Sir Edward Hales, 3rd Baronet

Sir Edward Hales, 3rd Baronet(28 September 1645 – October 1695) was an English politician who sat in theHouse of Commons of Englandfrom 1679 to 1681. He became aCatholicand supportedKing James IIat the time of theGlorious Revolution.

Background and early life

Hales was the only son ofSir Edward Hales, 2nd Baronet,ofTunstall,Kent,aRoyalist,by his wife Anne Wotton, the youngest of the four daughters and coheirs ofThomas Wotton, 2nd Baron Wotton.He was a descendant ofJohn Hales,baron of the exchequer.He was educated atUniversity College,and his tutorObadiah Walkerinfluenced him in the direction ofRoman Catholicism.

Career under Charles II

On 28 November 1673 Hales was admitted to the rank of colonel of a foot regiment atHackington,Kent. He purchasedHales Place(the mansion and estate ofSt. Stephen'sparish, nearCanterbury), where his descendants afterwards resided.He was electedMember of ParliamentforCanterburyin 1679 and held the seat until 1681.He succeeded to thebaronetcyon the death of his father in 1684.

Catholicism

Hales declared himself a Catholic on the accession ofJames IIand was formally reconciled to the Catholic Church on 11 November 1685. He had not received the sacrament according to the rites of theChurch of Englandwithin three months of his commission in 1673, contrary to the statute 25 Charles II and had not taken the oaths of allegiance and supremacy. James II now gave him a dispensation from these obligations by letters patent under theGreat Seal.In order to determine the legality of the exercise of his dispensing power in such cases, a test action was arranged. Arthur Godden, Sir Edward's coachman, was instructed to bring aqui tamaction against his master for the penalty of £500, due to the informer under the act of Charles II. Hales was indicted and convicted at the assizes held atRochester28 March 1686. He pleaded the king's dispensation, and on appeal the question was argued at length in thecourt of king's benchbeforeSir Edward Herbert,Lord Chief Justiceof England. On 21 June 1686, Herbert, after consulting his colleagues on the bench, delivered judgment in favour of Hales, and asserted the dispensing power to be part of the king's prerogative.The dispensing power was effectively outlawed by theBill of Rightsin 1689.

Career under James II

Hales was sworn into theprivy council,and appointed one of thelords of the admiralty,deputy-warden of the Cinque ports, and lieutenant ofDover Castle,and in June 1687Lieutenant of the Tower of London.Narcissus Luttrellmentions, in June 1688, a rumour that he was about to have a Catholic chapel in the Tower. When theseven bishopswere discharged from his custody he demanded fees of them; but they refused, on the ground that their detention and Hales's commission were both illegal. The lieutenant hinted that if they came into his hands again they should feel his power.

Flight and exile

Hales was dismissed from his post at the Tower in November 1688. James II, with Hales as one of his three companions, and disguised as Hales's servant, leftWhitehallon 11 December, in the hope of escaping to France. The boat carrying them was discovered the next day as it lay in the river offFaversham,and the king and his three attendants were brought on shore. Hales was recognised, and kept prisoner at the courthouse at Faversham. Immediately after the king's departure for London he was conveyed toMaidstonegaol, and afterwards to the Tower, where he remained for a year and a half. On 26 October 1689 he was brought up to the bar of the House of Commons, and ordered to be charged withhigh treasonin being reconciled to the church of Rome. On 31 January 1690 he and Obadiah Walker were brought byhabeas corpusfrom the Tower to the bar of the king's bench, and were bailed on good security; but both were excepted out of the act of pardon dated 23 May following. Eventually Hales obtained his discharge on 2 June 1690.

Hales went in October 1690 toSt. Germain-en-Laye,but he was little employed by James II other than as friend. James rewarded his services by creating him Earl of Tenterden in Kent, Viscount Tunstall, and Baron Hales of Emley, by patent 3 May 1692.Edward Hastedwrote that Hales's son and successor in the baronetcy, Sir John Hales, was offered a peerage by George I, but the matter dropped, because Sir John insisted on his right to his father's titles, and to precedence according to that creation.

Final years

In 1694, Hales applied to theEarl of Shrewsburyfor a licence to return to England, but he died, without obtaining it, in 1695, and was buried in theÉglise Saint-Sulpice, Paris.By the schedule to his will, dated July 1695, he bequeathed £5,000, to be disposed of according to his instructions byBonaventure Giffardand Dr.Thomas Witham.Hales left in manuscript a journal of his life, whichCharles Doddused in hisChurch History.

Family

Hales married Frances Windebank, daughter ofSir Francis Windebankof Oxfordshire and had five sons and seven daughters. Edward, his eldest son, was killed in the service of James II at theBattle of the Boyne,and John, the second son (died 1744), accordingly succeeded to the baronetcy, which became extinct on the death of the sixth baronet, Sir Edward Hales, without issue, on 15 March 1829.

References

Attribution

This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Cooper, Thompson (1890). "Hales, Edward".InStephen, Leslie;Lee, Sidney(eds.).Dictionary of National Biography.Vol. 24. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 27–28.