The Hales Newsletter
Motto: United Force is Stronger
NEW SERIES Winter
1996 Vol. 2. No. 4.
C O N T E N T
MEMBERSHIP DUES
THE WORLD WIDE WEB
NEWS AND VIEWS
JOHN HALES
R. STANTON HALES
Inaugurated
THE MANOR OF EAST
GREENWICH and the AMERICAN COLONIES
JOHN HALES OF
VIRGINIA
JOHN HALES OF ETON
(1584-1656)
This is on-line
version of The HALES Newsletter. The HALES Newsletter is the Journal of the
HALES Family. It is a quarterly publication of the HALES Family History Society
and variant spellings, including HALES, HAILS, HAILES, HAYLS, and HAYLES. The
information includes current events, historical sketches and genealogical
information pertaining to the Hales family. The pictures can be viewed by clicking
on words that are highlighted. It is published by Kenneth Glyn Hales, secretary
of The Hales Genealogical Society from 1970 through 1981 and The Hales Family
History Society since 1995.
The Hales Family History
Society
Kenneth Glyn Hales, Founder (ken@hales.org)
5990 North Calle Kino
Tucson, Arizona 85704-1704
The intent of the
HALES Family History Society is to document all HALES, HAILS, HAILES, HAYLS,
and HAYLES families wherever they are found in all parts of the world. This
documentation is found in the multi-volume The Hales Chronicles. This
information is provided as a service to the Hales Family.
The Hales Chronicles
contains the genealogical information published by the Hales Family History
Society. This database can be found on the Hales web-page at www.hales.org and
can be found in book form at The Family History Library of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints at Salt Lake City, Utah; The Library of Congress at
Washington, D.C.; The Library of The Society of Genealogists at London,
England; and the Centre for Kentish Studies at Maidstone, Kent, England. The
Hales Chronicles is also found on-line. Look here to verify your family
information and to search for your ancestors.
The Hales Newsletter
is provided to the above cited repositories and the Allen County Public Library
at Fort Wayne, Indiana. The Allen County Public Library indexes our publication
and provides articles through their Periodical Source Index
(PERSI).
Printed copies of The
Hales Newsletter are provided to members of The Hales Family History Society.
If you desire to be come a member, refer to the membership section on our
home-page. If you would like a printed copy of individual Hales Newsletters,
reprints are available at a cost of $3.75 each.
With two years
experience, membership dues have been adjusted to reflect actual costs of
production and mailing of our Newsletter. After use of my funds to subsidize
establishment of our society for the past two years, I feel it is now time to
have it pay for itself. Also, note that the questions raised by three classes
of membership have been resolved with only two types of membership: Regular
Members or Sustaining Members.
My last experience
with working on a computerized network was with Prodigy several years ago. It
was not world-wide and I found that I was spending most of my time answering
questions. It did not provide me with any answers. Also, it was limited in
reaching those that I wanted to reach. That was before reactivation of The
Hales Family History Society and publication of The Hales Chronicles.
Now it appears that
the world wide web has matured. Therefore, I have opened a service with
Primenet. The email address for The Hales Family History Society is
hales@primenet.com (note: this email address is now ken@hales.org). If you need
to reach me and have email capabilities it is an inexpensive communications
facility. You can send me information for our Hales Newsletter, announcements,
marriages, births, etc. Perhaps this will increase the number of our reporters
and give greater variety to our articles.
We also have a home
page on the world wide web. Anyone doing searches on the Hales family should be
able to find it by searching for The Hales Family History Society or the
address of www.hales.org
This section of our
Newsletter contains the happenings that I am made aware of between issues. If
you have something you wish to share, please send me the information.
John Hales
John Hales The Torbay
Borough Council of Torbay, Devonshire, England in a news release expressed its
sympathy to the widow and family of Mr. John Hales. The release details, in its
English spellings, that Mr. Hales was found dead close to the Temperance Street
multi-storey car park at approximately 10:15 a.m. on Monday, 16 September 1996.
Mr. Hales had worked for the Council's Treasury department since August 1987.
Aged 51, Mr. Hales lived in Stoke Gabriel and was employed as a bailiff in the
Revenue Division.
R. Stanton
Hales Inaugurated
Called "the
right leader at the right time for Wooster," R. Stanton Hales was formally
inaugurated as the loth president of The College during Wooster, Ohio's
130-year history. The inauguration ceremonies took place in March in McGaw
Chapel, only yards from the site where the liberal arts college was founded in
1866.
A native of
California and son of Raleigh Stanton and Gwendolen Washington Hales, the
53-year-old Hales received his bachelor's degree from Pomona College in 1964,
majoring in mathematics and graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. He
earned both the master of arts and the Ph.D. degrees from Harvard, where he was
a Woodrow Wilson Fellow in 1964-65.
Hales began his
teaching career at his alma mater in 1967 and rose from instructor to full
professor. In 1973, he was named associate dean of the college, a position he
held until he left Pomona in 1990. He served for one year as acting dean of the
college.
Accolades by David
Alexander, president emeritus of Pomona and currently American Secretary of the
Rhodes Scholarship Trust, "Stan Hales will be an excellent president for
Wooster. At Pomona, he was a superb administrator. He is imaginative and
implemented several new initiatives and interesting programs. ...His energy
level is among the highest I've ever seen in anybody."
Stan's avocation is
international badminton. This past summer he served as one of three deputy
referees for the badminton competition at the Olympic Games in Atlanta. A
two-time U.S. men's singles champion (1970 and 1971), he is a member of the
Council of the International Badminton Federation and is former president of
the U.S. Badminton Association.
Hales and his wife,
Diane, have two children: Karen, a fifth-year graduate student in molecular
biology at Stanford University; and Chris, currently at Stanford University.
Excerpted from an
article by David Leggatt, F.L.A.
During the 17th
century many territories overseas were granted to British settlers to be held
in free and common socage "as of our manor of East Greenwich." The
lands were "reckoned and reported as one of our plantations or colonies in
America" and the holders were deemed to be "the true and absolute
lords and proprietors of the same territories, serving always the faith,
allegiance and sovereign dominion to us, our heirs, and successors, to be
holden as of our manor of East Greenwich, in our county of Kent, in free and
common socage."
Many references to
the manor of East Greenwich appear in the early charters of the Virginia
Company, for the settlements in Newfoundland, in Guiana, in Bermuda, in New
England, in Maine and in the charters of the second wave of colonization which
followed the Restoration; Connecticut, Rhode Island and Providence, the
Carolinas, New York and New Jersey.
Why should grants of
land in North America refer to the manor of East Greenwich? Because the system
of land tenure introduced by England along with the Feudal System deemed these
to be extensions of the king's manor. Since the king was the owner of all the
territory over which he ruled, he was at the top of the pyramid. The local manor
proper where the king lived and where the normal business of the manor was
conducted, along with its officers and records, determined the manor name.
During this period when North America was being colonized, two different kings
held manors and lived in East Greenwich. Their subjects being "scattered
tenants elsewhere" held their lands "by free and common socage as of
the manor of East Greenwich."
The tenures gave the
colonists the greatest possible measure of freedom while preserving in theory
the doctrine of the king's ultimate ownership of the land, and the conception
of the colony as an extension of English territory.
Why this article? To
make you aware that when you discover your English ancestor held land II as of
the manor of East Greenwich" he or she probably did not come from East
Greenwich, Kent, England, and they were probably not of an English manor.
The following
descendancy chart is the result of years of research accomplished by Lewis Kim
Hales of Milner, Georgia. I have added the connections to the very large Hales
family of Texas. Can you also tie into this chart and provide additions or
corrections?
John Hales, born
about 1645 in England. Died 1714 in the Isle of Wight County, Virginia. His
family consisted of at least 7 children: John Hales, Joseph Hales, Thomas
Hales, James Hales, Linton Hales, Edward Hales and "a little
daughter." The descendancy of John Hales is listed as follows:
1. John Hales,
married Mary, died in 1736 in Beatie County, North Carolina.
2. Thomas Hales.
3. James Hales.
4. Samuel Hales.
5. "a little
daughter."
6. Linton Hales,
married Sarah ...
A.
Henry Hales, born 10 March 1721.
B.
Francis, born 10 May 1740.
7. Joseph Hales, born
1682 in Bath County, North Carolina. Died 1717.
A.
Richard Hales
B.
John Hales, married Hannah ...
I.
Jonas Hales, 1755.1804, married 1st Temperance, 2nd Frances.
II.
John Hales, married Elizabeth, both died in fire 1799.
a.
Henry Hales, died 1791.
i.
Nancy Hales
ii.
Chapman Hales, born 1760.
b.
Christopher Hales, died 17 August 1814, married Betsey.
i.
James Hales, 1778-1855, Baptist Minster, 33 years at Camp Creep Baptist Church.
c.
Joshua Hales, married Mary.
d.
Silas Hales, born 1753 in Virginia, died 18 Oct 1846.
i.
John Hales, born 1786 in Darlington, South Carolina, moved to Mississippi about
1805, died 9 August 1859, buried near Polkville, Smith, Mississippi in an old
Hales family cemetery.
1.
John C. Hales, born about 1813 of Smith County, Mississippi, married Nancy ...
2.
Henry Jackson Hales, born about 1815 of Smith County, Mississippi, married
Elizabeth Hartley, died 29 July 1859. (Note This family has many descendants in
Texas).
3.
...Hales, born about 1817.
4.
Alexander Hales, born about 1819 of Smith County, Mississippi, married Caroline
...
5.
Leathia Hales.
6.
Noel Hales.
7.
Lacy Hales.
8.
William Hales.
ii.
Henry Hales, moved to Mississippi about 1805.
iii.
Alexander Hales, moved to Mississippi about 1805.
iv.
Synthia Hales, married ...Thomas, moved to Mississippi about 1805.
e.
William Hales
III.
Samuel Hales, first to settle in Georgia.
a.
John Hales.
b.
Jesse Hales.
c.
Milly Hales.
d.
Bradley Hales.
e.
Joshua Hales.
f.
Edward Hales.
g.
5 other daughters.
IV.
James Hales.
C.
William Hales.
D.
Thomas Hales.
E.
Benjamin Hales.
8. Edward Hales, born
1680 of Newport Parish, Isle of Wight, Virginia., died 29 May 1755, married
Elizabeth.
A.
William Hales.
B.
Thomas Hales.
C.
Mary Hales.
D.
Hannah Hales.
E.
Joseph Hales.
F.
John Hales.
G.
Sarah Hales.
H.
Elizabeth Hales, married ...Turner.
I.
Edward Hales, born 1700, died 19 September 1757, married Elizabeth ...
I.
Rebecca Hales.
II.
Reuben Hales.
III.
Joshua Hales.
IV.
Benjamin Hales.
V.
Jesse Hales.
VI.
Naomi Hales.
VII.
Joel Hales, 1744-1826.
a.
Joel Hales.
b.
James Hales.
c.
Daniel Hales.
d.
Jonas Hales, died 1814.
e.
Hosea Hales, born 29 February 1768, died 1 January 1839.
VIII. James Hales, 1738-1818, of Oglethorpe County, Georgia,
married Martha Elizabeth Hasty.
a.
Reverend Isaiah Hales, born 13 March 1763, died 17 February 1846, married
Winnie Olive.
b.
Thomas Hales, 1761-1822, married Margaret ...of Newton County, Georgia.
c.
Moab Hales, born 1783, married Fanny.
d.
SilasHales,1791.1877,married Sarah...
e.
Obediah Hales, born 1779, died 10 October 1873, married 1st Milly ..., married
2nd Sarah ...
f.
Joseph Hales, born 1793.
g.
Mary Hales, joined Clouds Creek Baptist Church 7 November 1801.
h.
Wiley Hales, born 1780, died 27 May 1844.
i.
John Hales, born 1765 in North Carolina, died 3 September 1822, married 13
August 1795 Elizabeth Spicer.
i.
Sarah Hales, born 1797.
ii.
Matilda Hales, born 1804, married Matthew Hales.
iii.
James M. Hales, born 1814.
iv.
Biddy Hales, born 1808, married Captain Willis Cooper.
v.
Henry J. Hales, 1815.1859, married Margaret ...
vi.
William G. Hales, born 1806.
vii.
Jane Elizabeth Hales, born 13 Apri11818, died 23 August 1871.
viii.
Thomas J. Hales, born 1819, married Ann ...
ix.
Joseph L. Hales, born 1820.
x.
Mary Ann Hales, born 10 November 1822, died 14 May 1885.
xi.
Allen J. Hales, 1810-1822, married Nancy Wright.
1.
John W. F. Hales, born 1834.
2.
Susan Jane Hales, born 1839, married John Thompson.
3.
Thomas Jefferson Hales, born 1842, died 18 July 1762.
4.
Odelo Hales, born 1852, died 10 October 1896, married Margaret ...
5.
James Madison Hales, born 4 July 1845, died 9 June 1923, married Mary ...
6.
Patrick Henry Henderson Hales, born 1847, married Elizabeth ...
7.
Barlow E. Hales, born 1854.
8.
Martha Ann Elizabeth Hales, born 27 February 1851, died 16 June 1901.
9.
Walter Raymond Hales, born 25 Apri11839, died 5 February 1914, married 1st 13
Jun 1865 Margaret Goddard who died in childbirth.
A.
Ellen Hales, born 1866 in Georgia and of Marshall County, Alabama in 1880.
Walter
Raymond Hales married 2nd Frances ...
A.
Allen Thomas Hales
B.
Nancy Hales.
C.
Jesse Hales.
D.
Matilda Hales.
E.
Chole Hales.
F.
Henry R. Hales.
G.
Raymond Willis Hales.
H.
Camelous Hales, born 11 March 1877, died 11 March 1932.
I.
Amanda Kathrine Gilmore Hales, born 16 June 1861, died 9 February 1923.
J.
John Lewis Hales, 1880.1959, married Alice Willis
I.
Eunice Hales.
II.
Hattie May Hales.
III.
Walter Sam Hales.
IV.
Joseph Hales, 1923-1923.
V.
Nanny Sue Hales.
VI.
Cammie Mealus Hales.
VII.
Florence Hales.
VIII.
Johnny Franklin Hales, born 10 May 1919, married Bobbie Jean Fuller.
a.
Lewis Kim Hales, M.A., M.A., born 24 Aug 1955 at Spennard, Anchorage, Alaska.
b.
Jan Alice Hales, born 21 October 1959.
"The Ever
Memorable," John Hales of Eton was known as "one of the clearest
heads and best prepared breasts in Christendom." Educated at Oxford,
Merton and Eton, he lived with his books and was visited by nobles and kings
seeking his point of view on a myriad of subjects. Who was this John Hales of
Eton?
The pedigree of John
Hales of Eton is derived from Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, MSS
numbers 1141 folio 97, 1385 folio 43B, 1445 folio 135B, 1559 folio 22B, 74 and
Additional MSS number 12477 folio 9. From these we learn that he descends from
an armorial family, his father's arms appearing on the cover of this newsletter. His pedigree from the
earliest Richard Hales and shown on the visitation pedigree (the dates have
been approximated from the known date of his birth and from dates on the
visitation pedigree) includes:
Richard Hales, born
about 1477 of Highchurch, Somerset, England, married about 1501... Beauchampe,
and had at least one son, John.
The son of Richard
Hales and. ..Beauchampe, John Hales, born about 1502 of Highchurch, Somerset,
England, married about 1526 Joane Burnham, the daughter of Thomas Burnham, and
had at least one son, Edward.
The son of John Hales
and Joane Burnham, Edward Hales, born about 1527 of Highchurch, Somerset,
England married about 1551 Anne Grenfield, and had sons: John Hales who married
Bridgett Gouldesborow, Daniell Hales, and William Hales; and daughters: Suzan
Hales who married William Kington and Marie Hales who married Robert Hickes.
The son of Edward
Hales and Anne Grenfield, John Hales, born about 1552 of Highchurch, Somerset,
England married Bridgett Gouldesborowon 19 January 1577 at East Knoyle, Wiltshire,
England. She was born about 1555 of East Knoyle, Wiltshire, England the
daughter of Robert Gouldesborow of Wiltshire. John and Bridgett had a large
family of seven sons and five daughters: Edward Hales, Mervyn Hales, Mathew
Hales, John Hales, Anthony Hales, Robert Hales, Thomas Hales, Anne Hales,
Gertrud Hales, Melior Hales, Cicelie Hales and Brigide Hales who married ...
Gulliford. John, the fourth son, is the subject of this article.
While the eldest son
of John and Bridgett Hales would be the inheritor of the Hales arms, it appears
that he died without issue and his brother Mervyn, the second son of John and
Bridgett, is the one shown in the visitation pedigrees. So we learn that John
Hales was not destined to inherit the family arms, but as fourth son was
destined to the university and the church.
From a book titled John
Hales of Eton by James Hinsdale Elson, King's Crown Press, New York, 1948
the following story unfolds.
A Learned and
Judicious Divine.
The few known facts
about John Hales's birth and family were related in 1663 to William Fulman, the
Oxford antiquary, by Hales's sister, Brigide Gulliford. She told Fulman that
her father, John Hales, had a competent inheritance, consisting of an estate at
Highchurch near Bath, and that her mother was a Goldsburgh from Knahill in
Wiltshire. There were many children in the family, and John, the fourth son,
was born at Bath on Easter day, April 19, 1584 and baptized in St. James'
Church on May 5, 1584. "His pious Parents," Fulman wrote,
"carefull to fit their children by education for such imployment as seemed
most agreeable to their several inclinations and capacities, did hapily designe
this for a scholar." The elder John Hales was steward to the Homer family,
whose manor house was situated at Mells in Somerset. His son John began his
education at the village schools at Mells, but it was a poor sort, and the boy
learned little. According to Fulman, however, "his excellent parts by the
assistance of better guides did soon redeeme that losse, and fit him for the
Universitie at the early season of thirteen." He was admitted scholar of
Corpus Christi College, Oxford, April 16, 1597.
Even in these meager
facts a familiar Elizabethan pattern is clear .Many middle- class families like
the Haleses held learning in high regard both for its own sake and because it
seemed to offer a relatively certain road to advancement. Men and women stirred
by Puritan longings for political and religious betterment as well as parents
who were economically and religiously satisfied with the Elizabethan status quo
were eager that at least one of their sons should make his way by means of the
schools. It is immaterial whether the Hales family was one of those touched by
Puritan aspirations, for the progress of John Hales through the local grammar
schools, to the university, and then into the church conforms to a cultural
rather than a religious pattern.
The university must
have been bewildering to a thirteen year old, for in 1597 Oxford was near the
end of an era, and all the conflicts of Renaissance society were mirrored in
the disputes of the university community. Religious controversies were, of
course, the bitterest; since Oxford, and although less ardent for reform than
Cambridge, had many strong supporters of the Puritan cause. Corpus Christi
College during Hales' time, however, was fortunate in its president, Dr. John
Rainolds.
One of the most
learned men of his time, Dr . Rainolds had the ability to command the respect
of those he most irritated. Distressed by his Aobstinate preciseness,"
Queen Elizabeth ordered him to "follow her laws, not run before them,
" and then offered him a bishopric, which he refused. His Puritan leanings
were disliked by many who celebrated him as the tutor of the "judicious
Hooker." Men who condemned his book against stage plays were among those
who crowded his lectures on Aristotle's Rhetoric. He angered James I at the
Hampton Court Conference; yet the King appointed him one of the chief
translators of the Authorized Version. Anthony Wood who did not share the
Doctor's religious views wrote of him: "He had turned over ...all Writers,
prophane, ecclesiastical, and divine, all Councels, Fathers and Histories of
the Church. He was most excellent in all tongues, which might be any way of use
or serve for ornament to a Divine." Thus two vital currents of the age,
classical scholarship and religious earnest, colored the thought and activity
of the man who dominated Corpus Christi during Hales's undergraduate years.
The Doctor knew many
of the students of the college well and often talked with them about the
progress of their studies and the state of their souls. Hales evidently was one
of those who "sate at his feet and were his admirers, "for when
Rainolds died, he bequeathed Hales some of his books. It is probably, however,
that Rainolds influenced him more in the direction of classical scholarship
than in soul searching, for by the time Hales received his A.B. in 1604, his
reputation as a Greek scholar had exceeded the bounds of Corpus. His abilities
had, in fact, come to the attention of Sir Henry Savile who was, according to
Fulman, "desirous to remove so choise a Plant to his own Garden."
Wood varied the metaphor by writing that Hales was discovered by the
"hedge beaters" of Sir Henry .The latter figure is the more
appropriate, for Savile, militant in the cause of letters, employed talent
scouts to keep Merton College, of which he was Warden, and Eton College, of
which he was Provost, well supplied with promising scholars. As a result of
Savile's interest in him, Hales became Fellow of Merton in 1606, and thereupon
began a friendship with Savile that lasted until Sir Henry's death in 1622.
"This long continuance, "wrote Fulman," under the successive
discipline of two such Colleges (eminent in those times, especially, under two
such Governours as Doctor Reynolds and Sir Henry Savile) must needs have made
proportionable improvement in his natural Stock."
Sir Henry was a man
of wide acquaintance and many interests, and his circle of friends included not
only the foremost scholars in England but also many important figures in the
world of affairs. In evaluating Hales's Oxford years, one cannot disregard the
fact that the men who visited Savile at Merton and Eton were, as Trevor-Roper
calls them, versatile ornaments of Elizabeth's England rather than protagonists
of the seventeenth century .For Hales became intimately associated with many of
Savile's circle, and his friends came to include such men as Sir Dudley
Carleton, Sir Henry Wotton, William Oughtred and Sir Thomas Bodley with whom he
was closely associated during the early and uncertain years of the Bodleian
Library.
The library had been
open for three years when, in 1605, Bodley selected Hales, because of his fine
handwriting, to enter accessions in the Record Book. Bodley was pleased with
him and with his work, and at intervals from 1605 until 1609 Hales continued to
work at the Library .That the two men became friends is evident from the
frequent references to Hales in Bodley's letters to his librarian, Thomas
James. Thus, when Bodley died in 1613, it was appropriate that Hales be chosen
to deliver the oration at the interment services at Merton College. The Latin
oration, printed at Oxford in 1613, was Hales's first published work.
During much of the
time that he was occasionally engaged in recording the books newly acquired by
the Bodleian, Hales's efforts were devoted more consistently to classical
scholarship. Somewhat earlier Savile had chosen him to assist in the editing of
the complete works of St. Chrysostom, a project which Sir Henry hoped would
secure his fame as a patron of letters. Hales was younger than most of the famous
scholars who came to Eton for the undertaking, but he was none the less well
prepared for the tasks of editing and annotating. Young as he was, his older
colleagues were not hesitant in accepting his suggestions and interpretations.
The work was largely critical and textual, but the long occupation with the
writings of St. Chrysostom may well have been instrumental in forming Hales's
mind. For in St. Chrysostom many humanistically minded divines found a spirit
akin to their own and read him as a patristic writer who had been faced with
dilemmas similar to those which faced them as Renaissance churchmen.
Whether in
recognition of his work on the St. Chrysostom or because of his reputation as a
scholar , Hales was appointed Regius Professor of Greek in 1615 after the death
of Dr. Perrin, the preceding incumbent. Undoubtedly the works of Homer ,
Demosthenes, Isocrates, and Euripides, which as Regius Professor he expounded
on Wednesdays and Saturdays during term time, had as much influence on his
later work as did the works of the theologians and the Fathers. Although Hales
resigned his Merton fellowship and had become Fellow of Eton in 1613, he
continued to hold the professorship until 1619.
In fact, the
semi-weekly trips to Oxford during this time appear to be the only
interruptions in a life of seclusion to which he retired at Eton. He had taken
orders in 1605, but then and later refused to take the Acure of souls."
The infrequent sermons which as fellow of the college he was required to preach
gave him as much opportunity for public discourse as he wanted, for, he told
Clarendon, he preferred to keep his opinions to himself. A sermon he preached
at Oxford in 1617 is the only record of his activities from his retirement to
Eton until 1618; and there is no evidence to refute Clarendon' s statement that
Ahe withdrew himselfe. ..into a private fellowshipp in the College of Eton,
...wher he lyved amongst his bookes."
Had Hales like Milton
preserved his academic exercises, or had he like some of his Puritan contemporaries
written spiritual autobiography, and the importance of his Oxford years might
be evaluated more surely. Lacking all such self-revelatory expressions, one can
generalize only to the extent of saying that Oxford's greatest contribution was
to accustom Hales to a point of view and away of life; that he left Oxford with
a mind which was serious, scholarly, and aristocratic; and that when he retired
to Eton he had been conditioned by a way of life more conducive to the critical
examination of ideas than to creative activity, a way of life intellectually
broad, and, barring civil wars, economically secure.
Although Hales chose
to live a retired life, his seventeenth-century biographers insist that he was
not a recluse. Clarendon wrote, for example, "he was not in the least
degree inclined to melancholique, but on the contrary of a very open and
pleasant conversation, and therefore was very well pleased with the resorte of
his friends to him." Walker related that when the King was at Windsor, the
nobility and gentry often crossed the river to visit Hales at Eton, for he had
"the Happiness to be much vers'd in the Finer and more Polite Parts of
Learning, as in those which are Rougher and more Abstruse." It was in
conversation with men of varied interests rather than in active participation
in affairs that Hales touched the vital currents of the age. He had a versatile
and critical mind, and the variety of subjects that attracted him is an index
both of his personality and of the mind he brought to bear on the problems of
religion.
Hales's versatility
was a subject of comment by many of his friends, but his contemporaries were
most nearly unanimous in their appreciation of his critical temper. Anthony
Wood called him "the best critic of the last age;" and Suckling's
sharply etched portrait of him in "The Session of the Poets" presents
him unmistakably in the role of critic:
Hales
set by himself most gravely did smile
To
see them about nothing keep such a coile.
Not only in the
seclusion of his study but in all his activities Hales retained a critical
objectivity, and, in fact, when he made his one excursion into the world of
affairs by attending the Synod of Dort, he did so in the character of an
observer.
In 1618 he became
chaplain to Sir Dudley Carleton, English Ambassador to the Hague. The purpose
of the appointment, evidently, was to enable Hales to attend the session of the
Synod and to report his observations to Carleton. Since the religious conflict
in the Netherlands was of great political and personal interest to both the
Ambassador and the King, the series of letters Hales wrote from Dort supplied
Carleton, and in turn the King, with first hand information concerning the
progress of the controversy. Hales wrote his first letter on November 24, 1618
and continued his reports until February, 1619, when, having become disgusted
with the behind-the-scenes manipulation of the Synod, he asked Carleton to
relieve him. As materials for biography, Hales=s letters from Dort are
disappointing; but as evidence of his critical detachment they are invaluable.
The Synod itself however was a turning point in his thought, for it was there
that he claimed to have "bid John Calvin good-night."
Although he left the
Synod in February, he remained in the Netherlands until July, 1619. Since there
is no information concerning his activities in the intervening months, one can
only suggest that during that time he may have come to know the eminent
continental scholars with whom in later years he is supposed to have carried on
an active correspondence. Whatever his experiences in the Low Countries may
have been, he seems to have been content, upon his return, to resume his
fellowship and his retired life.
On occasion, however,
he was persuaded to leave his study of divinity for an interlude of the
"more polite parts of learning. " Certainly Clarendon' s statement
that Hales would, for the sake of his friends, Asometymes, once in a yeere,
resorte to London, only to injoy ther cheerefull conversation," would seem
to indicate that Suckling's invitation may have been accepted.
Sir,
Whether
these lines do find you out,
Putting
or clearing of a doubt.
(Whether
predestination,
Or
reconcilling three in one,
Or
the unriddling how men die,
And
live at once eternally,
Now
take you up) know 'tis decreed.
You
straight bestride the college steed,
Leave
Socinus and the schoolmen ...
And
come to town ...
The
sweat of learned Johnson's brain,
And
gentle Shakespear's eas'r strain,
A
hackney-coach conveys you to,
In
spite of all that rain can do;
And
for your eighteen pence you sit
The
lord and judge of all fresh wit.
News
in one day as much w'have here,
As
serves all Windsor for a year ...
It was during one
such excursion, probably, that a discussion took place which led to Hales's one
famous literary pronouncement in defense of Shakespeare.
In a Conversation
between Sir John Suckling, Sir William D'Avenant, Endymion Porter, Mr. Hales of
Eaton, and Ben Johnson, Sir John Suckling, who was a profess'd admirer of
Shakespear, had undertaken his Defence against Ben Johnson with some warmth;
Mr. Hales, who had sat still for some time, hearding Ben frequently reproaching
him with the want of Learning, and Ignorance of the Antients, told him at last,
"That if Mr. Shakespear had not read the Antients, he had likewise not
stollen any thing from 'em; (a fault the other made no Conscience of) and that
if he would produce any one Topick finely treated by any of them, he would
undertake to shew something upon the same subject at least as well written by
Shakespear."
It is undoubtedly the
sequel of this discussion which Charles Gildon has described:
Mr.
Hales of Eaton, affirm'd that he wou'd shew all the Poets of Antiquity, outdone
by SHAKESPEAR, in all the Topics, and common places made use of in Poetry. The
Enemies of Shakespear wou'd by no means yield him so much Excellence; so that
it came to a Resolution of a trial of Skill upon the Subject; the place greed
on for the Dispute was Mr . Hales's Chamber at Eaton; a great many Books were
sent down by the Enemies of this Poet, and on the appointed day, My Lord
Falkland, Sir John Suckling, and all the Persons of Quality that had Wit and
Learning, and interested themselves in the Quarrel, met there, and upon a
thorough Disquisition of the point, the Judges chose by agreement out of this
Learned and Ingenious Assembly, unanimously gave the Preference to SHAKESPEAR.
It would be
interesting to know whether Hales's knowledge of Shakespeare went beyond the
plays themselves; one can be sure, however, that his appreciation of the poet
was in part at least based on a critical principle he had stated in one of his
earliest sermons: "Which I speak not to discountenance antiquity, but that
all ages, all persons may have their due. And let this suffice for our first
rule."
Because of Hales's
friendship with poets and because of the reference to him in the "Session
of the Poets," Pierre Desmaizeaux was misled in assuming that Hales was
himself a poet. Suckling in the "Session of the Poets," however,
clearly implies that Hales was not one:
Apollo
had spied him, but knowing his mind, Passed by, and called Falkland ...
Moreover, all that is
known concerning Hales's poetic activity is that as Fellow of Merton he
contributed a Latin poem to Charites Oxonienses, a collection of occasional
verses commemorating the visit to England in 1606 of Christian IV of Denmark.
In the absence of any other poems it is justifiable to conclude that Hales's
interests were directed more towards criticism than towards the writing of
poetry.
However much Hales
may have enjoyed occasional trips to London, his chief interests were centered
at Eton. His tastes were simple, and his wants easily satisfied. He once told
Clarendon that his fellowship and the bursarship which he held paid him fifty
pounds a year more than he could use. The bursarship had come to him unsought
and was more a liability than an asset. Often taken advantage of, he made up
the shortages from his own pocket and made frequent trips to the Thames to dispose
of the counterfeit coins which had been paid him. It would seem, therefore,
that his comment on bursarships derived rather from his observation of other
men's machinations than from his own experience:
If
you will not believe men, then look into our colleges, where you shall see,
that I say not the plotting for an headship, for that is now become a
court-business, but the contriving for a bursarship of twenty nobles a year, is
many times done with as great a portion of suing, sliding, supplanting, and of
other courtlike arts, as the gaining of the secretary's place; only the
difference of the persons it is, which makes the one comical, the other
tragical.
Hales for one brief
moment skirted the edges of suing and siding, not for himself but in behalf of
Sir Dudley Carleton. In July, 1619, he wrote to Carleton that Sir Henry Savile
was dangerously ill and his death was feared. Since Savile's intended
successor, Thomas Murray, had been appointed secretary to Prince Charles, Hales
felt that Carleton might negotiate for the Provostship. Carleton had for some
time desired the office, which was one of the most coveted in the kingdom.
Hales's efforts in Carleton's behalf were futile, however, for Savile
recovered. Upon Savile's death in 1622, Thomas Murray was appointed Provost.
When the office again fell vacant on Murray's death in 1623, Carleton renewed
his efforts, but Hales appears to have had nothing to do with the second
attempt. A number of famous men, including Francis Bacon, sought the position
in 1623, but in that year Sir Henry Wotton was installed as Provost.
Hales could not have
been disappointed in the King's choice, for he and the new Provost had much in
common. To a lesser degree the versatility that marked Wotton's life is evident
in Hales's more circumscribed activities. Wotton, after an active life, enjoyed
the semi- retirement, for the college was "to his mind, as a quiet Harbor
to a Sea-faring man after a tempestuous voyage." In the quiet haven of
Eton, Wotton found Hales a congenial companion. The Provost called his bursar
bibliotheca ambulans; consulted him on numerous subjects; and frequently
borrowed his books. On the other hand, Hales paternally took upon himself the
task of looking after Wotton's finances. Izaak Walton remembered that Hales
told him that "he had got 300 li to gether at the time of his Wotton's
deth, a some to which Sir. H. had long beine a stranger and wood euer haue
beine if he had managid his owne money bussiness." Association with Wotton
and with the men who came to visit him gave variety to Hales's life of study.
Through Wotton Hales became acquainted with Izaak Walton, and in 1638 he
undoubtedly met Milton, who had come to Eton to get letters of introduction
from Sir Henry to the great men of the continent.
From five in the
morning until dinnertime and after, Hales remained with his books, but long
hours of study did not prevent him from knowing the students of the college.
John Pearson, Robert Boyle, and Henry More were the most famous of the men who
as boys had known Hales at Eton. Of these associations it is most interesting
to speculate concerning that with Henry More, who at Eton suffered torments
over the doctrine of predestination. In the brief account of his schooldays,
More describes in detail the torture he endured in arriving at a conclusion,
particularly on the day of his decision when he made his way across the playing
fields "walking, as my manner was, slowly and with my Head on one Side,
and kicking now and then the Stones with my Feet. " He does not, however ,
mention seeking Hales's advice in the matter, but it may very well be that the
sermons of the man who had himself said good-night to Calvin were instrumental
in settling More's youthful conflicts and in other ways formed the mind of the
future philosopher.
Another of Hales's
interesting student friends was John Beale, who later became an Anglican
clergyman and one of the first members of the Royal Society. A friend of Robert
Boyle, Samuel Hartlib, and John Worthington, he was as interested in the New
Science as in theology. As a boy, even before he went to Eton, he was a
Baconian, and at school his scientific interests developed. Hales seems to have
been sympathetic toward the boy's experiments, and the two sometimes discussed
the subjects which fascinated Beale. On one occasion, their talk concerned the
differences between animals. "And Mr. Hales, your acquaintance at
Eton," Beale wrote later to Robert Boyle, "did attribute as near
kindred between a cat and a lion, as between beagles and mastiffs." At
another time their conversation turned to the question of the generation of
insects:
I
was in my younger days affected with the authority of Mr. Hales of Eton, who
when he shewed me Mr. Muffet on insects, told me very positively but with a
smile, that insects were the new product every year. And now I know better than
he could, that there is as much of divine art and architecture in making an
insect as a whale or an elephant.
Schoolboys at Eton;
men puzzled by the Book of Revelation; men inquiring about the efficacy of the
weapon-salve or about the lawfulness of usury; divines, scholars, noblemen all
came to Hales or wrote him for his opinions on the subjects that interested
them.
Hales did not
hesitate to answer all of them, and a number of his tracts were the replies to
questions on which men had consulted him. If there is any implication of
annoyance in his remark that "men set up tops, but I must whip them
up," there is no hint of irritation in his lengthy answers. One of the
most interesting of these is entitled," A letter to an Honourable Person
Concerning The Weapon-Salve." It is dated in the collection Works,
November, 1630, although it is evident from the content that it could not have
been written before 1631. The letter is an examination of the claims of the
Paracelsans that salve applied to the weapon that caused a wound would cure the
wound itself. In the mid-seventeenth century the belief in sympathetic power
was widespread. Hales's correspondent had asked for an opinion of Dr. Fludds
Answer unto Mr. Foster Or, The Squesing of Parson Foster's Sponge, ordained by
him for the wiping away of the Weapon-Salve (1631). Foster had attempted to
prove "the curing of wounds, by Weapon-Salve be Witch-craft and unlawful
to bee used." Robert Fludd's reply to Foster's book consisted of a
marshalling of Paracelsan doctrines and arguments on the subject.
Hales could not
accept, any more than could Foster, the idea of the weapon-salve, but while
Foster's arguments were mainly theological, Hales's were critical and
skeptical. After an examination of the circumstances by which the salve could
have been discovered, Hales came finally to attack vigorously Fludd's
Paracelsan learning.
Anatomize
other of their new and quaint phrases, and you evidently deprehend the same
sophistry. So that if you desire a definition of this new learning, you cannot
better express it, than by calling it, "A translation of vulgar conceits
into a new language."
The letter does not
make Hales's a Baconian, but its skeptical common sense reflects a mind to
which the New Science would not have been repugnant.
Other aspects of the
changing intellectual and social pattern of the century are considered in other
of Hales's tracts and letters. In one letter, for example, aware undoubtedly of
the economic importance of the subject for many English families, he examined
and upheld the opinions of the Protestant theologians on the question of
marriage between cousins. But though he may have agreed with Calvin on the
marriage of cousins-german, Hales was too completely an Anglican to support
with enthusiasm that Reformer's views on usury . In the two letters he wrote on
the subject, his statements were full of caution. He admitted that usury must
be legalized for the sake of trade; "But what," he asked, Ashall we
say to God himself, who everywhere decries it?"
Hales's writing, as
one would expect, reflects much of the theological coloring of the age, but in
his non-theological interests he shows the same intellectual curiosity and
versatility that made the seventeenth century much more than a time of Atexts
and aching eyes." It is characteristic that, although preoccupied with
"Providence, Foreknowledge, Will and Fate," Hales should write to
William Oughtred, the mathematician: "You shall receive by your man your
little compendium of triangles, by which, I must confess, I have found myself
much eased." It is not strange that a man who was comforted by a book of
triangles should have written as Hales did in 1646 to John Greaves, the
Egyptologist, to compliment him on his Pyramidographia, or a Discourse of
the Pyramids in Egypt (1646). With civil war at the gates of Eton, Hales
could be curious about an omission in Greave's book:
I
mean the Sphynx, which is wont to be represented unto us in the shape of the
head and shoulders of a woman. When you list to look of much time, let me hear
from you what you have observed concerning that piece, if at least it yielded
any thing worth your observation.
However much Hales
may have diverted himself and informed his friends by his excursions into the
other fields of knowledge, he never neglected the "large materials"
of theology and religion which were his chief interests. Always concerned with
the critical examination of religious ideas, he found that the increasing
complexities of the religious conflicts in England after his return from Dort
raised new problems that required even more searching examination. Skeptical of
the doctrines on which many of the controversies of the age were based, and
unappreciative of the motives which drove many of his contemporaries to
extremes, he sought a means whereby peace might be maintained and the right of
private judgement preserved.
In William
Chillingworth and Lucius Cary, Viscount Falkland, Hales had two friends who not
only shared his religious views but who were motivated by the same rational
spirit. Both Chillingworth and Falkland were considerably younger than Hales, a
fact which is of some importance; since Hales arrived earlier than did the
other two at those ideas that characterize them as a group. Furthermore, Hales
by years, and association was closer to the centers of the Renaissance, and in
consequence his work reflects a gaiety of spirit and confidence that cannot be
ascribed altogether to temperament. The intensity of Chillingworth's
controversial activities and the earnestness of Falkland's search for a guiding
principle, on the other hand, show the younger men to have been more
characteristic protagonists of the seventeenth century.
The friendship
between Hales and Chillingworth undoubtedly flourished more because of the
similarity of their religious views than because the men were temperamentally
alike. Hales was preeminently a critic, Chillingworth a gifted disputant. Hales
was never tortured by doubts of salvation under Anglicanism; Chillingworth' s
uncertainty, on the other hand, led him, while a student at Oxford, to the
Church of Rome. Despite the fact that he was a godson of Archbishop Laud,
Chillingworth was not convinced that he could attain salvation without an
infallible and perpetually visible church. After spending some time at Douay, he
became convinced of the error of his decision and returned to the Anglican
fold. His account of the arguments that had led to his conversion and those by
which he justified his return to the Church of England are ample confirmation
of Clarendon's description of his controversial spirit. He had, wrote
Clarendon, "such a subtlety of understandinge, and so rare a temper in
debate, that as it was impossible to provoke him into any pass yon, so it was
very difficulte to keepe a mans selfe from beinge a little discomposed by his
sharpnesse and quicknesse of argument and instances, in which he had a rare
facility, and a great advantage over all the men I ever knew."
Chillingworth' s
gifts as a disputant, however, are most apparent in The Religion of
Protestants, A Safe Way of Salvation (1637); and to Chillingworth, who in
1636 was working on this book in the library of Falkland's estate at Great Tew,
Hales wrote the famous letter which was afterwards published as A Tract
Concerning Schism and Schismatics. That Chillingworth, who had evidently
asked for Hales's opinions on heresy and schism, shared the views expressed in
the tract is obvious from a comparison of the two books. In the broader aspects
of their work, however, the two men show an even greater similarity. Both men
were strongly influenced by Renaissance humanism; both were skeptical of dogma;
and both sought a means to safeguard freedom of individual conscience within a
loosely defined and comprehensive church. Against a background of Laudian,
Puritan, and Roman Catholic authoritarianism, each man sought accommodation
based on reason and charity.
In the young Lucius
Cary, Viscount Falkland, Hales had a friend to whom he must have felt closer
than to Chillingworth, for Falkland appears to have been in temperament much
like Hales. Clarenden wrote of Falkland:
He
was superiour to all those passyons and affections which attende vulgar mindes,
and was guilty of no other ambition, then of knowledge, and that to be reputed
a lover of all good men, and that made to much a contemner of those Artes which
must be indulged to in the transaction of humane affayrs.
Although Hales,
perhaps through Falkland, knew some of the group of scholars and divines who
frequented Falkland's estate at Great Tew, it is doubtful that he ever
journeyed to Oxfordshire to enjoy their company and conversation. Falkland,
however, on several occasions visited Hales at Eton. To Hales the younger man
may have come for help in resolving his doubts. In his search for an ultimate
truth by which to live, Falkland must have found the older man an understanding
friend; and from conversations between them may well have come some of the
ideas which Falkland incorporated into his Discourse of Infallibility and
his Reply.
Both Falkland and
Chillingworth died early in the civil war: Falkland in 1643 at Newbury, glad to
be Aout of it ere night"; Chillingworth in 1644, tortured in his last
hours by the exhortations of a Presbyterian zealot. In the years before the
"blackness of the times" became complete, when The Religion of
Protestants was being written and when Falkland was wrestling with the
problems of infallibility, the friendship of these two men must have given
added interest to Hales's quiet life at Eton.
Several of Hales's
sermons and tracts reflect his awareness of the growing conflicts between
religious parties, but perhaps his first direct experience of the tension
within the Church itself came when he found himself in difficulty over one of
his own treatises. Sometime between 1636 and 1639, a manuscript copy of the Tract
Concerning Schism and Schismatics reached Archbishop Laud. Always "a
very rigid surveyor of all things which never so little bordered on
schism," the Archbishop disliked some of the ideas in the tract and
summoned the author to Larnbeth Palace. There are conflicting reports of the
interview that took place there, and Hales himself may have been responsible
for several of the varying accounts. Some historians, therefore, contend that
Hales may have been joking when he told Laud's humorless chaplain and secretary
, Peter Heylin, "that he found the Archbishop (whom he knew before for a
nimble Disputant) to be as well versed in books as business; that he had been
ferreted by him from one hole to another, till there was none left to afford
him any further shelter; that he was now resolved to be Orthodox, and to
declare himself a true Son of the Church of England, both for Doctrine
and Discipline." There is a real possibility that Hales had his tongue in
his cheek when he talked to Heylin, for nowhere in his work does he show signs
of having changed his opinions after the interview.
Far from recanting,
Hales, upon his return from Lambeth Palace, wrote the Archbishop a long letter.
It is one of his most significant statements of his position and motives. In
several particulars the letter softened the statements of the Tract
Concerning Schism and Schismatics; the author assured Laud of his loyalty
and obedience; but Hales did not repudiate his moderate views and heterodox
opinions. Certainly, in none of his other work did he write as freely of
himself as in this apologia.
For
the pursuit of truth hath been my only care, ever since I first understood the
meaning of the word. For this, I have forsaken all hopes, all friends, all
desires, which might bias me, and hinder me from driving right at what I aimed.
For this, I have spent my money, my means, my youth, my age, and all that I
have; ...If with all this cost and pains, my purchase is but error; I may
safely say, to err hath cost me more, than it has many to find the truth: and
the truth itself shall give me this testimony at last, that if I have missed of
her, it is not my fault, but my misfortune.
Some time after the
conference at the archiepiscopal palace, Hales found himself in possession of a
canonry of Windsor. Writing to a Dr. Castle in May, 1639, Sir Henry Wotton
remarked: "My Lord's Grace of Canterbury hath this week sent hither to Mr.
Hales, very nobly, a prebendaryship of Windsor, unexpected, undesired, like one
of the favours (as they write) of Henry the Seventh's time." In a recent
study, Liberal Anglicanism: 1636- 1647, Dr. Krapp has implied that the
interview between Hales and Laud took place soon after the tract was written in
1636, and has suggested that the gift of the canonry may have been the result
of the help Hales is said to have given Laud in the writing of the second
edition of the Conference with Fisher. It is impossible to determine
when the interview took place, but it is know that the tract had circulated for
some time before it reached the Archbishop. It is probable, therefore, that the
conference between Hales and Laud did not take place as early as Dr . Krapp
assumes. Several interpretations can be put on Laud's gift, and the final
settling of the question cannot be undertaken here, for an adequate answer
involves considerations that can be evaluated only after a survey of Hales's
thought.
At St. Paul's Cross,
possible in the late 1630's, Hales preached one of his most important sermons;
in the collected Works it is entitled, "On Dealing with Erring
Christians." Charitable and tolerant, it was the earnest if somewhat
futile attempt of a moderate man to quiet with reason and charity the rising
voices of religious revolution. In exhorting his auditory to moderation, he
explained:
The
precepts and examples I have brought, teach us to extend our good, not to this
or that man, but to mankind; like the sun that ariseth not on this or that
nation; but on the whole world. ...Beloved, a Christian must be like unto
Julian's fig-tree, so universally compassionate, that so all sorts of grafts,
by a kind and Christian inoculation, may be brought to draw life and
nourishment from his root.
To Hales charity and
peace were means and end. But the admonition to be a Christian like Julian's
fig-tree, universally compassionate, could have had little appeal for those who
found in Puritanism an expression of emotional, intellectual, and economic
needs for which other means of release were denied. On the other hand, Hales’s
moderation could have had as little effect upon the forces of reaction that
sought to strengthen the established order by force and persecution.
As the lines of the
approaching revolution grew clearer, Hales continued his duties at the college.
In 1642 he was deprived of his canonry , but the loss could have affected him
little; for Walton reports that he "was neuer out of Humor but alwayes
euen and humble, and quiet, neuer disturb'd by any news, of any losse or any
thing that concern' d the world, but much affected if his friends were in want,
or sick." The loss of the canonry , however , must have caused him to
anticipate further inconveniences, for he told one of his friends that at one
time Ahe had liu'd 14 days with bere and bred and tosts, in order to try how
littel wood keepe him if he were sequestered."
The war grew closer.
The news of Archbishop Laud's death reached him; "he wished he had died in
his place." At last the storm struck Eton, and Hales had an opportunity to
practice his ability to fast. Both armies sequestered the college rents; and
since Hales was Bursar, he hid for nine weeks in order to save the Acollege
writings and kese." Izaak Walton tells that during this time: "his
concealment was so nere the college or highway, that he said after, pleasantly,
those that searched for him might have smelt him if he had eaten garlick."
The uncertain
existence at Eton continued until 1649 when he was ejected from his fellowship
for refusing to subscribe the Engagement. His successor, Robert Penwarden,
moved by Hales's hardships, offered him half the income, but Hales refused
saying that if he were entitled to any part of the fellowship, he was entitled
to the whole. In order to live, he sold his library, keeping only a few books
of devotion for himself. The rest of the library, which had cost Ł2500, he sold to Cornelius Bee for Ł700.
He gave generously to his friends who were worse off than he, and for some time
he was the chief support of Anthony Faringdon and his family.
Shortly after his
expulsion from the college, Hales went to Richings Lodge, the home of Mrs.
Salter, sister of Brian Duppa, Bishop of Salisbury, to become tutor to Mrs.
Salter's son. Another member of the household at this time was Henry King,
Bishop of Chichester, and the group "made a sort of college," for
which Hales acted as chaplain. He left Richings Lodge, However, after the
issuance of the order against harboring malignants made it unsafe for Mrs.
Salter to house him any longer. He returned to Eton to live quietly in the
house of the widow of an old servant. During these last years, Andrew Marvell,
who was often at Eton, came to know Hales, and the tribute Marvell paid him in
the Rehearsal Transprosed exemplifies the respect Hales commanded even
from men of different views :
Tis
one Mr. Hales, of Eton; a most learned divine, and one of the Church of
England, and most remarkable of his sufferings in the late times, and his
Christian patience under them. And I recon it not one of the least ignominies
of that age, that so eminent a person should have been by the iniquity of the
times reduced to those necessities under which he lived; as I account it no
small honour to have grown up into some part of his acquaintance, and convers'd
a while with the living remains as one of the clearest heads and best prepared
breasts in Christendom.
During the time Hales
was at Richings Lodge, his friends arranged for a portraitist to paint his
picture. The artist, however, did not keep the appointment, and no portrait was
painted. After his death, Lady How, the sister of Bishop King of Chichester,
drew Hales=s picture from memory I but would not show it without these
explanatory lines:
Though
by a sudden and unfeared surprise
Thou
lately taken was from thy friends' eies;
Even
in that instant when they had designed
To
keep thee by thy picture still in minde;
Least
thou like others lost in Death's Dark night
Shouldst
stealing hence vanish quite out of sight;
I
did contend with greater Zeal than Art
This
Shadow of my Phantie to impart,
Which
all should pardon when they understand
The
lines were figured by a woman's hand
Who
had no copy to be guided by
But
Hales imprinted in her memory.
Thus
ill cut brasses serve upon a grave
Which
less resemblance of the person have.
To many of his
contemporaries Hales was known as a "grave and wise person, whose words
savour of a more than ordinary tincture of a true spirit of Christianity."
It was for more than his learning and his theological opinions, however, that
men called him "ever-memorable." The personality which attracted men
is revealed in most of Hales's writing and in practically all of the
contemporary accounts of him. Of these none is more vivid than Aubrey's
description of him in his last years:
A
prettie little man, sanguine, of a cheerfull countenance, very gentile and
courteous. I was received by him with much humanity; he was in a kind of
violet-colour'd gowne, with buttons and loopes (he wore not a black gowne) and
was reading Thomas a Kempis; it was within a yeare before he deceased. He loved
Canarie; but moderately to refresh his spirits. He had a bountiful mind.
Neither the
"blackness of the times," the loss of his books, nor the death of his
friends had been strong enough to crush his spirit completely. The life-long
search for "truth" of which he confessed to Laud had evidently
brought him satisfaction.
After a short
illness, Hales died on May 19, 1656. He was buried according to instructions in
his will in the churchyard at Eton next to his little godson, John Dickinson, "without
any sermon, or ringing the bell, or compotation." For, the will continues,
''as in my life I have done the church no service, so will I not, that, in my
death, the church do me any honour."
A monument with a
florid epitaph was erected in the Eton churchyard by Peter Curwen, once Fellow
of the College; but a more fitting memorial was the publication in 1659 of The
Golden Remains of the ever- Memorable Mr. John Hales of Eton College.
