr. Waddington in 1828.  Augusta wanted to be with her mother to comfort her in her grief and Benjamin Hall, always devoted to his wife, agreed to move to the house at Llanofer.  The young couple had a vision - to build a house which might become a focus for Welsh culture, a place where bards, musicians, historians and academics could come to study, exchange views, and enjoy the society of like minded people.

By 1837, their dream had become reality, and the magnificent Llys Llanofer was completed, becoming a place which saw many glittering occasions, as well as being a venue for tea parties and banquets for estate workers and tenants.  The Halls supported the Cymdeithas Cymreigyddion Y Fenni, said to be ‘the liveliest Welsh society in Wales’, and the Llys was the scene of parties and balls for their many political and cultural friends whom they encouraged to attend the Abergavenny eisteddfodau.  

Benjamin Hall III's life is worthy of celebration, since he shared and supported his wife's strongly held views.  A generous landowner and a great politician, it is sad that today the only memory of him seems to be his reponsibility for 'Big Ben', the great bell hung in the tower at the Palace of Westminster.  This was perhaps the least of his achievements.
He was created a baronet in 1838 and elevated to the peerage as Baron Llanofer of Llanofer and Abercarn in 1859.

While working hard on behalf of his Marylebone constituents, he ‘upheld in Parliament the right of the Welsh to have the services of the Church rendered in their own tongue......'
So strongly did he and his wife feel about this that in 1854 they funded the building of a church at Abercarn in which, they insisted, the services should be conducted entirely in Welsh.  When, in 1862, the vicar decided that the services should be offered through the medium of English, the Halls were so annoyed that they closed the church. Having discovered that the building was not consecrated, they transferred it to the Methodists.

In 1854, just after his appointment as President of the Board of Health, cholera broke out in London, and Sir Benjamin, as he then was, went to the East End to direct personally the work to combat the disease.
He was so appalled at the conditions there that he piloted a bill through Parliament which 'was the turning point in the sanitary history and evolution of London', which resulted in the creation of the Metropolitan Board of Works, the fore-runner of the London County Council.  
Later, as First Commissioner for Works, he was responsible for improving the London Parks, planting trees, shrubs and flower borders, and creating new paths; and it was he who stood firm against the storm of protest aroused by his proposal to open the parks to the public.  An even greater storm was created by his proposal to have bands playing in the parks on Sundays - the only free time of the majority of Londoners; but again he stood firm, and in spite of set-backs, the general public were able to make full use of the London parks in their brief leisure time.