Halley was born at Bazenville near Bayeux. A professor of belles-lettres and Principal of the Collège du Bois, at the University of Caen, he succeeded Antoine Gosselin and distinguished himself from the age of twenty-two, by his eloquence and the brilliance of his teaching. He taught Latin poetry at the University of Caen, for nearly forty years. He cultivated Latin and French poetry and won the prize of the Immaculate Conception time and again so that the Académie des Sciences, Arts et Belles-Lettres de Caen pleaded with him to quit competing.
