Hall married Wolete-Iyasus (Katarina) Zander, the 14-year-old daughter of an Ethiopian aristocrat mother and a German artist father (), at Gaffat on 17 May 1863. In 1866 the couple had their first of thirteen children, Jakob Gottlieb Hall (1866-1919). By one report Hall had risen to a position of confidence with Tewodros and was considered his minister of war. However the emperor, increasingly dependent on alcohol, became increasingly erratic. Claiming to have received no reply to a letter he sent to the British Queen Victoria he imprisoned all English missionaries in the state, extending this to all foreigners by 1867. Hall and his family were imprisoned at the fortress of Mäqdäla. A British punitive expedition was sent in late 1867 and, in what became known as the Battle of Magdala, took the fortress by assault during which Tewedros took his own life. Katarina gave birth to a daughter during the siege and she was named Magdalena after the fortress. Magdalena (1868-1945) went on to marry the Russian baron Plato von Ustinov and was the grandmother of British actor Peter Ustinov.