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Sir Matthew Hale, 1609-1676.

Portrait of SIr Matthew Hale

English natural law philosopher, legal scholar, historian and high court judge. 

Matthew Hale was born in Alderley, Gloucestershire, descended from an eminent family of cloth merchants and lawyers.  Orphaned early, Matthew Hale was raised by an uncle, of Puritan leanings.  In 1626, at the age of seventeen, Matthew Hale enrolled at Magdalen Hall, Oxford University, where he was quickly entranced by its cavalier atmosphere of drinking, dueling and theater.  Forsaking his uncle's desires to become a divine, Hale determined to enter a more adventurous life in the military, and was briefly attached to Maurice of Orange's army in the Netherlands. A lawsuit over his inheritance of his late father's estate prompted Hale to return to England, and research the law to defend his case.  It was then that he determined to give up his dissolute pursuits and study law seriously, enrolling at Lincoln's Inn in late 1629. 

Called to the bar in 1637, Hale ascended in the legal profession.  Although a royalist by inclination, Hale tried to remain neutral in the political tumult and English Civil War of the 1640s.  Hale signed the Solemn Covenant of 1644 and was one of the chief negotiators for the surrender of Oxford in 1645, but subsequently sought to bring about reconciliation between King and Parliament (to no avail) and defended royalists in several court cases.  Despite his independence, Oliver Cromwell appointed Hale a judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1653.  During the English Protectorate period, Hale sat as a member of the parliaments of 1654 and 1658, and tried to steer a moderate course.  After the death of Cromwell in 1658, Hale resigned from public life, returning only in the Convention Parliament of 1660 to approve the Restoration of monarchy.  Hale was knighted and appointed Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer in 1660 by King Charles II. In 1671, Sir Matthew Hale became Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench. Hale resigned in February 1676 on account of health, dying at the end of the same year (Dec 25).

Most of Hale's works were published posthumously.  Among the notable economic-related tracts were his essay on population (1677) and on the Poor Laws (1683), where he recommended the establishment of workhouses.  Hale's histories of the Pleas of the Crown (1682) and Common Law (1713), while idiosyncratic, are generally well-regarded by law historians.

 

  

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Major Works of Sir Matthew Hale

  • [Anon] Contemplations, moral and divine, 1676 [bk] [1699 ed], [1711 ed],  [1835 ed]
  • The Primitive Origination of Mankind, considered and examined according to the light of nature, 1677 [bk] [1782 Chalmers ed. app]
  • Pleas of the Crown, Or, a methodical summary of the principal matters relating to that subject, 1682 [bk] [1716 new ed]
  • A Discourse touching Provision for the Poor, 1683. [bk], [1805 Works, v.1, p.515] [McM]
  • Several Tracts, 1684 [bk] (1. A Discourse of Religion, 2. A Discourse on Provision for the Poor, 3. Letter to children on speech, 4. Letter to son after recovery from small-pox)
  • The Judgment of the late Lord Chief Justice Sir Matthew Hale of the Nature of True Religion, the causes of its corruption & the churches calamity, by mens additions and violences: with the desired cure, in three discourses (ed. R. Baxter), 1684 [bk]
  • [Attrib. to Hale] A Treatise of the Just Interest of the Kings of England, in their free disposing power, and the validity of their grants made to any of their subjects, and the history of Acts of Resumption, and how they have been gain'd, written at the request of a person of honour in the year 1657, by a person learn'd in laws, suppos'd my Lord Chief Justice Hales, 1703 [bk]
  • The Original Institution, Power and Jurisdiction of Parliaments, in two parts, 1707 [bk]
  • The History of The Common Law of England, 1713 [bk] [1716 2nd ed], [1739 3rd ed], [1792 4th ed], [1820 6th ed], [McM]
  • The Analysis of the Law: being a scheme, or abstract, of the several titles and partitions of the Law of England, digested into method. [1716 2nd ed] [1739 3rd ed]
  • Historia Placitorum Coronae. the history of the Pleas of the Crown, 1736 (S. Emlyn editor), v.1, v.2 [1800 ed, v.1, v.2]
  • Jurisdiction of the Lords House, or Parliament, considered according to ancient records, 1796 [bk]
  • The Works, Moral and Religious of Matthew Hale, Knt. (T. Thirwall, editor), 1805, v.1, v.2
  • The Counsels of a Father, in four letters to his children, 1816 [bk], [1817 2nd ed]
  • A Letter of Advice to his Grand-Children, 1816 [bk]
  • Thoughts on Some Important Subjects, selected from the writings, 1823 [bk]

 
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Resources on Matthew Hale

  • Life and Death of Sir Matthew Hale Kt, sometime Lord Chief Justice of His Majesties Court of King's Bench, by Gilbert Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury, 1682 [1805 ed, p.7],  [1805 ed], [1828 ed, p.11] [1856 ed, p.1]
  • Catalogue of Sir Matthew Hale's works, in Works [1805 p.76]
  • "Matthew Hale" in 1817, Athenae Oxiensis, v.3, p.1090
  • Memoirs of the Life, Character and Writings of Sir Matthew Hale, by J.B. Williams, 1835 [bk, av]
  • "Sir Matthew Hale" in John Campbell, Lives of Chief Justices, v.1, ch.16, ch.17 and Ch.18
  • Ruins of Time exemplified in Matthew Hale's History of the Pleas of the Crown, by Andrew Amos, 1856 [bk]
  • "Hale, Sir Matthew" in C. Coquelin and G.U. Guillaumin, editors, 1852, Dictionnaire de l'économie politique [1894 ed.]
  • "Hale, Sir Matthew" in R.H. Inglis Palgrave, editor, 1894-1901 Dictionary of Political Economy [1901 ed.]
  • Matthew Hale page at McMaster
  • Matthew Hale page at Britannica
  • Wikipedia

 

 
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