Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 24.djvu/32

  [q. v.], governor of Madras, by whom he had issue one daughter only, who married Horace, third Lord Rivers. Hale's fourth son, John, also served with distinction in the army, attaining the rank of general, being appointed governor of Londonderry and Culmore Forts in 1781. He died on 20 March 1806, leaving eleven children by his wife Mary, second daughter of William Chaloner of Gisborough.



HALE, MATTHEW (1609–1676), judge, only son of Robert Hale, by Joan, daughter of Matthew Poyntz, was born at Alderley, Gloucestershire, on 1 Nov. 1609. His father, a barrister of Lincoln's Inn, who abandoned the practice of the law because he had scruples about the manner in which pleadings were drawn, died when Hale was under five years of age, and his mother was also dead. His puritan guardian, Anthony Kingscote, had him educated in his own principles by Staunton, vicar of Wotton-under-Edge. In Michaelmas term 1626 Hale went up to Magdalen College, Oxford, with a view to taking holy orders. Here he developed a taste for amusements, dress, and manly sports, frequented the theatre, and practised fencing, in which, being tall, strong, and active, he became very expert, and had thoughts of entering the service of the Prince of Orange as a soldier. Lawyers he regarded as a barbarous sort of people, until he came into contact with Serjeant Glanville, whom he consulted about some private affairs, and who excited in him a taste for law.

He entered Lincoln's Inn on 8 Sept. 1628, and applied himself to the study of law with ardour, reading during the first two years of his pupilage as much as sixteen hours a day, and afterwards eight hours a day. He was a pupil of Noy, who treated him almost like a son, so that he was known as 'young Noy,' and he early made the acquaintance of Selden, who inspired him with his own love of large and liberal culture. He now sought recreation in the study of Roman law, mathematics, philosophy, history, medicine, and theology, avoided the theatre and general society, was studiously plain in his dress, corresponded little, except on matters of business or questions of learning, and read no news. He was greatly impressed by Cornelius Nepos's 'Life of Pomponius Atticus,' whom he resolved to take for his model. He aimed at a strict neutrality in the approaching civil strife. He probably advised Strafford on his impeachment in 1640, though he made no speech. He was counsel for Sir John Bramston on his impeachment in 1641. Wood (Athenae Oxon. ed. Bliss, iii. 109) states that he took the covenant in 1643, but his name does not appear in the list given in Rushworth's 'Hist. Coll.' iv. 480, and it is unlikely that he should have taken so decided a step. By Laud's desire he was assigned as one of his counsel on his impeachment (November 1643) (, State Trials, v. 213; Autobiography of Sir John Bramston, Camd. Soc. p. 78). In 1645 he argued on behalf of Lord Macguire, one of the principal contrivers of the Irish rebellion of 1641, the important point of law whether there was jurisdiction to try an Irish peer by a Middlesex jury for treason committed in Ireland. Prynne argued the affirmative to the satisfaction of the court of king's bench, and Macguire was convicted and executed. He was one of the counsel assigned for the eleven members accused by Fairfax of malpractices against the parliament and the army in the summer of 1646. Burnet says that he tendered his services to the king on his trial. As, however, Charles refused to recognise the jurisdiction of the court, he was not represented by counsel. Hale defended James, duke of Hamilton and earl of Cambridge, on his trial for high treason in February 1648-9, arguing elaborately but unsuccessfully that as a Scotsman the duke must be treated not as a traitor, but as a public enemy. The duke was convicted. According to Burnet he also defended the Earl of Holland, Lord Capel [see 1610?-1649], but this does not appear from the 'State Trials' (, Mem. pp. 77, 258, 381;, Athenae Oxon. ed. Bliss, iii. 128; , State Trials, iv. 577, 702, 1195, 1211; , Memoirs of the Dukes of Hamilton, p. 398). Though at heart a royalist, he did not scruple to take the engagement to be true and faithful to the Commonwealth required by the ordinance of 11 Oct. 1649 to be subscribed by all lawyers, and thus was able in 1651 to defend the presbyterian clergyman, [q. v.], on his trial for plotting the restoration of the king. On 20 Jan. 1651-2 he was placed on the committee for law reform. On 23 Jan. 1654 he was created a serjeant-at-law, and soon afterwards a justice of the common pleas (, State Trials, v. 210 et seq.; Parl Hist. iii. 1334;, Athenae Oxon. ed. Bliss, iii. 280, 1091; , Mem. p. 520; Swedish, Ambassy, ii. 133). Hale stood for his native county at the general election of 1654, and was returned at the head of the poll. Par-