John Hales

or Hayles a younger Son of Tho. Hales of Halesplace in Halden in Kent, was born in that County, and commonly called Club-foot Hales, because in his younger days he had got that deformity by a wound from his own dagger at the bottom of his foot. This Person being very much addicted to Letters from his childhood, was sent to this University for a time, but to what Coll. unless to that of Brasnose (wherein several of his Sirname and time studied) I know not. Yet so it was that he having a happy memory, accompanied with incredible industry, became admirably well skill’d in the Lat. Greek, and Hebrew tongues, and at length in the municipal Laws, and in Antiquities; which made him admired by all ingenious Men of his time. In the Reign of K. Hen. 8. he was Clerk of the Hemper for several years, obtained a fair estate in Warwickshire and elsewhere upon the dissolution of Monasteries and Chantries, founded a Free-School at Coventry, and for the use of the youth to be taught there, did write,

Introductiones ad Grammaticam.—partly in Engl. and partly in Latin. He wrot also,

High way to Nobilitie. Lond. in qu. And about that time translated into English Precepts for the preservation of good health. Lond. 1543. oct. written by Plutarch. When Qu. Mary came to the Crown he fled beyond Sea as a voluntary Exile, and settling at Frankfort in Germany we find him a zealous Man for the uniting of the Exiles there in peace. See more in a book entit. A brief discourse of the troubles at Frankford in Germany. printed 1575. in qu. p. 44. 45. &c. 92. &c. When Qu. Elizabeth succeeded he returned, and the first thing that made him then to be noted was,

An Oration to Qu. Eliz. at her first entrance to her Reigne, an. 1558.—It was not spoken, but delivered in writing to her by a certain noble Man. The beginning of it is, Albeit there be innumerable gifts, &c.

He also wrot a little book in favour of the house of Suffolk, especially of the Children of Edw. Seymour Earl of Hertford, eldest Son of Edward Duke of Somerset, who was married to the Lady Cath. Grey, Dau. of Hen. Duke of Suff. (of near alliance in blood to the Queen) in his house in Chanon row within the City of Westminster, in Oct. 1560. The effect of which, was to derive the title of the Crown of England, in case Qu. Eliz. should die without issue, to the house of Suffolk. This Marriage, notwithstanding the Archb. of Cant. did by his sentence pronounce unlawful, yet our Author Hales, who was esteemed a Man very opiniotive, tho otherwise very learned, did maintain in the said book that their sole consent did legitimate their conjunction. Which pamphlet flying abroad, came straight way to the Court: Whereupon the Queen and the Nobles being highly offended, the Author was quickly discovered, and forthwith imprison’d in the Tower of London. Soon after Sir Nich. Bacon then Lord Keeper was presumed to have had a finger in it, for which he was like to have lost his office, if Sir Ant. Browne who had been L. Ch. Justice of the Common-pleas in Qu. Maries time, would have accepted of it; which her Majesty offer’d to him, and the Earl of Leycester earnestly exhorted him to take it; but he refused it, for that he was of a different Religion from the State; and so Sir Nic. Bacon remained in his place, at the great instance of Sir Will. Cecill, (afterwards L. Treasurer) who, tho he was to be privy to the said book, yet was the matter so wisely laid upon Hales and Bacon, that Sir Will. was kept free, thereby to have the more authority and grace to procure the others pardon, as he did. Soon after Jo. Lesley Bishop of Ross, a great creature of Mary Queen of Scots, did answer that Book, for which he got the good will of many, tho, of others, not. As for our Author Hales, he gave way to fate on the fifth of the calends of January in Fifteen hundred seventy and two; 1571 whereupon his body was buried in the Chancel of the Church of St. Peter’s poor in London. He died without issue, so that his estate which chiefly laid in Warwickshire, of which his principal house in Coventry, call’d Hales place, otherwise the White Fryers was part, went to John, Son of his Brother Christopher Hales, (sometimes also an Exile at Frankfort) whose posterity doth remain there to this day.