THE

LIFE AND DEATH

OF

SIR MATTHEW HALE, KT.

LATE

Lord Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench.

MATTHEW HALE was born at Alderly, in Gloucestershire, Nov. 1, 1609. His grandfather was Robert Hale, an eminent clothier in Wotton-under-edge, in that county, where he and his ancestors had lived for many decents; and they had given several parcels of land for the use of the poor, which are enjoyed by them to this day. This Robert acquired an estate of ten thousand pounds, which he divided almost equally amongst his five sons;" besides the portions he gave his daughters, from whom a numerous posterity has sprung. His second son was Robert Hale, a Barrister of Lincoln's-Inn; he married Joan, the daughter of Matthew Poyntz, of Alderly, Esquire, who was descended from that noble family of the Poyntzes, of Acton: of this marriage there was no other issue but this one son. grandfather, by his mother, was his godfather,

His

and gave him his own name at his baptism. His father was a man of that strictness of conscience, that he gave over the practice of the law, because he could not understand the reason of giving colour in pleadings, which, as he thought, was to tell a lie, and that, with some other things commonly practised, seemed to him contrary to that exactness of truth and justice which became a christian, so that he withdrew himself from the Inns of Court, to live on his estate in the country. Of this I was informed by an ancient gentleman, that lived in a friendship with his son for fifty years, and he heard Judge Jones, that was Mr. Hale's cotemporary, declare this in the King's Bench. But as the care he had to save his soul made him abandon a profession in which he might have raised his family much higher, so his charity to his poor neighbours made him not only deal his alms largely among them while he lived, but at his death he left (out of his small estate, which was but 100%. a year,) 201 a year to the poor of Wotton, which his son confirmed to them, with some addition, and with this regulation, that it should be distributed among such poor house-keepers as did not receive the alms of the parish; for to give it to those, was only, as he used to say, to. save so much money to the rich, who by law were bound to relieve the poor of the parish.

Thus he was descended rather from a good, than a noble family, and yet what was wanting in the insignificant titles of high birth, and noble blood, was more than made up in the true worth of his ancestors. But he was soon deprived of the happiness of his father's care and instruction, for as he lost his mother before he was three years old, so his father died before he

was five; so early was he cast on the providence of God. But that unhappiness was in a great measure made up to him: for after some opposition made by Mr. Thomas Poyntz, his uncle by his mother, he was committed to the care of Anthony Kingscot, of Kingscot, Esquire, who was his next kinsman, after his uncles, by his mother.

Great care was taken of his education, and his guardian intended to breed him to be a divine, and being inclined to the way of those then called Puritans, put him to some schools that were taught by those of that party, and in the seventeenth year of his age, sent him to Magdalen-Hall, in Oxford, where Obadiah Sedgwick was his tutor. He was an extraordinary proficient at school, and for some time at Oxford. But the Stage-players coming thither, he was so much corrupted by seeing many plays, that he almost wholly forsook his studies. By this he not only lost much time, but found that his head came to be thereby filled with such vain images of things, that they were at best unprofitable, if not hurtful to him; and being afterwards sensible of the mischief of this, he resolved upon his coming to London, (where he knew the opportunities of such sights would be more frequent and inviting,) never to see a play again, to which he constantly adhered.

The corruption of a young man's mind, in one particular, generally draws on a great many more after it; so he being now taken off from following his studies, and from the gravity of his deportment, that was formerly eminent in him, far beyond his years, set himself to many of the vanities incident to youth, but still preserved his purity, and a great probity of mind.

He loved fine clothes, and delighted much in company and being of a strong robust body, he was a great master of all those exercises that required much strength. He also learned to fence, and handle his weapons, in which he became so expert, that he worsted many of the masters of those arts: but as he was exer, cising himself in them, an instance appeared, that shewed a good judgment, and gave some hopes of better things. One of his masters told him he could teach him no more, for he was now better at his own trade than himself was. This Mr. Hale looked on as flattery; so to make the master discover himself, he promised him the house he lived in, for he was his tenant, if he could hit him a blow on the head; and bade him do his best, for he would be as good as his word. So after a little engagement, his master being really superior to him, hit him on the head, and he performed his promise; for he gave him the house freely, and was not unwilling, at any rate, to learn so early to distinguish flattery from plain and simple truth.

He was now so taken up with martial matters, that instead of going on in his design of being a scholar, or a divine, he resolved to be a soldier and his tutor Sedgwick, going into the Low-countries, chaplain to the renowned Lord Vere, he resolved to go along with him, and to trail a pike in the prince of Orange's army; but a happy stop was put to this resolution, which might have proved so fatal to himself, and have deprived the age of the great example he gave, and the useful services he afterwards did his country. He was engaged in a suit of law with Sir William Whitmore, who had laid claim to some part of his estate, and his guardian

being a man of a retired temper, and not made for business, he was forced to leave the university, after he had been three years in it, and go to London to solicit his own business. Being recommended to serjeant Glanvill for his counsellor, and he observing in him a clear apprehension of things, and a solid judgment, and a great fitness for the study of the law, took pains upon him to persuade him to forsake his thoughts of be ing a soldier, and to apply himself to the study of the law and this had so good an effect on him, that on the eighth day of November, 1629, when he was past the twentieth year of his age, he was admitted into Lincoln's-Inn and being then deeply sensible how much time he had lost, and that idle and vain things had over-run and almost corrupted his mind, he resolved to redeem the time he had lost, and followed his studies with a diligence that could scarce be believed, if the signal effects of it did not gain it credit. He studied for many years at the rate of sixteen hours a day: he threw aside all fine clothes, and betook himself to a plain fashion, which he continued to use in many points to his dying day.

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But since the honour of reclaiming him from the idleness of his former course of life is due to the memory of that eminent lawyer, serjeant Glanvill, and since my design in writing is to propose a pattern of heroic virtue to the world, I shall mention one passage of the serjeant which ought never to be forgotten. His father had a fair estate, which he intended to settle on on his elder brother, but he being a vicious young man, and there appearing no hopes of his recovery, he settled it on him, that was his second son. Upon his death, his eldest son, finding that what he had before