Robert Hall, a wealthy London grocer, had a significant influence on the development of Hayes in the late 16th century. Buying a number of properties and land. Apprenticed to a grocer in 1559, he was admitted to the livery of the Grocers’ Company in 1582 and by 1594 elected to the livery court. In 1596 he became one of its three Wardens and when Queen Elizabeth I demanded loans from the livery companies in 1598 to help finance her war expenditure, Robert Hall’s contribution was one of the largest by an individual member of the Company.

In  1604 he was made Master of the Worshipful Company of Grocers. He originally lived in a house to the north of the church called Kilhogges,  purchased Fowlers near Pickhurst Green in 1590 and then had a new house built opposite the church. This was referred to as a ‘double house’, the latest house style at the time.

In 1608 he gave to the parish a small cottage and some land adjoining Baston Hethe bought from Robert Adams to provide a Poor House.

The marriages of three of his four daughters and the birth of several grandchildren in his house are recorded in the Church registers between 1598 and 1619.  His wife Margery died in 1614 and was buried in the chancel of Hayes Church. 

He died in 1618, leaving his house Kilhogges to daughter Sarah and the new double house to his daughter Margaret.  His daughter Sarah, twice widowed, married the rector of Hayes Christopher Monkton, on 18 September 1641 and when she died in 1654 was buried in Hayes.