In 1532 he was one of the justices of assize for the home circuit; in 1533 he was actively engaged in investigating the case of the holy nun Elizabeth Barton [q. v.], and in 1535 he conducted the proceedings against Sir Thomas More, Bishop Fisher, and Anne Boleyn. He is mentioned as one of the commissioners of sewers for Kent in 1536, in which year he succeeded Cromwell (10 July) as master of the rolls. In 1537–8 the corporation of Canterbury presented him with a gallon of sack. This is doubtfully said to be the first recorded appearance of this wine in England. He was one of those appointed to receive the Lady Anne of Cleves on her arrival at Dover (29 Dec. 1539). In 1540 he was associated with Cranmer, Lord-chancellor Rich, and other commissioners in the work of remodelling the foundation of Canterbury Cathedral, ousting the monks and supplying their place with secular clergy. He profited largely by the dissolution of the monasteries, obtaining many grants of land which had belonged to them in Kent. He died a bachelor in June 1541, and was buried at Hackington or St. Stephen's, near Canterbury. Sir James Hales [q. v.] was his cousin.
[Hasted's Kent, ii. 576, iii. 94; Berry's County Genealogies (Kent), 210; Burke's Extinct Baronetage, Hales of Woodchurch; Dugdale's Orig. p. 292; Chron. Ser. pp. 81, 83; Douthwaite's Gray's Inn, p. 48; Christ Church Letters (Camd. Soc.), p. 79; Hist. MSS. Comm. 9th Rep. App. 151 a, 152 a, 153 a, 175; Letters and Papers, For. and Dom. Henry VIII, vol. iv. pt. i. pp. 681, 707, pt. ii. pp. 1231, 2177, 2228, pt. iii. pp. 2272, 2314, 2686, 2918, 2931, 3076, vi. 29, 86; Wriothesley's Chron. (Camd. Soc.), ii. 49; Cobbett's State Trials, i. 370, 389; Chron. of Calais (Camd. Soc.), p. 174; Narratives of the Reformation (Camd. Soc.), p. 273; Weever's Ancient Funerall Monuments, p. 260; Foss's Lives of the Judges.]
HALES, Sir EDWARD, titular Earl of Tenterden (d. 1695), was only son of Sir Edward Hales, bart., of Tunstall, Kent, a zealous royalist, by his wife Anne, the youngest of the four daughters and coheirs of Thomas, lord Weston. He was a descendant of John Hales (d. 1539), baron of the exchequer [see under Hales, Sir James]. On the death of his father in France, soon after the Restoration, he succeeded to the baronetcy, and in the reign of Charles II he purchased the mansion and estate of St. Stephen's, near Canterbury, where his descendants afterwards resided. He was educated at Oxford, and Obadiah Walker, of University College, his tutor, inclined him to Roman catholicism; but he did not declare himself a catholic until the accession of James II (Dodd, Church Hist. iii. 451). He was formally reconciled to the catholic church on 11 Nov. 1685.
On 28 Nov. 1673 Hales had been admitted to the rank of colonel of a foot regiment at Hackington, Kent, but, contrary to the statute 25 Charles II, he had not received the sacrament within three months, according to the rites of the established church, nor had he taken the oaths of allegiance and supremacy. James now gave him a dispensation from these obligations by letters patent under the great seal; and 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 a qui tam action against his master for the penalty of 500l., due to the informer under the act of Charles II. Hales was indicted and convicted at the assizes held at Rochester 28 March 1686. The defendant pleaded the king's dispensation. On appeal the question was argued at great length in the court of king's bench before Sir Edward Herbert, lord chief justice of England. On 21 June 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 (see arts. James II and Herbert, Sir Edward (1648?–1698); Howell, State Trials, xi. 1165–1315).
Hales was sworn of the privy council, and appointed one of the lords of the admiralty, deputy-warden of the Cinque ports, and lieutenant of Dover Castle, and in June 1687 lieutenant of the Tower and master of the ordnance. Luttrell mentions, in June 1688, a rumour that he was about to have a chapel in the Tower ‘for the popish service’ (Hist. Relation of State Affairs, i. 445). When the seven bishops were 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 (Macaulay, Hist. of England, ch. viii.) 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, left Whitehall on 11 Dec., in the hope of escaping to France. The vessel which conveyed them was discovered the next day as it lay in the river off Faversham, and the king and his three attendants were conducted on shore. Hales was recognised, and kept prisoner at the courthouse at Faversham. Immediately after the king's departure for London he was conveyed to Maidstone gaol, and afterwards to the Tower, where he remained for a year
