The latter preferment he vacated in 1842, being installed, 12 Nov., in the more lucrative archdeaconry of London. In 1842 he became master of the Charterhouse, and from 1847 to 1857 he retained the rich vicarage of St. Giles, Cripplegate. Hale was a staunch tory, and a determined opponent of reform. He hotly resisted the passage of the Union of Benefices Bill, under which some of the ancient city churches were pulled down, and the proceeds of the sales of the sites applied to the erection of churches in more populous districts, and he strenuously resisted the proposed abolition of burials within towns. Bishop Blomfield used to say that 'he had two archdeacons with different tastes, one (Sinclair) addicted to composition, the other (Hale) to decomposition.' Hale died at the master's lodge, Charterhouse, on 27 Nov. 1870, and was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral on 3 Dec. He married at Croydon, 13 Feb. 1821, Ann Caroline, only daughter of William Coles, and had issue five sons and three daughters. His wife died 18 Jan. 1866 at the Charterhouse, and was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral.
Hale's antiquarian learning was generally recognised. For the Camden Society he edited: 1. 'The Domesday of St. Paul's of the year 1222 . . . and other Original Documents relating to its Manors and Churches,' 1858. 2. 'Registrum prioratus beatæ Mariæ Wigorniensis,' 1865. 3. 'Account of the Executors of Richard, bishop of London, 1303, and of the Executors of Thomas, bishop of Exeter, 1310,' 1874 (in conjunction with the Rev. H. T. Ellacombe), the introduction to which Hale finished just before his death. His zeal in arranging the records and documents at St. Paul's is acknowledged in Hist. MSS. Comm. 9th Rep. p. 1. 'Some Account of the Early History and Foundation of the Hospital of King James, founded at the sole costs and charges of Thomas Sutton,' anonymous and privately printed, 1854, was by him, and he also wrote 'Some Account of the Hospital of King Edward VI, called Christ's Hospital,' which went through two editions in 1855. He edited and arranged the 'Epistles of Joseph Hall, D.D., Bishop of Norwich,' 1840, and the volume of 'Institutiones piæ originally published by H.I., and afterwards ascribed to Bishop Andrewes,' 1839. Together with Bishop Lonsdale he published in 1849 the 'Four Gospels, with Annotations.' His translation of the 'Pontifical Law on the Subject of the Utensils and Repairs of Churches as set forth by Fabius Alberti' was privately printed in 1838. For E. Smedley's 'Encyclopædia Metropolitana,' 1850, 3rd division, vol. vii., he wrote 'The History of the Jews from the time of Alexander the Great to the Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus,' with other articles. Hale also published sermons of all kinds, besides charges and addresses on church rates, the offertory, intramural burial, the proceedings of the Liberation Society, and many other topics.
[Foster's Alumni Oxon. ii. 585; Le Neve's Fasti (Hardy); Times, 28 Nov. 1870; Guardian, 30 Nov. 1870, pp. 1389, 1394, 1400, 7 Dec. p. 1427; Halkett and Laing's Anon. Lit. iv. 2417; Stoughton's Religion, 1800-50, ii. 239.]
HALES, ALEXANDER of (d. 1245), philosopher. [See Alexander.]
HALES, Sir CHRISTOPHER (d. 1541), master of the rolls, son of Thomas Hales, eldest son of Henry Hales of Hales Place, near Tenterden, Kent, by Elizabeth, daughter of John Caunton, alderman of London, was a member of Gray's Inn, where he became an ancient in 1516 and was autumn reader in 1524. In an undated letter conjecturally assigned to 1520, Prior Goldwell of Christ Church, Canterbury, wrote to the lord chancellor begging that 'Master Xpher Hales' might be appointed to adjudicate upon a case in which he was interested; in 1520-1 Hales was counsel for the corporation of Canterbury, and in 1523 he was returned to parliament for that city. On 14 Aug. 1525 he was appointed solicitor-general, and he is mentioned as one of the counsel to the Princess Mary in the same year. He was also one of the commissioners of sewers for the Thames between Greenwich and Gravesend, and in 1525 was placed with Lord Sandes, Sir William Fitzwilliam, and others, on a commission to frame ordinances for the better administration of the county of Guisnes. The commissioners met at Guisnes and promulgated on 20 Aug. 1528 'A Book of Ordinances and Decrees for the County of Guisnes,' relating chiefly to the tenure of land, which will be found in Cotton. MS. Faustina E. vii. ff. 40 et seq. They also furnished Henry VIII with a report on the state of the fortifications of Calais. Hales was appointed attorney-general on 3 June 1529, and on 30 Oct. following preferred an indictment against Cardinal Wolsey for having procured bulls from Clement VII to make himself legate, contrary to the statute of præmunire (16 Ric. II), and for other offences. He was on the commission of gaol delivery for Canterbury Castle in June 1530; was one of the commissioners appointed on 14 July following to make inquisition into the estates held by Cardinal Wolsey in Kent; and was placed on the commission of the peace for Essex on 11 Dec. of the same year.
